Practical career advice for creative types

[Md. Anikuzzaman]

If your dream is to make a living as an artist—whether you're a dancer, musician, writer or puppeteer—writer and comedian Sara Benincasa wants to let you in on a not-so-secret secret: Real artists have day jobs.

Not only is that the title of Benincasa's latest book, but it's also a reassuring nugget of wisdom that she learned firsthand. Even the most brilliant of talents needed to supplement their income while they were making their way up in the world. Real Artists Have Day Jobs champions this career path, in large part because it's helped the author herself find success. When Benincasa isn't writing for TV or working on her next book, she's working a day job—and enjoying every minute of it.

Monster spoke with Benincasa to learn more about how artists can benefit both practically and creatively from the workforce.

Q. When did you learn that real artists had other jobs?

A. When I was a teenager. As a kid, I thought that if you wrote books, you were rich. It turns out that's not actually true, necessarily. If you're JK Rowling and you have a proven track record of writing extraordinary, successful things, then yes that is true. But she worked her butt off and used to be a secretary—and a single mom, as well. Even the folks who have enormous success stories and changed the publishing industry typically didn't come out of the womb that way. However, I still retained the illusion that being a paid artist was easy until I got to college and started talking to humans who had gone through college. I started learning about the realities of paying bills—I had known about them in theory, but this was in practice. I was seeing friends of mine with all these big dreams really have to work hard and sacrifice a lot to do what they love.



Q. At the time, was discovering that artists had day jobs a disappointment or a relief?

A. It was never a disappointment, but it was scary. I never was entitled and thought that I deserved a golden ticket, but I just had the idea that artists got paid for their work. Maybe you had to work all the time at first just to generate a ton of work, and get paid a little bit at a time while working your way up. I thought there was some kind of hierarchy that naturally worked and a set path that you followed to be a successful artist. I knew you had to work hard, but I didn't know you had to work hard doing things that weren't related to your career of choice.

Q. Your book posits the idea that artists should have day jobs. Why?

A. When I graduated from college, I was trying to get into an MFA program, and I didn't get into any. A professor said to me, "You need to live first, because everybody needs to live first." And that professor was correct. If you don't live in the real world and relate to other human beings, what are you gonna do? Where's your insight? How do you have anything to say? Stand-up comics tend to get great after they've struggled for a while. What people really appreciate is someone who has struggled and worked and can speak the truth because they lived the experience.

Right, even if it's not the experience they were initially hoping for.

If you have to deal with job insecurity, it sucks. But the upshot of it is this: Work has value, and there is an inherent dignity to work. If you punch a time clock every day doing work you don't love so that you can do work that you really love, there's no shame in that at all. I'm a full-time writer, but I do branded content and all kinds of different stuff in addition to writing books and writing for film and TV. At my level [as an artist], I simply have to [have a day job] in order to make ends meet. And I'm really fortunate because I really enjoy writing for marketing and advertising. To me, it's storytelling.

Q. One of the chapters is called "When You Don't Know What to Do, Ask a Successful Woman" and another one is "Elect Your Own Executive Board." Talk a bit about the importance of having a good network to fall back on in your career.

A. The concept of "Elect Your Own Executive Board" is my spin on a concept that I got from Baratunde Thurston, who is an incredibly successful author-comedian-activist. I learned that he doesn't do it all himself. In fact, he has a group of people around him who he respects and of whom he can ask various questions—personal, professional, et cetera—and he truly trusts their input. Now, he always makes his own decisions, but he appreciates the value of wise counsel. One thing I learned by watching him was that this was a good thing.

A characteristic of good leadership is the willingness to listen to dissenting opinions and to listen to people who deliver things not in sugarcoated packages. It's very important to do that. For me, I have an executive board that consists of some lifetime spots, and then I've got some rotating spots. But you mustn't look at people just as vessels to fill with your own questions; you've got to be there for them too. They may not function on the same business model as you, but they may need to borrow your truck one day.

Q. You also write about the concept of radical overconfidence, something job-seekers could benefit from during the interview process. Any tricks for harnessing radical overconfidence in front of a hiring manager?

A. Remember when you go into an interview that you're not there by accident. There's a reason that you're there. Your insight and presence have worth. And typically, when someone is interviewing you for a job, they want to like you. They want it to work out, because it is creating more work for them to find the right person for this job. I used to be a high school teacher, and I had a student who did slam poetry and would also perform. I said to her, "The audience wants to like you." She paused and was really surprised. I said, "They're not in the audience because they want to hate you or make fun of you." Experiment with the idea that they actually want you to do well. It's taken me years to figure that out.

Q. You're a big fan of asking a lot of questions. What's your favorite question to ask a potential employer?

A. I ask, "In an ideal world, who do you hire and why?" What I mean by that is, "Tell me some of the characteristics of the dream candidate that you hire for this gig. What do they do? What are they like in the room with you? What are they like in the office?" I ask them to tell me a story about their ideal candidate.

Q. Finally, what's some job-search advice you can give to other real artists?

A. If you're an artist and you wish to eventually pursue your art full time, it is fine to take jobs along the way that do not take the full amount of your mental, physical and emotional capabilities. In fact, I'd say that's good thing. At the end of the day, you are going to need to have room to do your art. This is not saying you should half-ass your job. If you're going to give a job the proper attention, let it be a job that doesn't require everything of you, because you will be too exhausted to do your art. If your art is what you really love, you must do that to stay alive and stay happy.

Take a job that you can be good at but that's not going to take everything out of you. And if that means taking on something that's below your desired pay scale, and you have to adjust your budget, do it. Because if that's ultimately going to make you happier, that's what you need to do. Nothing matters if you are too unhappy to get out of bed and do what you love.

Source: https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/career-advice-artists-sara-benincasa-interview