Kickstarting your career in the creative industry

Did you know the UK’s creative industry pours £124 billion a year into the economy – more than aerospace, life-sciences and automotive combined?

But what is the creative industry, who’s in it and why should it matter to you?

The creative industry is definitely not just for people who can draw, write poems or invent new things. A creative job is every idea-powered job, from film special effects coders to sports kit designers. But it takes a lot of different kinds of people, who work in lots of different ways to make the industry successful.

Why should we care about the creative industry?

Sometimes the industry gets a bad rap for churning out ‘starving artists’ but in reality, there are 2.4 million UK jobs, so about 1 in 14 roles is related to the industry. And it’s growing. In fact, this sector is growing faster than the wider economy and has been for the past decade.

Think about it, almost everything you see, touch and interact with is a product of the creative industry. Music, apps, festivals, ads, games, food packaging, clothes, trainers, films. Not only the things themselves. The places we find them - shops, websites, smartphones. It’d be difficult to find anything that hasn’t been researched, developed, designed or marketed by huge teams of people working in the industry.

So, what about you?

We all have some creativity in us, it’s just that we don’t tend to think of it as ‘creativity’. But even if you’re good with numbers, good at understanding people or like to do research, you’re still thinking creatively and problem solving.

Let’s break down our personality types:

Visionary:
Big-picture thinker, spots trends, loves brainstorming, takes risks, brings people together.
Jobs for you: Creative director, brand strategist (someone who decides how a company looks and sounds), VR world-builder, product designer, photographer, architect.

Thinker:
Good with puzzles, likes to think logically and analyse data, a planner, notices the details.
Jobs for you: Digital product manager, games economist, user experience (UX) designer/researcher.


Maker:
Likes to be hands-on, crafting or building, sees things in 3D, likes to get things finished.
Jobs for you: Graphic designer, user interface designer, illustrator, furniture designer.

Storyteller:
Empathetic, understands people, likes to listen to others, good with words, knows how to keep the pace of a story.
Jobs for you: Copywriter, podcast producer, animator, content creator.

The education system splits the ‘Arts’ and ‘Sciences’, and it’s how we define university degree qualifications. But the reality is, in a world of tech, this makes no sense. We need science to build the tech, the code, the foundation, and the arts to bring it to the people who use it. Every modern creative team mixes STEAM skills – Science and Art together.

The pathway to your creative career

You may have already chosen your options, or you might be on the way to choosing them. But your career is a long way off and there are lots of opportunities to learn skills and find out more about what you might want to do in the future. Here are some of the subjects that you can take that could start you on the pathway to the creative industry – and they might not be what you expect.

• GCSE/A-level choices: Maths, Computer Science, Design & Tech, English, Art, Drama, Psychology, English lit/language, Media
• Alternatives to uni:
  Foundation Art & Design courses – these are a great way to find out what area of a creative career you would like to explore before you commit to uni.
  T-levels and creative apprenticeships are a good, hands-on way to learn skills.
• Uni: There are loads of creative courses across the country but remember that a lot of soft skills are transferable, like being able to write, communicate, learn, develop ideas and understand business – these are all skills needed in the industry.

What’s your next step?

Talk to people in the industry. There are so many people in our creative studio who came from different pathways to be in the job they are in now. An animator who studied product design, an English lit graduate who is now digital services director and a web developer who studied silversmithing. There is no one pathway. Your ideas, talents and view on the world are as important as your education.

At Starbots Creative we are passionate about making our industry a more diverse and inclusive space. To help support young people, we offer work experience opportunities and advice to those in year 10 and above. Please speak to our team if you would like to know more.