What is creativity for?

[Plotline_Progenitor]

I know this might be kind of a weird and hard to answer question to ask but it has come to mind for me a little more frequently over the last few months after unsuccessful attempts at finding a job

What is being creative actually good for?

1) What personal benefits are there to being a creative person?
2a) How does one make their creativity a valuable trait to others or themselves when looking for work?
2b) How does someone find the beginning point of a creative career? (or any advice you have on creative careers)
3) What advantages are there to having a creative person around in the workplace?
4) What benefit is there to humanity as a whole in being a creative person?

I don't mean to say that it's useless by asking this. It's just that there are times here and there in my life that I have a little trouble seeing the value in my own creative ability and I thought by asking people here I might get some interesting responses to think about

[Kate]

Creative people are assets when faced with a problem- we don't think INSIDE the box. We innovate. We question. We wonder. We imagine.
We are good at using a certain set of skills- be it art, brainpower, hands, computer skills, etc.
You can do what others with more boring or dependable skill sets wish they could do (though as humans we frequently wish we could have what others have and overlook what we have.)

We are "ideas" people. That's a valuable thing. Even if not every idea pans out, you can churn out ideas and store them for later use like a reservoir.

Creativity is good for anything.

I hope this helps. Don't give up. Jobs pop up when you least expect them to.

[SundownKid]

Creativitity is beneficial for making sense of the world, and the pleasure of yourself and others. Without creativity, the world would be a boring place and people wouldn't have anything to "live for". Creativity serves as the inspiration for things such as science, technology, medicine and other applied fields. Just as an example, the cellphone was inspired by Star Trek's tricorder. Without the creativity of the show we may not have had something like that exist in real life.

However that is not always compatible with what a job demands. The reason it's called a job is because it's something that people WOULDN'T do without being paid money. The more detestable it is, the more people will pay you to do it because there are less people bothering to learn it. Thats why jobs in creative disciplines are so hard to find, because there are WAY more people chomping at the bit for such "enjoyable" jobs.

So if you are having trouble finding a job it may help to branch out to disciplines that are difficult to do without practice and people generally don't like to do. Because often in the gaming industry they pick people for actual creative jobs (writer, game designer) from a selection of people already working for them in UN-creative jobs who are already there and have the skill set. They call it "getting your foot in the door" in any profession because no matter what your initial job is you can work your way up when youre already inside the building.

And while creativity applies in pretty much any job to a small degree, even if you can't be the amount of creative you want in your job there are many creatives who squeeze in their creative hobbies outside of a full time job. You just have to sacrifice your free time, basically.

[VimislikArt]

Never call it being "creative" to employers, call it being a "PROBLEM SOLVER".

Not every job wants "creativity", because people tend to think that creative people can only work when they aren't given constraints. In reality, most creative jobs I've had (illustrating for books, magazines, mobile games, web apps, what have you) were done with a lot of directions and stipulations attached to them. Even games I've helped create from concept to execution generally start with a problem that needs to be solved (I once worked on a minigame suite, where the primary problem was "What are 85 different ways we can reskin and slightly modify eight minigames, and make every variation feel different?")

PROBLEM SOLVERS however, are well appreciated everywhere. I used to do factory work during my summers out of college, and cash rewards and raises were given to people who could come up with ways to reduce redundancies in the factories. I worked retail in a wine shop when I was fresh out of college, and I remember my boss complaining that certain product displays weren't selling as well as he'd like; I casually mentioned that Whole Foods solved that stuff with handmade signs that aren't that hard to make, and next thing you know, I spend one day a week at the job doing chalkboard signs for displays. Heck, the smartest people I know found ways to automate the least fun parts of their jobs, so they could focus on the parts they enjoyed.

Every employer sees problems, but only PROBLEM SOLVERS can see creative solutions.

[Plotline_Progenitor]

Thank you to everyone who's responded so far

Though I've been thinking that when I first posted the question something didn't feel quite right about it somehow and I think I figured out that what I really needed was to ask multiple similar questions rather than including it all in one, the responses so far have been very helpful but I think I sort of led them in a specific direction by mentioning the job search

So here's my new questions to attempt to broaden it up a little bit while still giving guidelines, and people posting don't have to answer all of them, if you have input on a single one I'd still like to hear from you

1) What personal benefits are there to being a creative person?
2a) How does one make their creativity a valuable trait to others or themselves when looking for work?
2b) How does someone find the beginning point of a creative career? (or any advice you have on creative careers)
3) What advantages are there to having a creative person around in the workplace?
4) What benefit is there to humanity as a whole in being a creative person?

[trooper6]

If there were no creativity, there would be no civilization.

Inventing the wheel is an act of creativity.
Inventing anything is an act of creativity.

[Seigetsu]

Here are my answers to your questions:

1) What personal benefits are there to being a creative person?
You can come up with innovative solutions to solve problems, allowing you to complete tasks more efficiently. You can create entertainment for yourself and those around you, making it more fun and enjoyable to spend time with you.

2a) How does one make their creativity a valuable trait to others or themselves when looking for work?
That depends on what kind of work you are looking for. If the type of jobs is meant to be repetitive manual labour, then creativity isn't as much of a valuable trait. Most types of jobs would look for people with problem-solving skills, though. Creativity would help in those cases, as you would need to think of solutions that don't already exist.

2b) How does someone find the beginning point of a creative career? (or any advice you have on creative careers)
Not sure exactly what you mean by a creative career...in the arts? In the sciences? I work in the sciences, specifically in drug development. The beginning point would be developing the basic skillset required for performing my job, in other words, the required educational qualifications. Then, the next step would be understanding the specific field for which you would be working in, identifying the unsolved problems in this field and possible ways of mitigating these problems. You'll have to try many different ideas and approaches, as 99% of the time things won't work perfectly the way you've envisioned them to. I don't think a "creative person" can just dream up of a magical solution to everything. A creative person should have the capability of coming up with multiple possible solutions, and the logical thought process that would allow him/her/them to test these solutions in a systematic manner. A creative person should also have the ability to optimize existing processes to make them more efficient.

3) What advantages are there to having a creative person around in the workplace?
I think this has already been answered above: they can come up with innovative solutions for tackling problems they may encounter in their work, allowing them to work more efficiently.

4) What benefit is there to humanity as a whole in being a creative person?
Same thing as above: to come up with innovative solutions for tackling problems in society, advancing civilization as a whole. Innovation has time and again improved the quality of life for humans.

That said, your original problem is with job-finding. As you can see from the posts here, it seems like most people do see the advantages to being a creative person. Employers, especially in creative sectors, value this trait. What you may want to think about probably isn't "why isn't creativity valued?", because it is. Your problem most likely lies in the fact that you have not adequately demonstrated to potential employers that you are indeed creative. Maybe that's what you need to think about more. How can you demonstrate your creativity? What do you have to show that would proof your capability in making innovations? I don't think anybody would go into a job interview telling potential employers that they're not creative - if creativity is your strong point, you need to be able to distinguish yourself from other candidates. You need to show that you are the most creative person competing for the position, and this would make you most valuable in the workplace.

[SundownKid]

1) What personal benefits are there to being a creative person?

- More fulfilling life (knowing what you want to do with your life)
- More fun to be with (creativity lets you think of more conversation topics)
- Can enrich the lives of others with creative works
- Does better in jobs (can think outside the box)

2a) How does one make their creativity a valuable trait to others or themselves when looking for work?

Honestly, anyone can claim they are creative but you can prove it by mentioning previous times your creativity helped solve problems and maybe having a portfolio.

2b) How does someone find the beginning point of a creative career? (or any advice you have on creative careers)

It depends on what industry, really. The process of getting into the film industry is different than, say, the game industry.

3) What advantages are there to having a creative person around in the workplace?

Basically; they can solve problems that an uncreative person might not be able to. Just as an example, maybe your marketing dept. wants more exposure and all they are doing is sending emails. An uncreative person might say "let's send more emails!" A creative person might say "what if we sent out 10 people into the street with t-shirts of our brand doing the conga?" The latter might be more effective (or it might not, but the point is they can think differently)

4) What benefit is there to humanity as a whole in being a creative person?

Id say that if there is no creativity then there is no point to life. Creativity helps people find meaning in life. Without that then there is just work for the sake of work.

Creativity helps creative people and others who view their works find "meaning" and "purpose". When you look at, say, the Sistine Chapel, you feel a sort of sense of awe. Like, "wow, someone did this, humanity can accomplish great things".

On a base level though, creativity is an important survival tool that lets the brain consider different approaches to a problem.