Creative Careers – Ditching Corporate America
“I was the happiest on the day that I decided to quit my job,” says Hannah Kim, the cofounder of Fresh Squeezed Designs. “Initially, my parents were not too happy.”
For many women who try to carve out a creative career at the cost of a stable corporate job, the first hurdle they often encounter is their family. This is perhaps more true for Asian-American women, particularly children of immigrants, whose parents can’t believe that their children would scorn the hard earned advantages of a mainstream career for the risky unstable world of creative entrepreneurship. “For my parents, the main concern was surviving and raising their children in a new country. For me, it’s a little different,” Hannah commented. As a graduate of Michigan State University and as an experienced sales analyst and retail planner in the apparel industry, it was her choice to leave the corporate world.
“My parents are verbally supportive but they sometimes wonder out loud when I’m going to join ABC or CNN,” noted Shilpi Gupta, a filmmaker and journalist. “I was the biggest fan of Christiane Amanpour, and I used to watch her all the time when I was little. I think they thought I would follow a bit more closely in her footsteps.” While Christiane Amanpour is a journalist for the corporate heavyweight CNN, Shilpi has chosen to go it alone and have greater creative control.
Both of these women have been incredibly successful in their creative careers. Fresh Squeezed designs can be found on swimwear at Target and intimates at Victoria’s Secret; Shilpi’s film, When the Storm Came, about the aftermath of a brutal mass rape in Kashmir, has won nine awards including the Sundance prize in short filmmaking. Shilpi and Hannah are examples of a new generation of Asian-American women who have chosen to forgo safe corporate jobs to build richer careers that are more reflective of their own personalities. In a sense, both of these women are creative entrepreneurs whose stories fall somewhere between the strict lines of traditional small business ownership and solely artistic endeavors.
As entrepreneurs, these second generation Asian-American women seem to flout predominant theories regarding ethnic entrepreneurship. In her work, “Glass Ceilings and Asian Americans,” Deborah Woo argues that labor market discrimination is one of the primary motors of immigrant small business endeavors. Skills that did not transfer from the native country, as well as linguistic difficulties or racial discrimination encouraged the first wave of immigrants to seek a living outside of corporate America.
Tips for making a creative career work
- Start a business that uses your existing skill sets: “I use everything I learned working for someone else to build a new life for me,” says Hannah.
- The right partner can make all the difference: Hannah: “My roommate and I started this company and I love having someone to share the good times and the bad. We laugh all the time.” But sometimes work and play doesn’t mix – ”Shilpi: “Reconciling two different visions of responsibility and friendship doesn’t always work out.”
- Make the most of every moment: “My birthday party was also a fundraising event for one of my films. You have you use every opportunity you get to push your projects,” Shilpi suggests.
Hence the dismay of immigrant parents at their children’s flight from the corner office can be seen as more than a fear of instability. In a certain light, the desire of the second generation to carve out creative solo careers can be seen as a rejection of all of the hard earned advantages that immigrant parents sought for their children. This sentiment can be further aggravated by the contrast of over-achieving siblings who seem content in more straightforward careers: “First, I didn’t want to go to law school. Second, my older brother is a surgeon.” Shilpi Gupta noted drily, “While they didn’t necessarily expect me to follow in his footsteps, I know that they would have preferred that I had signed up with CNN or one of the big networks.” Unlike most of her journalism school peers, she decided to seek an uncompromising solo career.
That vision sometimes exacts a demanding price: “I can have my own hours, but I am thinking of ways I can promote my films all the time. I’m constantly on,” said Shilpi regretfully. “Being in control is great,” agreed Hannah, “but sometimes I’m working till two in the morning. The division between work and play isn’t really there.” Rigorous multi-tasking seems to be the norm: “Sometimes, I wish I could have someone else fundraise, promote the films and run the office so I can concentrate solely on the creative elements,” Shilpi said. In these women’s stories, loneliness at the workplace was a surprising but constant factor. Even though Hannah has a partner, she sometimes missed the water cooler chitchat at the office. “Still, I would never go back,” she insisted. “I was so unhappy and now I have something that is mine that I can grow – ”and this is so fun and exciting.”
Working in creative fields has brought new and unexpected social dynamics into play. “When I was working in the corporate world, I was sensitive to the fact that my gender and ethnicity could be an issue. How could it not? All of the senior people were these older males, and even though I was an analyst who was providing advice and recommendations, some of them seemed to be distinctly uncomfortable.” But in the creative world, “everyone seems to be different. It’s a non-issue.” Shilpi concurred, “In the year that I was up for the Sundance awards, all of the filmmakers in my category were women.”
While gender and ethnicity seem to be less a factor in their creative careers, both of these women noted that some things remained the same: “I look like I’m in my early twenties, and clients are constantly surprised that I’m a cofounder of the studio,” noted Hannah. “No one believed that I was a filmmaker at Sundance. I looked too young. They thought that I was an actress or a celebrity groupie,” Shilpi sighed. “I guess there are worse things in life.”
Hannah Kim is the cofounder of Fresh Squeezed Designs (www.freshsqueezeddesigns.com) and Shilpi Gupta is an award winning filmmaker and journalist who is currently making a film on children’s AIDS education in Africa, Grassroots United, and on rebuilding in New Orleans, Rebirth on the Bayou (www.indiegogo.com/shilpi).
Having grown up on three continents, Sae Park often explores issues of social hybridity, loss and identity in her work. She is currently finishing her PhD in history and is working on a book on Eliza Bowen Jumel, the first scandalous socialite of American society. Most of the time, she lives in New York with her husband and cat.