23 Oct 2019

With technology boomin’ and changes being made left, right and centre, the workforce has evolved with a tonne of obscure and niche jobs out there. On the upside, this means that you can probably turn whatever it is you’re interested in into a real career. On the downside, it’s pretty bloody confusing wading through all your options and figuring out what you want to do. To help you out, we’ve come up with a handful of jobs based on hobbies or skills you probably never realised you could turn into a career.

1. The hours you spend crafting the perfect post for Insta

If you’re the type of person who takes a hundred photos to get the best snap, use five different apps to get the filtering bang on, spend hours crafting a caption that is the perfect balance of funny and thoughtful and then wait until peak time to post on Instagram in order to get maximise how many people see your photo, then a gig in social media could be for you. Social media coordinators get paid to do all the stuff you’re probably doing on your own Instagram for free and nowadays, nearly every single brand needs someone to make sure their socials are on point – why not make it you? 

How do I land this gig? A course in Entertainment (Business Management) could land you a gig as a Social Media Strategist. Thanks to digital technology and social media connectivity, there are heaps of ways to create a career in this industry and a course in this area will give the theory and practical knowledge you need to land a job.

2. Your love for making playlists

So you like to spend hours selecting songs for your best mates birthday party, or maybe you love the idea of making sure that your Spotify is full of playlists for every situation like ‘songs to cry to’ and ‘songs to scream along to in the car’. If you can relate, then you might be interested in becoming a user experience designer. User experience designers use and create products that provide meaningful and relevant experiences to users.

Have you ever thought about who chooses the music that plays in shopping centres or big stores? No, it’s just not someone slapping their phone on the AUX. It’s selected by a user experience designer who has sussed the brand and researched human emotion in a shopping environment to curate the perfect playlist that improves mood and your willingness to buy some stuff (cheeky). Pretty neato.

How do I land this gig? Simply, a bachelor or diploma in digital design could get you to where ya need to be. And our mates at JMC offer a Bachelor of Design (Visual Communications) or a Diploma of Design (Visual Communications). It’s a crackin’ start where technology, creativity and business meet.

3. Your obsession with video games

While gaming might seem like one of those things you say you want to do when you’re ten years old, before you settle on a ‘real’ career, it turns out there are some pretty cool jobs in the gaming industry and a solid pathway to get them. Plus, the gaming industry itself is booming.

Think of all your favourites - from Candy Crush to Call of Duty - someone had to design, create, develop, market and promote them. Someone had to put together all the animations and make sure we could play them on different devices. To do this, they got to test it all before it hit the shelves (dream job right there).

How do I land this gig? A Bachelor of Creative Arts (Game Design) at JMC Academy will get your career in gaming started. With a focus on art, design and animation, this course will give you the chance to learn the fundamentals of game design, as well as the practical knowledge to implement these ideas.

4. Your love of a good fezzy

I know we said three, but we’ve got a fourth job for ya.

While you’re on your friends’ shoulders, swaying to your favourite song in the mosh of a festival, you’re probably not thinking about the geniuses who have put in the hard work behind the scenes to make the fezzy happen. Whether it’s a festival organiser, social media strategist or event manager, hundreds of people work behind the scenes at festivals, making sure everyone in the crowd is left cheering for more.

How do I land this gig? A Bachelor of Entertainment (Business Management) with JMC Academy will give you a wide knowledge of operational, business and marketing skills, with a specific creative industries approach. This degree focuses on arts management areas like events, touring and festivals, and there’s a big emphasis on quality internships. In short, you won’t be stuck in a classroom – you’ll be out applying your skills in real-world situations.