{"id":12512,"date":"2018-10-02T09:07:51","date_gmt":"2018-10-02T16:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogschapman.wpenginepowered.com\/dodge\/2018\/10\/02\/4-ways-a-film-degree-will-help-you-in-any-career\/"},"modified":"2018-10-02T09:07:51","modified_gmt":"2018-10-02T16:07:51","slug":"4-ways-a-film-degree-will-help-you-in-any-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/dodge\/2018\/10\/02\/4-ways-a-film-degree-will-help-you-in-any-career\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Ways a Film Degree Will Help You In Any Career"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, you want to be a filmmaker, but you are wondering – what happens if it doesn\u2019t work out? What happens if the statistics win, and I\u2019m not the next Spielberg? Can I do anything with my film degree in other industries? While other degrees will make your professional path easier in the business world, film majors can be successful in other industries. After all, according to recent <\/span>research by Jaison R. Abel and Richard Deitz<\/span><\/a>, only about 27 percent of college grads have a job related to their major. <\/span><\/p>\n

I moved to California from Colorado to pursue a filmmaking degree at Chapman University. While I completed my undergraduate study, I acquired a student worker job in Chapman\u2019s admission office giving tours and assisting with office tasks. Eventually, I even participated in some recruitment fairs as a student. After graduating, I joined the Chapman Admission office as a full-time employee, and my goal was to earn a Master\u2019s degree (also in film) for free – a benefit of working at the University.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, after earning my Master\u2019s degree, I had already fallen in love with admission and marketing. My supervisor at the time, Mike Pelly, allowed and encouraged me to experiment with creating MySpace accounts, blogs, and other social media accounts for Chapman\u2019s admission office. I didn\u2019t know it at the time because these practices were not named yet, but I was participating in what we now know as social media marketing, content marketing, and inbound marketing. These are just a few of the marketing tactics that <\/span>Pogona Creative<\/span><\/a> excels at.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve thought back to my film production training many times in my career, and I believe there are numerous advantages to a degree in filmmaking that are overlooked regularly.<\/span><\/p>\n

1) Film Majors Are Critical Thinkers and Problem Solvers<\/span><\/h1>\n

Research touting the benefits of experiential learning and <\/span>project-based learning are plentiful<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>The Buck Institute for Education (BIE) reports<\/span><\/a> that project-based learning improves problem-solving and critical thinking skills. It also has the added benefit of improving teacher job satisfaction, and it creates greater equity between students from different backgrounds, including various grades levels. Ironically, these skills are precisely what employers value most – even more than the college major. In an <\/span>article for Forbes, Ashley Stahl<\/span><\/a> reports that “93% of employers believe that critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving skills are more important than a job candidate\u2019s undergraduate field of study.”<\/span><\/p>\n

My film production degree provided me with the following skills, all of which I have used professionally:<\/span><\/p>\n