NOT my day job

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HEADLINE: NOT my day job

Posties and poets, scientists and dancers, doctors and writers - if you work in the creative sector you'll be familiar with juggling multiple jobs, a reality of our creative ecology and freelance economy.

At The Big Idea we're celebrating people doing strange and wonderful things to stimulate their creative work in a new interview series NOT My Day Job.

There are thousands of unsung creative innovators in New Zealand and we're keen to showcase some of them and what it means to work as a creative today.

With few full time employee roles the creative economy is characterised by people who contract, freelance, are self-employed or run a business.

Some use their talents full time in the creative economy, some are embedded in other industries and for others their day jobs have little to do with their creative talent.

There are many reasons why people choose to 'work' in multiple roles. Sometimes they've trained in one area and have a creative interest in another. Sometimes the day job can stimulate and inspire a creative practice. For others it is paid work allowing the space for creative thinking.

Auckland’s Creative Workforce Report in 2011 confirmed almost 60 per cent of those in creative services occupations are employed in other sectors of the economy.

Here at The Big Idea we only need to look at our own team to see a snap-shot of this bigger picture.

Margaret Lewis delivers marketing and business for The Big Idea and by night (and day) is a clothing designer. Our producer Ben McNicholl is a jazz musician. The editor, Cathy Aronson, works for her local newspaper. Plus our contributors are constantly juggling their work to bring us interviews from their creative endeavours, including our resident Doctor and blogger Renee Liang.

As Margaret says sometimes a day job is a means to an end, sometimes it works hand in hand with what you do creatively and other times, both feed each other.

"Our creative sector is a tapestry of people doing amazing things, in their day jobs and creative work. They're makers, thinkers, doers, producers - some to make money and sometimes just to feed their own soul and community."

As a community, together we'll be amazed at the variety of things that people do to contribute to our creative ecology.

• The Big Idea are on the prowl for more people to profile. Share your story or dob in your creative mates juggling more than one career or job. Use the comment box on this article on The Big Idea .

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