5 years plan
Writing a 5-year plan is not an easy task for me. Personally, I still don't know what I want to do in my future and what I enjoy doing the most. I did a small research about future plans and how to write them, and what seemed to be good advice for a start was to do a simple SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) so help me understand where I am now.
Strengths
- passionate about creating art
- interested in various media and techniques across the field
- flexibility
- putting my own personality into my work
Weaknesses
- stressing out
- time planning and deadlines
- quick sketching
- thinking I am not good enough until I am perfect
Opportunities
- being able to work on my personal projects after graduation
- improving my skills
- networking
- freelance jobs
Threats
- my own "I am not good enough" mindset
- working without deadlines
- very competitive industry
- stagnate or quitting creating things
Then I needed to think about where I see myself in the future and what is important for me.
What are my career goals? What do I want to do? Where do I see myself in 5 years? Half a year ago I would say "working for a game studio" or something similar to that. Now, I am not so sure. For the last semester, I have been learning more and more about how it actually works in the industry and I am not sure if that is what can make me happy. And that is my goal in life - to be happy. During my university years, I have been struggling to get my work done in quality I wanted. Balancing full-time joint honours course with a part-time job of more than 20 hours a week (or not being to able to pay rent and bills) is difficult alone, not counting any social life, friends, family, partner, other hobbies, cleaning or just relaxing. I consider myself pretty much burned out. Doing art stresses me out, I feel drained and without ideas. It is probably an unusual thing to write into a 5-year plan for my university degree, but it is the truth. And that is why my 5-year plan mainly consists of finding the passion for art again, enjoying creative freedom and then finally finding out what exactly I enjoy the most.
Year 1
After finishing my degree, I plan to keep my job, if they will give me enough hours. During the summer I want to continue with doing photography, which is the only creative thing that doesn't stress me out and it will keep me being creative and peaceful at the same time while I'll take a break from the university stress. I also want to save money so I will be able to travel a bit in autumn. After that, I will be hopefully ready to start drawing again, maybe starting with inktober or just doing some life drawing and observational sketching to get into it again and to practice. I also want to experiment with traditional media as I did during summer after the first year of uni. Later in the winter, I plan to create some illustrations, designs and prints and try to sell them in art markets, starting with the Alternative Art Market that holds place every month in Worcester. Art markets are a good way for networking as well, which is important in the art industry.
Year 2
In year 2, I want to create more narrative stuff, original characters and a lot of human body sketches to be able to depict them as they are supposed to look like. I was to create short comics, character designs, play with colours in digital media and find my own style. I will be open to commissions as a freelance artist and as a photographer as well because I already have professional experience with that. I am also thinking about paying for some life drawing classes because although they were very exhausting, they helped me to make huge progress in the first year of uni and I know I need more. Another plan for that is is to go back to 3D modelling and sculpting, because it is something I am considering as an actual job for my future. I know that the only way to get actually good in it is constant practice and I think that the previously mentioned life drawing will be very useful for 3D modelling as well because to be able to do that I need an excellent understanding of human anatomy. I also plan to attend animation, CGI and film festivals because that will keep me in the animation industry as well as helps with networking.
Year 3
In year 3 I plan to do a small step aside and finish the traditionally made animation I did in my first year of university. It is a music video which I did with my classmate but because I do not think we will remain in contact and I also know she is not interested in that anymore, I plan to finish it and make it a part of my showreel because it is still one of my best pieces I have ever done (of course I will credit her parts or I will re-do them). There are over 2 minutes left so I will work on that for few months as my main project while also doing side small projects of 3D modelling or illustration.
Year 4
I hope that in the 4th year I will be fully creative and passionate again so I will be able to complete my portfolio/showreel and apply for an internship or a junior role in a game or animation studio or maybe even starting my own art studio. I believe, that after 3 years of building my personality and mental health as much as my portfolio, my confidence will be much better which means I will be able to cope with work and deadlines better than now. I naturally produce a lot of work last minute under stress but my goal is to learn how to organise my time better without stressing about deadlines that much. I know that everyone stresses about deadlines, I know I will not get rid of stress completely, I just want to be better with time management and coping with stress.
Year 5
5 years after university, I can see myself working in the industry, either in a studio or ideally running my own creative studio with my partner, that will cover various kinds of art including illustration, animation, graphic design, web design, photography, video editing, or even fine art, because I and him cover all these art departments. I can imagine us working with a few other people as freelance artists getting a variety of commisions, something like Worcester university media lab does.
Strengths
- passionate about creating art
- interested in various media and techniques across the field
- flexibility
- putting my own personality into my work
Weaknesses
- stressing out
- time planning and deadlines
- quick sketching
- thinking I am not good enough until I am perfect
Opportunities
- being able to work on my personal projects after graduation
- improving my skills
- networking
- freelance jobs
Threats
- my own "I am not good enough" mindset
- working without deadlines
- very competitive industry
- stagnate or quitting creating things
Then I needed to think about where I see myself in the future and what is important for me.
What are my career goals? What do I want to do? Where do I see myself in 5 years? Half a year ago I would say "working for a game studio" or something similar to that. Now, I am not so sure. For the last semester, I have been learning more and more about how it actually works in the industry and I am not sure if that is what can make me happy. And that is my goal in life - to be happy. During my university years, I have been struggling to get my work done in quality I wanted. Balancing full-time joint honours course with a part-time job of more than 20 hours a week (or not being to able to pay rent and bills) is difficult alone, not counting any social life, friends, family, partner, other hobbies, cleaning or just relaxing. I consider myself pretty much burned out. Doing art stresses me out, I feel drained and without ideas. It is probably an unusual thing to write into a 5-year plan for my university degree, but it is the truth. And that is why my 5-year plan mainly consists of finding the passion for art again, enjoying creative freedom and then finally finding out what exactly I enjoy the most.
Year 1
After finishing my degree, I plan to keep my job, if they will give me enough hours. During the summer I want to continue with doing photography, which is the only creative thing that doesn't stress me out and it will keep me being creative and peaceful at the same time while I'll take a break from the university stress. I also want to save money so I will be able to travel a bit in autumn. After that, I will be hopefully ready to start drawing again, maybe starting with inktober or just doing some life drawing and observational sketching to get into it again and to practice. I also want to experiment with traditional media as I did during summer after the first year of uni. Later in the winter, I plan to create some illustrations, designs and prints and try to sell them in art markets, starting with the Alternative Art Market that holds place every month in Worcester. Art markets are a good way for networking as well, which is important in the art industry.
Year 2
In year 2, I want to create more narrative stuff, original characters and a lot of human body sketches to be able to depict them as they are supposed to look like. I was to create short comics, character designs, play with colours in digital media and find my own style. I will be open to commissions as a freelance artist and as a photographer as well because I already have professional experience with that. I am also thinking about paying for some life drawing classes because although they were very exhausting, they helped me to make huge progress in the first year of uni and I know I need more. Another plan for that is is to go back to 3D modelling and sculpting, because it is something I am considering as an actual job for my future. I know that the only way to get actually good in it is constant practice and I think that the previously mentioned life drawing will be very useful for 3D modelling as well because to be able to do that I need an excellent understanding of human anatomy. I also plan to attend animation, CGI and film festivals because that will keep me in the animation industry as well as helps with networking.
Year 3
In year 3 I plan to do a small step aside and finish the traditionally made animation I did in my first year of university. It is a music video which I did with my classmate but because I do not think we will remain in contact and I also know she is not interested in that anymore, I plan to finish it and make it a part of my showreel because it is still one of my best pieces I have ever done (of course I will credit her parts or I will re-do them). There are over 2 minutes left so I will work on that for few months as my main project while also doing side small projects of 3D modelling or illustration.
Year 4
I hope that in the 4th year I will be fully creative and passionate again so I will be able to complete my portfolio/showreel and apply for an internship or a junior role in a game or animation studio or maybe even starting my own art studio. I believe, that after 3 years of building my personality and mental health as much as my portfolio, my confidence will be much better which means I will be able to cope with work and deadlines better than now. I naturally produce a lot of work last minute under stress but my goal is to learn how to organise my time better without stressing about deadlines that much. I know that everyone stresses about deadlines, I know I will not get rid of stress completely, I just want to be better with time management and coping with stress.
Year 5
5 years after university, I can see myself working in the industry, either in a studio or ideally running my own creative studio with my partner, that will cover various kinds of art including illustration, animation, graphic design, web design, photography, video editing, or even fine art, because I and him cover all these art departments. I can imagine us working with a few other people as freelance artists getting a variety of commisions, something like Worcester university media lab does.
References
Davidson, B. and Davidson, B. (2018). Pound Place - How to Make a 5-Year Career Plan. [online] Pound Place. Available at: https://www.poundstopocket.co.uk/pound-place/how-to-make-a-5-year-career-plan/.
Google+, P. (2018). Secret to Answering: Where Do You See Yourself in 5 Years?. [online] Big Interview - Job Interview Training. Available at: https://biginterview.com/blog/2013/02/where-do-you-see-yourself-five-years.html.
Medium. (2018). How to Create Your Five-Year Master Plan – Personal Growth – Medium. [online] Available at: https://medium.com/personal-growth/how-to-create-your-five-year-master-plan-471f57d7b964.
Comments
Post a Comment