Art-ology

Many people have a difficult time with Career Choices, there is so much out there, how are you supposed to know what’s going to suit you best? Well the truth is, it doesn’t always need to be difficult, everyone has things that they are efficient at, why not simply apply those talents to New Careers? No doubt it’s not often quite that simple, but it is something that people need to think about more often, often people will forget about some of their talents when looking for a job. One such group of Careers that we will be thinking about is that of crafts. Countless people like different crafts as a pastime, occasionally it will be used as a means of earning a little money through market sales and car boot sales, but it’s not very often it’s thought of as a career option.

So what types of crafts can be made into Careers? Well, pretty much any of them to be honest. You can be working with woods, metals, paper, card, precious stones and jewels and lots more. Typically the highest paid and more well known crafts Careers are working as a carpenter or a goldsmith/silversmith, these roles are still well accepted and a skilled craftsman can earn a nice income working for any of the large name retailers or even self employed. Other crafts can perform just as well however, it only takes a bit of creativity. Other crafts that are widespread hobbies, but less thought of as Career Choices can consist of making things like handmade cards for birthdays and other occasions. Cards have become ever more popular over the years and it’s now fairly common to see “handcrafted” items for sale in a lot of retail stores, so it’s no longer only markets where you can sell your work.

The greatest thing about these New Careers is that there are no tough requirements for obtaining a job. There are no required qualifications for the most part, maybe some of the highest paid jobs could ask for some, but most positions will require only your skills and talents. This means that anybody who is good at crafts can consider going into these Careers, you don’t need to use years studying a course to have your CV look appealing, generally you would have some kind of portfolio of your work and examples to show to potential employers. Certainly if you decided to go self employed like a lot of other crafters choose to do, then you definitely don’t require any kind of qualification at all and you don’t need to demonstrate your skill to anyone but the customers.

Careers in crafting can be hard to get started, usually there are large retailers that people choose to go to for the convenience, for instance carpenters will see that many people just choose to go to shops like Argos and IKEA for their furniture. The good thing is though, your work is normally a much greater quality and is original, so you can fetch a good price for each item. The work is difficult, but if you’re prepared to put the time into it, it may all pay off quite nicely.