I remembered a conversation I had recently with another friend who had worked in theater for many years. Started as a carpenter, moved over to being a painter and eventually even became what they call a Charge, I think that means manager, directing other people in the crew. What she said was "I wish they'd told me you could work at these jobs when I was in college."
Because they didn't. Only one of the professors I studied under ever said anything useful about actually working in the real world, and he taught Lettering, as in sign painting. Of course, this was long before the PC and Desktop publishing. What little skill I had in that area became immediately redundant once anybody with the money for a computer could find unlimited fonts at their fingertips, stock photos online or Photoshop effects onto things to make them look nice. Same with the graphic arts. When I did it we still used an offset camera, a darkroom with nice, smelly chemicals, an offset press for printing and lots of cleanup using volatile solvents. Inky fingers, rollers and plenty of manual labor. I enjoyed it all and I liked working in the print shop. Now I can't even get a job at Kinko's, for crying out loud.
Instead, the advice I got in college was about entering competitions. You make some Art, you frame it carefully, fill out applications, photograph the work and if it gets accepted, crate it and pack it and insure it and ship it to the place that's having the competition, and then, very likely, have to transport yourself there as well to attend the opening. All of this is terribly, terribly expensive and it's coming out of your own pocket, and the requirements for the photography are stringent. Chances are you'll need to hire a professional photographer. Then, if you win a prize, you might get back a portion of what you've spent and if the work gets damaged or lost, it's too bad for you. (This has happened. Thanks, Galveston Library). That's is just to have it seen, mind you. If you are really, really lucky someone who sees it may want to buy it. But mostly what happens is people see the price tag and say "She wants $4,000 for that? Pretty proud of himself, ain't she?" Kind of like how people screech at auto mechanics. Do you have any idea what those guys pay for tools? Special calipers for that one job?
Back in my college days it was slides we were to provide. By the time I'd caught on to all that was required and felt like I had something I wanted to enter (besides Student Shows) it had all changed to .jpg and .gif and all that, and I had no skills, let alone a computer or a digital camera, nor the funds to hire someone to do it for me, nor the sort of friends who might offer to do it for free. You either had to have well off parents, or parents willing to go into debt to support your efforts, or be a Genius Wunderkind or be making something that you could sell right away. (It was suggested to me that I might do Caricatures on the street at festivals. Ack. I hate those.) I do remember having been pushed to sell as a student and having mixed feelings about selling bad work when I was only just learning how, and not having had a family who was willing to buy me materials or tools. Not only that but it turned out that I did have a talent for something, it was Pottery, but nobody took it very seriously, would pay for the classes (it wasn't offered as an undergraduate course) and so that fell by the wayside. So, on the one hand I had teachers saying "You really should pursue this, you have a natural gift for it" and on the other, parental units saying "You can't just play around in summer classes all your life".
I went back, at my own expense, in my thirties. I got sneered at. (Not a career choice but a hobby). I even bought a kick wheel so I could work at home. Tore the carpet out of my living room and put it in there. Couldn't get financial aid (own your house=Zero Need), couldn't pay for any more classes, no access to a kiln since no longer enrolled at the Uni. Got told I wasn't Trying Hard Enough.
Level playing field, my eye. And, of course, then they say "You are just making excuses" and "You mustn't be bitter".
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