In the film and visual arts areas, it may take some time after graduation to get a first gig. I would say plan to continue to support your student for another six months after college. They will need that time (some less, some more) to get started on getting established. Help them do that.
ALSO, AVOID LARGE STUDENT DEBT in these majors. It is a crippling burden when “ramping up” a career may be a slow process.
Just my (not so) humble opinion.
Absolutely good advice. Big debt will be an issue. Not many grads land a job with reliable income, health benefits, etc. Cash flow is tough, they will have no savings as a buffer. Consider keeping the health insurance for them, it’s saved us a ton, way less than a major medical without health insurance would have been. Have an exit plan, you don’t want six months to turn into six years.
Our older son is a music major about to graduate, so yeah, we are prepared. Both of them know that arts careers are arduous and income is low. Son will have a little debt but not much. He’s already been living on his own and working part time to pay his rent and personal expenses. We do have a PLUS loan for him but will pay it off when we sell our house later this year. We are hopeful to get daughter through with no debt for us or her.
Daughter started out thinking about animation as a surefire way to get a job with an art degree. She has since learned that it is a tough field to break into and much of the work is on contract and frequently the animators have to fight to get paid for their work. (Apparently there is a huge lawsuit going on over a number of animators on “Life of Pi” not being paid at all.) So she has reconsidered and now is likely to get a more general BFA at an affordable in-state school. Son’s girlfriend is an art student who has an internship at a gallery and is hopeful they will hire her when she graduates next year.
We plan to help out as much as we can but with a limit of 6-9 months. Everyone talks about how difficult it is to land a job in these areas. It would be interesting to hear if there are any skills that these students learn that can help them land a job in another area if Plan A does not work out. Can they work, for example, in marketing or corporate affairs’ divisions of companies? I remember for a long time we had an employee at my company that produced all sorts of corporate affairs media for our company and he was in house. That may be different in the future with the trend to outsource as much as possible.
I have a self-supporting grad who LOVES the job, company. All of it! Yea! Super talented in art/animation but very smart too about how the real world works.
A major part for a graduate is GETTING YOUR FOOT IN THE DOOR! Just do it.
The first position may not be what your grad envisioned–but having a position is sometimes more important. Once in the door they can work their way up or over or across the hall… Or they may discover a new talent they didn’t know they had and like it even better.
Agreed. Our D applied and was accepted to Drexel’s animation/visual effects major, which offers a co-op semester that seems to give grads a leg up in the job search. It is expensive though, and now she isn’t sure she wants to do it at all. But my concern is whether she will be able to find any decent work with a BFA in studio art. She could concentrate in graphic design at the state school, but isn’t sure that is what she wants to do either.
@honestmom: The nice thing about going to a larger school is that it gives you lots of choices for changing your mind about your future. Transferring to a different major is sure a lot easier that transferring to a different school. Give her a chance to find out what she wants, but my (unsolicited) advice is to not spend big bucks until she knows better what she wants. The D of a friend of mine went off to school and we all thought she’d be an English major. She came out with a civil engineering degree and now - still young - travels the world helping less-developed countries provide decent drinking water! Who knows where life will take our “children.”
I have a friend whose daughter wanted since she was a young child to be a meteorologist. She got into U. of Oklahoma which has the #1 progrma in that. Then she found out that even OU grads have a very difficult time finding jobs in the field. She decided to switch to aerospace engineering, and then swutched again to finance! I can see my D doing this in college as well.
Ha ha! Six months! I thought you were going to say six years!
@redpoodles - Funny… or maybe not. LOL
It’s a pretty hard launch from what I see in my filmmaking friends (numerous), however, one filled with great memories and camaraderie. One friend slept on someone’s couch for 10 years but he made it to Tribecca twice with something awesome!
My D attended pre-college in animation for the very reason that I figured it was a lot cheaper to try it out before spending bigger bucks only to maybe find she didn’t really like it. She did but some students found out their dream career wasn’t for them.
That still doesn’t tell us if he was able to support himself in the industry. How is he doing in terms of that necessary evil, money?
The is a very helpful thread…thank you guys for your insight! We have a D who if she stays on the animation trajectory, we were going to encourage to go to state school and then give it a go for a year after graduating. If nothing comes of it she can go back to school for a master’s in something like teaching or other ideas. At this time she definitely does not have the follow through to be a freelancer.