I can't decide what to do career-wise! Politics or Arts?

I think you should go for what you think you’ll
do best in.
Its always better to pick what we care about the most. :)

And if you love both equally, figure out which one has the greatest opportunity to support you and any family you hope to eventually have – or get used to doing with less.

It is tough to survive in the art world, and relying on constant, sufficient income to pay the bills. Having a job inside the government could take you very far and pay pretty well, and give you great credibility. And you would be able to perform your artistic abilities on the side, stress free. I would say do both, no reason for you to have one or the other. Sell art as a hobby and become active in art groups (or whatever you like), and become a government employee.

Animation as in animating motion right? not just coloring. Just so we are on the same page.

Do you already have experience in animating? Do you have portfolio pieces, or some stuff you made in your spare time. I’m asking because you don’t learn to be an animator in 4 years of sitting at a desk in school. You learn by doing it, again and again. You develop a style, you become better, you learn from mistakes. School will guide you through this process, they will also teach you what methods the industry use and what is expected from you. But as I said, the animating comes from practice and experience.

If you don’t have any experience in screwing around with animating software, or pen and paper. There is still hope of course. I am not trying to talk you out of this career choice. Just be ready to put in the time and start a portfolio asap, don’t expect to become an animater just by taking the classes.

I meet to many kids that say they are creative but never actually finished a painting, song or writing. Don’t be that kid and figure out after 4 years of college that there are 13 year olds out there that are better at what you are doing ;)

What I actually wanted to say was: Don’t you have a career counselor at school? Mine really helped me, don’t be afraid to ask him for help (even the old geezers seem to know a thing or two about modern professions like animation).

Are you in school now? If so, think about taking classes from a teacher who inspires you, whatever the subject may be. What you learn from a great teacher carries over into everything.

Another consideration is content knowledge versus process knowledge: basically subject matter versus how-to. Which are you better at? Content knowledge has greater substance and gives you more enrichment for your life. Process knowledge tends to have more immediate practical applications even if you have to generalize from it. All fields have both, but each emphasizes one more than the other.

what’s the difference again?

If you don’t know much about either of these things, then the first thing to do is to learn more. If you’re interested, then take courses that help you learn more about the subjects in question. Practice them by getting as much actual experience as you can, and let your life take its course.

@daloon excellent idea i think i will do that

Digital arts is really hard to find income in. Will you be happy in the starving artist role? I don’t ask as a one way is better type of thing, but some can be happy scraping by while others need to know they will be at least somewhat financially secure. I suggest getting into the government/business writing if you think you’ll enjoy it and do animation on the side to see if it’s something you can be profitable at or if it’s best kept as a hobby.

But if you like the artist idea, go with it, but be INFORMED beforehand about the struggles.Talk to animators, talk to animation students, talk to people with experience with government/business writing, compare your perception of these careers with the true nature of them.

Take classes in both if you haven’t yet, figure out what you’ll enjoy (and that isn’t necessarily the thing you’re the most passionate about).

Sometimes when you’re really passionate about something, it’s hard to do it as a job, too. You have to conform your work to the standards of others, and not necessarily do the things that please you. It can make you hate something you used to love.

@woodcutter, here’s an example of each.

History is pretty far toward the content-knowledge end of the scale. You are mostly learning facts and understanding trends, relationships, correlations, etc., of those facts. There is how-to knowledge in history, too, of course, such as how to do research and how to extract information from primary sources, but you are focusing on content. Other such fields would be science, literature, philosophy, languages, and law.

On the process-knowledge side would be fields where you are not mastering knowledge so much as learning skills and techniques of how to do something. An example is music. If you are performing on an instrument, you will learn about the instrument and the music, but the main thing is what you’re doing with it. The same with the other arts. I think mathematics is more about process than content, too, but I am not sure because I never went very far in it. Something like medicine has a lot of both.

I know lately people think Mr Pavlina is full of himself, and I’m not much on self-help-type gurus, but this page here will help you with your dilemma, I think, if you take it seriously.

@Jeruba Pretty up to date with my politics so no worries there. I went to college by proxy only( the savings in tuition was phenomenal ), Watched and listened and often participated with my wife’s studies as she was doing art history, and sociology, in which she has a dual masters. Not trying to claim i received all the juicy benefits of being a real student but I did manage to pick up some of the high points. Anyway there is a direct correlation between art and politics it turns out. Much of the art is political in nature, always has been. Such as post modernism art, very political. See?

Oh, absolutely, @woodcutter. No doubt about the connection; it just may not be that they meet in a place where jobs are offered. But I would imagine that if you follow either one and allow yourself to gravitate to a place where it intersects with the other, you will find some unique opportunities. Your background will prepare you to take advantage of them if you are bold and quick.