We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mandy Kron a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Mandy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

I graduated in 2008 with dual Bachelor’s degrees in Art and Music Performance. I was thrilled to secure a full-time, art-related job that I started immediately after graduation. I was a retail display artist and I worked for a company that did multiple “floor set” changes throughout the year, requiring an in-house artist. I built furniture and temporary walls, and created window displays and other decorative elements. It was based on the company’s direction for a certain “look” each season, but I had the freedom to adapt the concepts to fit our location. Though this sounds like a dream, it was unfortunately a very unpleasant place to work. Everyone was overworked, under paid and never received recognition for their efforts; a terrible combination that creates a toxic work environment.

I decided that working there wasn’t worth my unhappiness and decided to leave after several years. I took a risk by deciding to freelance. I knew that I have valuable skills and was ready to work hard to find ways to use them. I’d already been working as a musician and music teacher on the side and started my freelancing by building on that. I took on private students and subbed in orchestras and booked gigs for weddings and events. I researched businesses in the area to see who might have events such as weddings in which a musician was needed, and cold-called as many as I could. I got a booth at a wedding expo, advertised, and got a website.

I checked out books from the library on finding success as a freelancer and building up your own business. I networked with friends and colleagues to try to find any connections I could. I found opportunitines such as teaching music and art at summer camps or designing and building a theater set. I said “yes” to every arts-related opportunity I could get.

Freelancing is not easy. There is the need to constantly look for opportunities, network, and self-promote. There aren’t regular hours and you can wind up using all of your evenings and weekends. It’s exhausting. Though I found continuous opportunities, it wasn’t enough to make a living or be sustainable. I started to doubt myself and feel like a failure.

I looked up local resources and found a free career counselor at my local university. I made an appointment, and the counselor had some advice that wound up changing my life. She suggested that I volunteer with organizations related to my field to make connections and maybe even get a “foot in the door” for future job opportunities.

While researching volunteer opportunities, I found that I could volunteer as a musician at a local hospital and volunteer to assist with an art program. I went through the volunteer process and started going in weekly to share music. I met with the Artist-in-Residence about volunteering with the art program, and while touring the building she introduced me to the art program coordinator. We got to chatting, and it turned out that the coordinator was looking for an assistant and she thought I sounded like a great candidate.

I started to email her regularly to ask about the job opportunity, and after several months she hired me as an hourly part-time consultant. I was able to keep up some of my freelancing on the side. After a year, the program coordinator announced her pending retirement, and based on my experience I was set to be an ideal candidate for her replacement. I was hired on as a full time assistant coordinator. When my predecessor retired, I was poised as the ideal candidate to hire for her position, as at that point I had been with the program for 3 years.

So, here I am nearly 12 years later, with a wonderful career as the manager of an art program in a healthcare setting. A career I never knew existed, but found out about through volunteering. I run roating art exhibits, purchase artwork for a huge healthcare system of 3 hospitals and over 40 clinics, and bring in music performances. I am so fortunate to have a fullfilling career in which I strive to create a welcoming, diverse, educational, and calming environment for patients, visitors, and staff.

In the art world, the path to a career is seldom linear, but it is possible to find a rewarding career. I would encourage others to find as many ways as possible to network and self-promote. Reflect on all of your skills- beyond your artistic skills- and look for ways to combine your talents and areas of expertise to make yourself stand out.