The Creative Mentor Part 4: Job Politics // Working Styles // Pitch Yourself
Part 4 Focuses on working with in a company and how to find success as the creative in the room.
Working in a creative field often has you participating in a ‘department’ with in a larger organization, or industry. Understanding how our work fits in the ecosystem of work can give us the best context for setting ourselves up for success
The Creative Ecosystem
There’s a lot of ways we can define “Creative Work”
the AIGA Design Census is a great resource to show you what is normal working and what’s not
This lets you know who works where, for how long, who they are, and what they know to get there.
What is normal:
Most entry level creatives have a bachelor degree of some kind.
Most people are employed in house full time at a company, then at an Agency who has multiple clients.
A majority of people in the field are women, then men, then queer identifying people.
Most people work with in the Advertising, Digital Development, Social Media and Marketing field.
The top in demand skills are AR/ VR, Motion Graphics, UX/UI Art Direction.
What’s not normal
There is no justification for a job to pay you less than $35k a year for your skill set.
There are more Women then Men in the creative field, yet women continuously make less than men.
71% of the industry is white, so there’s a lack of diverse stories being told.
**Source is from Designcensus.org. This is resource is actually currently under construction. At the time of recording the podcast 2019’s info was available and right now data for 2020 is underway
The Politics Game:
This is a topic a lot of people hate. I get it. Nothing feels worse than being disingenuous to others, and seeing people who ‘fake nice’ get rewarded. However what if I told you politics is really all about ‘managing your exposure’.
What do I mean by that? I mean let people see you. Your manager only knows you as well as your last project. If that project helped sales, or moved the needle in business in any way, gloat about those stats to EVERYONE. It shows your value to the team and people learn who you are. That’s how you become top of mind for the things the rest of us already know about you. You’re talented and great and come up with creative solutions.
The politics game is really all about how you fit into your companies culture. Now you don’t have to drink the koolaid or anything like that. Just engage in your job and the people you work with and work for. It is supposed to feel natural with out over extending yourself, changing who you are, or faking anything that feels gross to you. If you don’t like your current office politics, you’re probably in the wrong place and you can find a better one.
Working Styles
There are styles and personalities to communications styles observed at work. Understanding what yours is will help you collaborate better with those around you. Whether it’s other creatives, or someone in a completely different department.
Here are the 4 styles:
Logical: Drivers and doers Data oriented, linear thinking. Blunt at times, and get lost in data sometimes that are not strong at planning.
Detail-Oriented: Guardians and learners. Strategic, organized and create stability. risk avoident and approach situations cautiously and slowly.
Supportive: Emotional, and deeply expressive. Build relationships and bring teams together to work in harmony. Value collaboration above all else.
Idea-oriented: Big picture thinkers, pioneers. Endless risk and possibility, energetic. They can get wrapped up and forget to follow up with the team.
Tell Me What You Do
When telling someone who you are and what you do charisma is KEY. The rest is NOT being humble. Don’t ever be that. Rehears your pitch out loud, be concise, be interesting and be clear. Half the battle is having someone remembering who you are when you leave the room. Curate your explanation to be creative and compelling. Be interesting to listen to. Illustrate your skills as a story teller in what ever medium you find most interesting.