Mountains and plateaus

Nothing is more annoying than a person who speaks on something they have no real knowledge of. So bear with me while I do exactly that. 

As I’ve been searching for a post-grad job, I’ve been thinking a lot about what growth beyond college will look like in the creative field. Is it similar to the consistent upward trajectory of working towards your degree? Or is progress in the workplace an entirely different beast?

I’ve learned a lot from my time in college and in an agency setting, and based on my own experience and what I’ve learned from other creatives, I’ve come up with an analogy for what I imagine growth might look like throughout your career as a creative.

From what I’ve observed, your career journey as a writer is similar to a never-ending expanse of mountains and plateaus. These landmarks correspond to the varying levels of growth and passion you’ll have for your work throughout your career.

The map of your career might look a little something like this:

The mountains in this analogy represent periods of growth. These are the times when you will be most proud of your work. You may even physically feel yourself growing as a writer. During these times, you will feel certain that copywriting is your calling.

But once you reach the top of that mountain of experience, you’ll find yourself at a career plateau.

These are the times when you’ll feel as though growth in your writing abilities has gone stagnant. When it will be hard to stay motivated and hungry for improvement. If you look behind you, you’ll see just how little you knew before you reached the plateau. You should be proud of how far you’ve gotten, but when you look in front of you, you’ll see another mountain of possibilities that you just can’t reach yet.

If you can guess by the title of this blog post, I’ve reached a plateau.

Just last week I finished my senior advertising capstone, which challenged me in ways I never thought possible. I felt on top of the world as a writer this semester. I could feel my abilities growing through every line that I wrote. 

And now that it’s done, I feel somewhat… empty. 

I feel as though I’m standing on the edge of a plateau that spans on for miles and miles. I can see another mountain in the distance scraping the horizon, I just have no idea how I am going to get there.

I think the reason behind these feelings of uncertainty is because I don’t know what my next challenge is going to be. I’m in the midst of the post-grad job search right now and have absolutely no idea what the future will look like.

Strangely enough, this uncertainty has left me feeling like everything I write sucks. This blog post may say that it was published on April 30, but I actually uploaded it a few weeks later. This is because I felt like every single thing I wrote for this post was absolute garbage. How can I stop hating all of my work if I’m standing on this plateau and staring at a mountain of what “good work” looks like?

But a few days ago, I received this monumental piece of career advice:

“Right now, at this early stage in your career as a copywriter, you know what “really good writing” looks and feels like, but you don’t fully have the ability to produce it for yourself yet. That doesn’t take away from the value of your current work. Nor does it make you a crappy writer. Don’t beat yourself up because your writing doesn’t feel “good” right now. You are a work in progress.”

When I heard this piece of advice, it was almost as though that person had pulled out my deepest career insecurities and morphed them into something more manageable. 

Truth be told, I am only 22 years old. I don’t know much about feeling stuck in a rut with your career. But since hearing this advice, I’ve decided that the mark of a true creative must be how you navigate these plateaus. 

I’ve decided that I’m going to accept my career for what it is: A journey. I’ve decided that I am going to find ways to challenge myself instead of digging my heels and waiting for a new challenge to arrive. 

I opened the comments on this post because I know I have some industry professionals reading over these blogs and I want to hear what you all have to say about getting past these periods of stagnation. Is this “mountains and plateaus” analogy off base? Or did I hit the nail on the head? Any and all advice would be much appreciated.

For now I’m going to challenge myself by any means possible. I have some projects that I plan on working on with some friends to keep me busy while I continue applying to post-grad jobs. I also plan to stay consistent with these blog posts and maybe publish a few extra if I find the time.

Maybe I’ll come back to this blog post in a year and absolutely laugh my head off over how stupid I was. Or maybe I’ll surprise myself by how close I was to the real deal. Who knows?

In the meantime, I’ve decided that the only thing I can do is continue to trek across this plateau.

After all, there’s another mountain waiting on the horizon.