For those in their twenties and/or for those just starting out in their careers like me, the pandemic has derailed all our career plans and aspirations. It feels like the rug got pulled out from under us. Now everyone is reevaluating the sustainability of their career paths in fear of the economic fallout from the pandemic. The uncertainty created by this pandemic has forced me to explore my choices and plans I set forth for the life and career I want to build.
During this pandemic, I have been strategically using the time to enhance my technical skills and my soft skills. I’ve been taking courses online, watching videos, and reading books on how to improve my personal and professional self. This includes finding purpose and meaning in my life. Enter Jay Shetty’s book Think Like A Monk. In his book, Jay Shetty explains “Living in your dharma is a certain route to fulfillment.” He breaks down dharma into a simple definition by stating “Dharma isn’t just passion and skills. Dharma is passion in the service of others. Your passion is for you. Your purpose is for others. Your passion becomes a purpose when you use it to serve others.” So this got me thinking, what is my passion and how can I use it to serve others?
Chasing dreams, inspiring others, and storytelling are my passions. They are also the underlying passions that drive my interest in pursuing a career in TV development. Media has an extraordinary power to shift culture and conversation. During his podcast, Jay Shetty says “I truly believe we are defined by the stories we tell ourselves. So when we see new stories through media, I see changes in culture happening.” I’m a huge Jay Shetty fan if you couldn’t tell. To me, media is the perfect medium to combine my interests and passions to serve others. I love to work with different creatives to bring their ideas to fruition. I want to be part of a platform that allows individuals to share their talents and pursue their own dreams. I want to tell stories that champion the voices of individuals with inspiring, thought-provoking, and diverse experiences.
Before the pandemic this was my aspiration in life. When the pandemic hit, like many others, I questioned whether my dream was feasible. I was in the process of applying to entry-level positions when the entertainment industry became disrupted. I read about media companies slowing down their operations and letting go a number of employees in an effort to scale their costs. All ongoing interviews and new job postings came to a halt. Now, those around me were already wary about my choice to go into the entertainment field. I come from a background of people with jobs as doctors, lawyers, and IT professionals. They, at this time, had the evidence of the pandemic’s effect on the entertainment industry to convince me to pursue another career. TV development is still my aspiration in life. The pandemic forced me to look inward to identify what my dharma is and it circled back to pursuing a career in TV development.
But what was I supposed to do to actively pursue my career aspirations with everything “on hiatus”. I used the time to build my understanding of the industry by reading Bob Levy’s book Television Development: How Hollywood Creates New TV Series. I continued to work to build a network of relationships among development professionals and establish a knowledge base of TV talent. I also decided to take a step further and approach the entertainment industry from a different perspective: the perspective of user experience and user design. I believe user experience will drive the future of entertainment and media. I completed CareerFoundry’s UX Design Program and added skills such as user research, design, and prototyping to my repertoire.
To be clear, my career goal is to work in TV development. My interest in user experience design allows me to view TV development from a different perspective. I believe in a growth mindset and the pandemic has shown that it is critical to thrive in today’s changing, uncertain environment. I will continue to seek opportunities that allow me to contribute to TV development in different contexts. What I am focused on is discovering what other people find entertaining, developing an eye for material, and understanding stories and story structures that work or don’t work. I want to learn how to make it better and do so in a way that creates high-quality, authentic experiences that advance the future of storytelling and optimizes the user experience. So like others, this pandemic had me second-guessing my career path, but a look at the discovery of my dharma has me more resolved than ever that a career in TV development is my road to living a fulfilled life.