How Artists Can Unlock Financial Freedom

At some point, it was decided that the life of an artist had to come with an unspoken and unfair trade-off. What it boils down to is this: In exchange for doing what you love and finding meaning in your creative labor, you must spend the bulk of your professional life balancing on the edge of financial precarity.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be this way. Here’s how artists can break free from that cycle and say goodbye to a life of financial insecurity — without compromising on pursuing their passions.

An honest look at modern life as an artist

If you’re reading this article, we’re going to assume you’re here for a reason: you’re sick of the unsatisfactory income that comes with being an independent creative. We’ll start this whole thing off by saying that feeling is absolutely valid.

And it’s not just a feeling; the data backs up how difficult life as an artist can be. Let’s take dancers as an example — specifically, the findings from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for those who work at performing arts companies. As per the BLS, these people make $23.44 an hour.

If we assume 52 40-hour workweeks, that’s an annual income of $48,755.20, a living wage in the nine cheapest states according to Yahoo Finance. There’s a fallacy here, though: dancers, like most creatives, usually aren’t booked for full-time gigs. Subtract only one hour per day from our initial estimate, and dancers no longer earn a living wage in any state.

None of this is to say that creative work isn’t valuable. If dance, music, or visual art still move you and are worth it in your estimation, that’s what matters. The world will be thankful to have more creative people in it. However, what the data shows is that those of you sick of the financial difficulties that come with creative professions aren’t making things up.

So what should you do?

We won’t be coy about it: tech is reliable and lucrative

The answer might be to check out tech. And yeah, you’ve read the heading for this section. So let’s get into the numbers, once again from the BLS. 

(Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4)

These are typical jobs people land after they graduate from one of our bootcamps (we’re substituting market research analyst for business intelligence analyst because the BLS doesn’t have it as a distinct profession or subcategory yet). At the lowest end, the job growth rate for market research analysts is double the average. That means that employment prospects are good; you’re not going to be scrambling for your next gig with so many openings out there for the taking.

And not only that — the jobs also pay well. To be fair, the wage numbers come from a profession-wide cross-section, so techies making significantly more than the average_{The Top 18 Companies That Pay Software Engineers the Most in 2024} are included. To temper expectations, these might not be the wages you’d see in an entry-level job, but the data is nonetheless illustrative.

So, for the sake of comparison, let’s just assume the average, as we did with the dancer. If you go for the market research analyst path, you’ll be on track to earn a living wage in 47 states, including infamously expensive New York. That’s not all 50, though; the three states left out are California, Massachusetts, and Hawaii. By earning the BLS’s median annual wage for software quality assurance analysts, you’ll bring in a living wage in California and Massachusetts. If you want to thrive in Hawaii, we recommend pursuing cyber security or software engineering.

How this can revitalize your creativity

But we’re talking about money, and especially around the arts, this leads to the hairy topic of selling out. We’ll just say it right here: getting a job that pays your bills isn’t just not selling out. It can even reinvigorate your creative pursuits.

First, with the pressure off, you don’t have to scramble for your next gig so you can pay rent for another month. That frees up both time and brain space for you to focus on other things — the precise thing you’re trying to express with your creations, for example.

There’s more to it, too.

Not interested in dancing at a corporate show sponsored by an ethically dubious company? With financial independence, you can turn down the offer and not worry about what that means for your wallet.

But there’s one last thing to mention: joy. When you decided to go for a creative profession, you likely did so because it sparked something in you. There was a sense of expansive inspiration. And, in our experience, nothing chokes that feeling more than tying it to quotidian worries. 

After all, you spent days learning how to play polyrhythmic grooves not so you could buy laundry detergent; you wanted to explore new musical structures. By detaching your art from market forces and retethering it to joy, you bring it back into alignment with the curiosity and fun that made you want to pursue it in the first place. 

So, finding space to refine your craft? Gaining the freedom to turn down offers you’re uninterested in? Rediscovering the joy in creation? Absolutely none of that sounds like selling out.

Other artists have already found success in the switch…

You wouldn’t be the only artist moving into a tech career. In fact, we’ve seen people just like you come through our bootcamp and find meaningful, well-paid, flexible jobs on the other side. Just take Desiree Bradish_{From Graphic Design to Code Design: Desiree Bradish’s TripleTen Story}, for example.

Although she’d been intrigued by tech in college, she decided to pursue a creative career when she graduated. She worked as an animator before committing to a five-year stint in graphic design. For her, working in the arts wasn’t ideal. “You work long hours for bad pay,” she said.

So when the pandemic struck and she was furloughed, she saw it as a time to reflect. She remembered her interest in tech, so she decided to take a new path. She enrolled in TripleTen’s Software Engineering Bootcamp, mastered the know-how to get hired, and soon landed a job as a full-stack engineer.

Or take Jenny Doctor_{From Making Music to Making Commits: Jenny Doctor’s TripleTen Story}. She was in a role that combined two different fields in which people are expected to work out of passion alone; she was a music teacher. Just as with Desiree, Jenny’s professional life suffered during the pandemic. “During quarantine, we had to go to teaching online. As you can probably imagine, trying to wrangle four year olds in a Google Meet and teaching the music was really difficult,” she said.

She knew it was untenable. Not only did teaching burn her out, she also started disconnecting from her passion. “When I was teaching, I really didn't make music for myself. I was focused on my students.”

So she dove into TripleTen’s Software Engineering Bootcamp as well.

I chose software engineering because I'm a fairly creative person. Obviously, as a music teacher, I was using creativity and art throughout my day. And I found that with software engineering, and especially the web development that I did through TripleTen, there was a creative aspect. Jenny Doctor, TripleTen grad

Soon enough, she’d mastered a whole suite of skills, in no small part because she joined an externship, a hands-on opportunity in which she developed a landing page for a real tech company. So, when she landed an interview for a tech position, she was more than ready. 

Since then, she’s been a software engineer at Booz Allen Hamilton. And best of all, thanks to her new career, she’s reclaimed space for her passion: “Now that I am in tech and I'm at home and I have more free time for myself, I’ve found that I've been playing more music.”

…and the data says you can, too

These two grads are not one-off stories. In fact, according to our most recent Outcomes Report, 87% of the people who go through TripleTen land jobs they trained for within six months of graduation. Why? Simple: they have the know-how that makes them attractive to employers.

See, we straight up asked over 1,000 decision makers what they were looking for in employees. Their answers were clear; they wanted candidates who had skills.

This is precisely what TripleTen focuses on giving its students. Because the bootcamp is staffed and led by industry experts, we know precisely what skills companies are looking for.

But not only do we teach what’s in demand. We also know you have a real life, so our bootcamp is part-time. Still need to rehearse that one complicated sequence? Still want to show up to the gig on Friday night? You can absolutely pursue your passions while simultaneously upgrading your earning potential.

Discover more about a career in tech

There’s tons more to talk about. Tune into our podcast to hear grads and other experts sharing their experiences with bootcamps in their own words.