Product Description: You don't have to stifle your creative impulses to pay the bills. For anyone who's ever been told, "Don't quit your day job," career counselor Carol Eikleberry is here to say, "Pursue your dreams!" Now in its third edition, her inspiring guide provides knowledgeable career guidance, real-life success stories, and eye-opening self-evaluation tools to help artistic individuals figure out how to remain different, unconventional, and hard-to-categorize while finding work they love.
Enlightening If you are a creative person, and are stifling your creativity for your desk job, please read this. There are lots of good ideas in this book, it's inspiring and I will be trying some of the suggestions in it.
Paradoxically ironic If you're so creative, then why can't you figure out an unconventional way to capitalize on it?
Sincerely, A creative person trying to figure out an innovative way to pay bills
Great book for ADDers This book was written in the seventies. Whoever fell under the definition of "creative" in this book would be labelled ADD today. I wish I had found this gem when I was struggling through school figuring out what I want to do with my life. It's a great read that stands the test of time.
Some great quotes from the book:
"Again and Again, the findings from psychological and vocational studies indicate interests in art, music and literature are associated with more neurotic problems."
"The creative person just does not fit in the average work setting."
"The sensitive artistic person perceives a complex world in which certain elements are wrong or don't fit. Such internal conflict may help produce the emotional state that others perceive as moodiness and histrionics."
"Artistic types don't want so much to be like other artistic types as they want to be unlike all types."
"Creative people tend to be independent in their relation to authority figures. They want to do their own thing their own way."
"A sensitive, intuitive, expressive nature is no advantage when the task is to handle everyday maintenance chores by established rules. In fact, you may find that you are less efficient and more tired by the work than other people would be. "
So many of these statements ring true. If you want career advice or just want to see the preADDitude, this book is for you.
Ideal job-hunting resource for creatives Dr. Eikleberry's research is based on the Holland Codes, three-letter codes designed to describe your work interests. You take an extensive interest test and get a three-letter code that describes, in order from most applicable to least, the three areas out of six that you have the most interest in. The idea is that there are six basic personality types when it comes to work, but that all of us possess some mixture of those types, and it's most useful to look at those three that best describe each of us. The six types are artistic, social, investigative, realistic, conventional, and enterprising.
The author does a wonderful job of addressing the fact that our interests aren't the only considerations we have when looking for a job. For instance, many people aren't happy unless they can work with people who have similar values to theirs, even if it means working at a job that doesn't perfectly suit them. Most people also need to take salary into account, since they have to make a living at what they do, and many artistic occupations don't pay much.
There's information on creative career choices that might support you fully; taking "normal" jobs as day jobs and working on your art in your own time; and composing your own career. The author uses inspiring anecdotes from people who've created whole new careers for themselves to show us that we can do what we're interested in, even if there doesn't seem to be a place for it right now.
This is a wonderful, focused, goal-directed book that should be able to help nearly any confused creative person find a better direction in life. It doesn't promise to find your dream job in five minutes, but then if it did, it would be lying--its purpose is to help you gradually find a rewarding and satisfying career.
An Enlightening Book for Creative People Dr. Eikleberry's easy-to-read book helped me find a second career. The Career Guide of Creative and Unconventional People is chocked full of stories, pertinent information, and encouragement. Even if you've never thought of yourself as creative and unconventional, read Dr. Carol Eikleberry's book, you might be surprised.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
