When you think of creative careers, you probably think of artists and designers. It’s true that these people get to be creative all day long, every day, but there are many other careers that enable you to be creative too! Here are a few that might surprise you.

Marketing

Marketing is probably the last career you think of if you’re searching for jobs that enable you to be creative, but it should be at the top of your list! Marketers have to think of unique ways to reach their target audience and feature the benefits of their products or services, in addition to more traditional ways of being creative.

A few creative and marketing job opportunities you may want to consider include:

• Digital designers who create and use graphic art to design websites, digital banners, and more
• App designers who create and build applications for anything you can imagine
• Brand managers who find creative ways to help brands stand apart
• Marketing content creators who are in charge of written and video content

Marketing is a uniquely creative career because it spans a wide range of ways to be creative. From digital graphics to writing and brainstorming, nearly any creative talent can be utilized in a marketing department.

Grant Writer

Writing is a traditionally creative job. It includes novel writers and even blog writers, but you can also be creative and technically minded at the same time if you decide to pursue grant writing.

A grant writer writes on behalf of a government department, corporation, foundation, or trust when they have decided to apply for a grant. It requires creativity when deciding how to describe the organization and why it deserves grant money, in addition to the inherent creativity of writing.

This profession is a great option for those who want to be creative, but also excel when it comes to more technical tasks. In order to write a good grant, you have to gather information, analyze the purpose of the proposal, and format it correctly in order for it to be successful.

Chef

Working at a restaurant isn’t always the most creative of jobs. Hosts and servers have rules they follow and patterns of behavior that they engage in every day, while the cooks in the back are required to follow certain recipes. Although this is the case at chain restaurants and established eateries, you have the opportunity to be much more creative if you’re willing to step into the role of chef at a privately owned restaurant.

Chefs not only cook food, they get to create weird and delicious new delicacies. They get to play around  with state-of-the-art equipment and combine unique flavors and textures to create a one-of-a-kind food experience that can be added to the menu for patrons to enjoy. Many chefs create specials and seasonal treats that rotate throughout the year, keeping the work fresh, interesting, and creative.

Teacher

It’s true that teachers today have more regulations and mandated programs to follow, but it hasn’t reduced their creativity. In many ways, it has forced teachers to be even more creative when figuring out ways to make materials more interesting to students!

Not only are teachers being creative in the classroom by coming up with fun and unique ways to approach units in reading, math, and science, they are also looking for ways to harness creativity in their students. From journaling with students to inviting an artist into the classroom to finding ways to use art in math, teachers are surrounded by and looking for new ways to be creative every day.

Landscaper

Mowing the lawn isn’t a very creative endeavor, but that’s about the only part of a landscaping career that isn’t creative. From designing hardscapes to the perfect combination of plants to place in a shade garden, if you study to be a landscape designer, you get to be creative each and every day.

There are even some tasks that don’t seem very creative that require plenty of creativity. For example, cutting down a tree requires you to be strategic about how branches are removed, while choosing from a surprisingly wide range of materials enables you to get creative about how you use rock, stone, and plants in the yard.

If you want to be creative, being a painter or a fiction writer are always viable career options, but there are many more ways to be creative. Harness your creativity each and every day by being a marketer, a grant writer, or a teacher!