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humorist-workshop
So I just started my first semester of college and decided to major in Information Technology because I know this is such an In demand career but I never really cared for computers and programming stuff like that.My passion is writing and creating characters in my head(weird I know).I would love to be able to do something like animation maybe but my drawing isn’t the best and I know this is kinda a male dominated field plus I’m a woman of color.Im really scared that I’ll make the wrong choice should I change my major to the arts or stick to what I have and give it a shot.
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So what you are saying is you chose this as a major simply because it is an in demand career? Since you dont care for or have interest in computers, the worst you may face is graduating, getting a job in that field and waking up every morning hating to go to work because you are only forcing yourself.
On the other hand, I realize that the cost of living and the wages earned have a wide gap so that it is hard to be able to afford just about anything these days, whether rent, food, car and gas, clothes and other bills. I know it is certainly harder than it was when I was your age. It seems that my generation was the last of the middle class, with only the stinking rich now or the poor to destitute. So of course, people today will go for the training and jobs they are told are in high demand. My husbands daughter got a degree in CG, computer graphics, the kind of job where she could create art on computers, the kind of art in those animation shows or movies. Yes, it is a growing market but still, she could not get a job that uses her degree for five years and that job is only part time, the only job she could get. Otherwise she's worked creating art for a tattoo artist to use, working in daycares, anything to pay her high college loan payments. My daughter got a degree to work as a Drs aide because that is another field, healthcare that we are told is expanding and no what what both these girls did, and they were go getters, pro active with mine offering one Dr to work in his office for free for a month so he could see how she did but he told her after that he couldn't afford an employee, just working on his own. What HS and college age people are told today and steered towards is only white collar jobs, the ones that will cost an arm and a leg to pay off. Much as those jobs are important, its hasn't made sense to steer everyone towards computer or health care. So what has happened is that blue collar jobs have no people to hire and are in bad need of employees. If everyone was working in white collar jobs, then who would do the garbage collecting. Imagine no one to do that job and garbage piling up outside and it becoming a health hazard because we have to wade through garbage. And think of the zillions of rats attracted to this garbage, carrying diseases we catch. Something is very unbalanced.
I dont know if you remember actor Mike Rowe best known for the show 'Dirty Jobs'. These would be the most extreme of blue collar jobs but one thing he found out by talking off camera with employers is that they have a serious lack of people applying for job positions and they are always hurting for people. So about that time, Mike created MikeRoweWorks foundation which helps people to qualify to get help with the cost of tuition for schooling in such jobs. I know there aren't many women in those fields either but about 35 years ago, I had a sister working as a welder with almost only men and they respected her and treated her well. I can't explain this problem better than Mike so I suggest watching videos of him being interviewed about the cost of college today. You can do a search on youtube. If interested and you can't find it, write me from my column and I will find it and send you link.
I went into all that to say that perhaps you might want to change to a job where there is a shortage of workers, no big school loan to pay back and can bring in the needed money to cover your budget while then taking night classes to learn writing techniques. Not everyone who has the desire and creativity to write ever gets published as I know because I went through all that, following the advice of a book on how to present to publishers. All I ever got back is the same explanation that they were only looking for a particular genre at the time, so no matter what genre I turned in, it was always the wrong one. If they said teen romance was in, I wrote that and tried again and was told that it was not what anyone was looking for currently and it was something else like paranormal or suspense. They are very fickle. It might be easier to find writing jobs for magazines or whomeever has a need of professional writing to create what they need, for an ad or whatever. There are sites online with listings of writing jobs svsilable and you could get experience that way while taking any courses that helps strengthen writing skills. I am an avid reader and love sending time relaxing by escaping in a book and believe there will always be a need for good books whether the actual paper kind or those on Kindle.
Careers in the art field are harder to get into because it isn't an hourly wage job where you earn paychecks easily. Yes, some are paid jobs I suppose like acting on stage but when you are creating art pieces, crafts for sale, paintings, poetry, books, lyrics, melodies for songs and so on, it is harder to get your foot hold in the field. It can take time and if pursued fully, you can be very poor for a long time. So I suggest thinking of what job you want to do to bring in money and is the loan payback worth it or doing a job that you don't mind and it brings in needed money to live on while pursuing your true dream of writing. If you have the talent to create characters and scenarios in your mind, that is special and should be pursued in some way. It could end up just bringing in extra money or end up being your full time career in the future.
So based on what you said, you might be miserable but bringing in good money, if you even land a job in the field you took schooling for. With two daughter in two widely different field both having trouble getting jobs in their training, I am biased to believing that it isn't worth chasing those fields like lawyer, Dr or computer specialist unless you are very interested in the field.
We tend to put in more energy and effort in the jobs we love than those we can't stand and watch the clock til its time to go home only to repeat it all the next day. to me, that is pure torture.
I wish you the best, whatever you decide.
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