You have to earn it.

Don’t get me wrong. I believe that each one of us is born with the desire to be creative. It is part of our divine inheritance from a Heavenly Father who created the universe. But the vast majority of all work done in any business is routine production. The most profitable businesses are those that find their niche, focus on a few core products, and keep producing and selling them day after day after day. If everyone was 100% creative all day long, there wouldn’t be any consistency in the product lines.

What businesses (and by proxy, hiring managers) are looking for and are hiring for are people who can consistently contribute incremental innovation to the organization, not necessarily unbounded creativity. So it irks me in an interview when a candidate is describing their previous job and they tell me that their previous job wasn’t creative enough. What this really tells me is that they weren’t creative enough to find ways to express their creativity toward the goals of the organization. The reward for consistent incremental innovation toward the company’s established goals will usually be rewarded with increased responsibility and increased freedom to lead more and more creative projects. I know this principle is true because I am living it every day.

Now there are some exceptions. If you are interviewing for a senior level creative director position, then yes, your interviewer will want to hear about how creative you are. But, remember that you didn’t get there by jumping straight to the top of the org chart. You likely had to start at the bottom just like everyone else. You probably spent hours and hours as a graphic designer resizing and cropping photos. You did a really good job of it, and over time you were rewarded with more challenging creative projects. You worked your way up and now your resume and your portfolio demonstrate that growth and the high level of trust that your previous employers had in you. Like I said before, you have to earn the right to be creative.

I can help you brainstorm some ways to start adding incremental innovation to your current or future job. If you’re ready to take that step, let’s get together and talk.