As college students, listing your transferable skills is a major point of sprucing up your resume. But the question is, what do you list?
According to The Guardian, researchers have created studies to examine what skills students consider to be important and only 15 percent of 15-16 year olds consider creativity to be valuable.
Being a communication major and graphic design minor, I would have to disagree with this turnout. My interest in creativity sparked at a very young age when all I wanted to do was make arts and crafts with my Girl Scout troop and create homemade videos with my brother. Since showing my enthusiasm in design and the artistic value in things, my parents enrolled me in art and dance classes when I was in the first grade. I have been hooked ever since.
Creativity is the reason why I chose my major and minor because I am free to express my thoughts and opinions through various forms of media. So, when I learned that creativity is a dying breed, you could say I was caught off guard. I see creativity as someone’s outlet to let out whatever imaginative ideas are running around in their mind and a vital port to express your inner personality. Without this aspect, people would be living in a black and white world.
While creativity is becoming a smaller part of what is present throughout people’s resumes, I do not think they are fully aware of its importance. Employers want to see inventive workers in their environment because these people are the pioneers of tomorrow. “You are your own worst critic” is a phrase that has been heard time and time again and I think that it is applicable to this situation. People may not realize how creative they can be due to their own views of their ideas. Have you ever had a moment where you thought you struck gold with an idea, but the more you develop details ,the less excited you become about it? And what if someone else comes into the picture with a bigger idea than yours? That isn’t exactly the self-motivation needed to think your skill-set is on par with what it should be anymore. This is just part of the reason why I think creativity has been slowly withdrawing itself from youth’s attention.
Another aspect that I believe has an effect on the topic is the media. Television, radio, advertising, print and web all have major influences on the way we perceive ideas to be and sometimes we do not even realize that we are being fed information. Subliminal messaging is a form of this and that simply means that thoughts are subconsciously placed in our minds. For example, “Divergent” was recently released into theaters and instantly had a following thanks to readers of the “Divergent” book series. The movie is based off the best-selling trilogy from Veronica Roth and while I have not seen it yet, people who have claim that the scenes in the book are visually depicted on screen. While “Divergent” is sure to be a box-office hit, how original is it for the screenwriters to turn a book into a movie? Yes, it has certainly been done before (some being done especially well) but it seems to become a repeating trend with computer-generated imagery providing scenery for futuristic landscapes.
As I understand how some people may not get the full experience from the creativity they lay out, I feel like they should challenge themselves to be more open to letting their ideas flow. Creativity is necessary to be successful and a value that I think needs to be taken seriously.
