I've been thinking of switching my career from engineering field to art. This is a drastic change, but i feel that it needed to be done at this point of my life, to pursuit what i'm interested in, instead of taking jobs which provide very good pay for my education qualification, but left me with an empty soul and weary mind.

The thing is i dont have enough portfolio to show for interviews, plus i wasnt sure what kind of job i can get if i am mainly interested in fine arts. does anyone have any experience in art field which can provide me more information about the career path? or anyone who has done career field switch before, whats the advice you would give?
i'm interested in programming too, its best if i can get a job which has programming and art, any idea?

Thanks. I really appreciate the information and advices =)
Have a nice day

I believe, you can keep your job in engineering however un-fulfilling to support your artistic ventures. Thats the way I look at most 'money making opportunities.' By doing this I can be freed to do what I want later. Etc,. etc,.

Also taking a job in art may rub you the wrong way. You may not like being 'under the gun' so to speak if you have a job in commercial art, like product design, modeling, and so on. Some people however thrive under such pressure to perform.

If you wanted an art form + programming, photography, especially digital photography is heavy in data processing, and algorithms. You could write your own software to reduce noise or sharpen details here and there. Or get hired by the likes of Adobe etc,.

If your engineering job precludes you from having an art life, save up for a few years or two to really develop your art skill set without worry. Maybe then you will be able to find a niche or a group of friends in art who can help you out etc,.

I hope you do well in whatever you choose.

Hi crankky,

It would be helpful to know a little more about your situation. What type of engineering do you currently do? What type of art are you interested in creating? It would be interesting to hear more of your life story.

cheers,
squished

I'm with squished18, I'd like to hear more about the situation. Ever given any thought to combining your interests to come up with something new? Any chance you can take what you do as an engineer and work that into a different form of art?

For instance, I'm a programmer, so if I had artistic interests, I might try to write a program that "creates" art randomly (or perhaps not-so-randomly because that might not work out well)...you get the point.

Thoughts?

Reading between the lines, it sounds like the suggestion is not to make a snap-career change, but to try to blend the two as you ease into it.

That is my personal experience as well. I was formerly an IT Administrator but I want to work in finance. My current "transitional job" is as an accountant for the IT department of a large multinational. However, I couldn't have landed this job without specific training ahead of time. I suppose the analog for an artist is going to be your portfolio.

Hi,
thank you all for the reply.
i'm currently doing hardware design which consists of all the vhdl and verilog language, modelsim etc. but seriously, this is not what i want to do in the future even though i pocess the skills.
along the way, i discovered my interest in doing programming such as perl, java etc, and currently learning ruby.
i also have this craze on doing website and had dugged deep into advanced css and javascript, but kinda weak on the database side, i'm still learning the php and msql. i'm currently helping out a friend to create her e commerce site and still have a lot to learn.

as for art, this is what i like since kid. i enjoy and have participated in stage design, banner design, t shirt design, creating illustration for books, drawing competition, creating cards for special occasion. this is something which i can immerse myself into without realizing time passed by. i've learned photoshop and illustrator, but i enjoy drawing free hand the most. i especially fond of creating cover art/illustration for books with medium such as watercolor, ink, markers and just started on using acrylic. but the chances of me getting my hands on art is getting slimmer and slimmer after i started my undergraduates in engineering and then started my career as an hardware design engineer.

so in the end, what i like is programming + art, based on my explanation above, maybe you guys have good idea on creating new job? i was thinking of starting my freelance which can combine my skills of interest, with a website which offers web design/develop, maybe selling some own design t shirts or artwork at the same time, i was even thinking of started my own product line selling things which can have my artwork printed on it. such as bedsheet, pillow case. i've saved up enough money to survive without working for 6-8 months and wanted to quit and do this full time.

so what so you think? appreciate all you advice and ideas.

thanks and have a nice day =)

crankky,

Here's a suggestion:

Technical illustrations for manuals, textbooks, and presentations (e.g. Powerpoint) in fields you are familiar with. I think there would be value in someone that could draw good pictures of models and ideas that also understands the abstractions of hardware design. Perhaps someone in the technical documentation side of the company where you currently work might find your skills useful. I know I'm a terrible freehand illustrator and could use that sort of help in some of my reports or presentations.

When you mention that you enjoy freehand work and have worked with photoshop and illustrator, the question comes to my mind of whether or not you've used a tablet. I know next to nothing about using a table (e.g Wacom), but I've heard it is a pretty powerful tool for translating freehand skills to the computer.

It would be good to see some example of your style of work, to see what type of work your style might be suited to.

One final note. Jim Collins of "Built to Last" and "Good to Great" fame notes that satisfaction may come more from who you are working with, rather than what you are working on. He advises to find the people you want to work with first, then decide what you're going to do. As an example, he mentions that he used to spend lots of time planning which rock cliff he would climb on his upcoming weekends. He found that after he reached the tops of those climbs, it was an empty experience. Now, he focuses more on who he plans to climb with. As long as he's climbing with the right people, he finds the experience more satisfying and the actual rock face they climb is less important. On the flip side, he could be on a perfect rock face with the wrong people and the experience is bad. In his words, decide "who first, then what".

regards,
squished

I recommend reading Revolutionary Wealth by Alvin Toffler. This book is chocked full of ideas about what our future (near term and long term) will look like. The work that you describe wanting to do appears to me to mesh well with what he pontificates. I recommend the book regardless.

hello.
thank you for the suggestions and good advice.
as suggested by squished18, i'm thinking of putting some of my artwork online then you guys can take a look to see what type of work my style will be suited in.
will post the link when i'm done =)

thanks again.

Hey crankky, as someone who is currently in the software engineering industry I can completely relate to it feeling rather soul-less. I've also been contemplating a change and working with art and artists is something that I'm really interested in. I'm not much of an artist but love art. I'd love to be able to make a living running a gallery or something but that's probably a ways off. Anyways, best of luck and I hope you can make the transition to something you love.

crankky,

Do you know about deviantART? From what little I know of it, it's an online art community. Registered members can set up an art gallery and sell their work as prints (handled through deviantArt's print program) and receive a commission. A friend of mine (23 y/o full-time student getting her MFA) has had her account since 2001 and has used it (is still using it) to sell her works. She also has a personal website where she will sell the originals; she also accepts commissions. You might want to try something similiar for awhile and see if you like it. If you like, you can PM me for the link to my friend's site for an example. The good thing about deviantArt is that your work gets exposure to others, which can open up more opportunities for you in the art world (or at least get you connected!). If you do decide to go the deviantArt route, though, you should probably carefully read over Terms of Service (who owns the work, etc).

As for careers that combine programming and art, you could always look into computer graphics-- animation, special effects, games, etc. However, that kind of stuff will usually require knowledge of some 3D graphics engine, like Maya, or Blender. But I know for a fact that Pixar hires "technical artists" and you definitely sound like you fit the bill!

Hi crankky,

How are your efforts going in switching careers?

squished