ABSTRACT
Those individuals who author such things as music, literature, and film (i.e., creative personnel) face a number of challenges in securing professional careers that are both stable and long. Certain scholarship approaches these challenges by pointing to various stages in these careers, whereby movement from one stage to the next can be difficult if not unattainable for many (Craig and Dubois 2010; see Lincoln and Allen, Chaper 5, this volume; Pralong and Gombault, Chapter 11, this volume; Skov, Chapter 13, this volume; Stoyanova and Grugulis, Chapter 4, this volume). One important stage involves launching such professional careers. This is not as easy as it sounds because the number of hopefuls can far exceed the number of people who actually secure paid work (Menger 1999). Some handle this initial logjam by choosing to be amateurs rather than professionals, opting out of stages that mark a professional career (Jeffri 2008; Jeffri et al. 2011). For those who successfully negotiate the first stage, they still face a number of challenges in reaching another important stage—that of being ‘established,’ wherein they attain some regularity in their work opportunities (Craig and Dubois 2010). For instance, among those who help create a single film (e.g., actors, composers, directors), many never have the opportunity to create subsequent films—ending their professional careers shortly after ‘breaking in’ and never moving on to this second stage (e.g., Baker and Faulkner 1991; Faulkner 1983; Zuckerman et al. 2003).
