There are no sure things, so you might as well do what you like.
When I graduated from Northwestern, family members pleaded with me to apply my skills for a reporter opening at the Sun Sentinel. The opportunity was dangled in front of me as a good, solid, respectable way to be a writer. Healthcare and a decent career. I continued writing plays. That Sentinel job no longer exists, and the paper is a shell of its former self.
When I graduated from New School, I listened to my friend's advice and applied to a few NY reporter/editor positions so I would have healthcare and a stable job. I actually got 2 offers: one was to be the editor of a tech magazine, with a salary of 75-80k. The other was a financial reporter at the Financial News in Midtown. Financial News editors were very nice Brits and we laughed a lot in the interview. They point-blank said 'the job is your's.' I asked 'can I get back to you?' I went home to visit my dad over the holidays and his health was declining. Something felt off...like I was going to take a full-time job right when something was about to happen. After delaying for a month, I called up Fin News and said I couldn't see myself at the job. A week later, my dad had his first stroke. I went home to caretake and started studying Buddhism, which changed my life. Oh, and that Fin New job no longer exists.
In the last few months at Juilliard, the thing to do was to get a stable job as a TV writer, so I interviewed for a prestigious cable show. My agent told me to lie about my availability (technically I was still at school) so I could get the job. Studying Buddhism I knew that a lie could not produce a good result. Any good 'seeming' to come from a lie is actually from a previous good seed planted. But a lie told in the moment to get something would 100% plant a bad seed that would ripen later. As the interview wrapped up, we were all vibing with each other and cracking jokes, so they moved to the 'what's your availability' question. Something inside me got brutally honest. I not only told them I was still at Juilliard, but I also said I planned to go to a Royal Court fellowship in the summer, and then the Kennedy Center college festival in DC. Their smiles faded. I did not get the job. My annoyed agent stopped answering my calls, everyone ghosted me, and so I went to Royal Court in London, and DC for the Kennedy Center thing, and wrote happily all summer. And then got hired on BrainDead as a TV staff writer, my dream job of combining satire with politics and predicting the election of Trump. No compromise or lying needed. I had a complete summer and ended up in my dream situation.
After my second TV job, I was told to stay in LA and stop writing plays. My TV career was set, and there would be more opportunities in LA than in NYC. A major agency laid out a platter of offers with one caveat: stay in LA and no theatre agent would be provided. That part of my life was done. I had made it, and I could drop the charade of being a playwright. So I thought about it...and I moved back to NYC and continued writing plays. As a result, I ended up getting hired on 2 TV shows in NYC (The Good Fight and Evil) that spoke to my political and spiritual passions. While this was happening, I wrote "Mitchelville" for Lean Ensemble that allowed me to explore my Gullah Geechie heritage, "Confessions of a Cocaine Cowboy" (co-written with Billy Corben) about the history of Miami and cocaine. I started the Dramatists Guild Writers' Group for other playwrights entering the TV industry and helped get young writers on TV shows, and it's been running for the past 8 years.
-When WGA members fired our agents, I was in South Carolina happily working on "Mitchelville." When the WGA strike happened, I had money flowing in from the theatre for the rest of that year. While LA writers were/are struggling, theatre became my biggest artistic and financial source with multiple commissions, including "A Wonderful World" which opened in Miami, went on the road, and then opened on Broadway, and got JMI a Tony nom for best actor.
All the advice I received was sensible and given with true care. Agents, family, and friends were trying to guide me, according to the good opinion of a lot of smart ppl. But it has to make sense to the 'me inside.' It has to make sense to my internal discernment, b/c my intuition acts with a lot more intelligence than my left brain. My left-brain is the nice logical friend who will only look at the information on the surface that exists in that present space and time. So yes, all of the advice made sense...in the moment. But my discernment is what causes me put the brakes on something that is logical but not passionately felt. You could say the 'right brain' is the dream mind and operates on a much deeper level beyond the current time and space. It can see around corners, peer into the future and past at the same time, process it all together and give you that 'ehhh...maybe not' feeling when someone is presenting you with a good idea.
So many talented friends gave up their passions after Northwestern to accept jobs at Arthur Andersen Consulting. Good money and forget about your joy and your major. As a NU student, I got a call from Arthur Andersen recruiter b/c our university was their biggest talent pool. A recruiter saw that I was on the Dean's list and wanted to grant me an interview...could be earning 100k in a year or so. I answered "why would I interview with Arthur Andersen? That's not my field or interests." The recruiter sputtered...'why? B/c we're Arthur Andersen," he said with this immense sense of pride. It was a Twilight Zone moment when time stopped...b/c what the recruiter was saying made sense and yet my intuition was SCREAMING 'no, no hell no...don't you dare do it. Don't even think about it!' So I politely declined and the recruiter got snippy with me, saying I was blowing it and I would be forever removed from the call list. I nodded along like 'yeah that sounds good to me.' Long story short, Arthur Andersen went belly up.
Many friends switched from the arts to computer programming b/c it was the future. "If you learn to code you'll always have a job." This was the mantra for the last 30 years. Thousands of computer programmers are being laid off by AI. Now if computer coding IS your true passion or working for a consulting firm speaks to your heart, then you should do it. But if someone was an amazing artist and they stopped doing their passion to learn to code, then sacrificed their true love for nothing tangible. It's even worse if they miserably went to their job for 10 yrs and are now both unemployed and disconnected from their heart.
You can fail following your passion as an artist, or taking a job at Arthur Andersen or learning how to computer program. You can succeed just as well following your passion as you could at a backup job. The choice on the table is not REALLY what determines success or failure. So why not think about doing what you want first, and then the 'larger, deeper' thing, which is what determines success regardless of the field...mental seeds planted in past actions.
If you do get sensible advice AND it resonates with you on deeper levels, then do it! There's nothing wrong with the sane and safe choice if it makes you happy in a significant way. Some artists are happier with healthcare and stability than living with unpredictability. I'm only talking about incidents where the surface-level logic is conflicting with something underneath and causing distress and dis-ease.
A material-first view of the world breeds disease and depression. Capitalism tells you to ignore your intuition. Trust the money on top of the table. Don't look around. Spirituality and art tell you to trust your discernment. There is no table, there is no money. Those are illusions. Dance with the illusion, move with your own truth, and transform the entire world.
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