At first glance, moving from a corporate to a creative role in communications might look like mixing oil with water. But with a little effort, you will find many surprising similarities between them.

In this article, we walk through all the ways you can set yourself up for a great creative role, even if you’ve spent much of your working life in the corporate world.

Learn how to be a good storyteller

Storytelling is a real art, and it takes practice. If you’re already regularly giving public presentations, you’re already well on your way to bagging a creative role, as you will have learned how to structure your ideas in a clear, succinct way.

If you have yet to get onstage, it’s never too late to learn the basics and start practising! So many fantastic workshops, articles, books and videos have already been produced on improving storytelling skills.

Here are the basics that we feel will get you started:

Think in threes

Every memorable story, whether it’s in a children’s book or a TED talk, needs a clear beginning, middle, and end. When you have a subject that you want to get across in business, think about what you want audiences to take away (that should become the end), why they must take action (there’s your beginning), and what they need to understand to get the complete picture (the middle).  

Don’t forget visuals

Great business presentations need images, quotes, and data to support the speakers’ point. This draws the eye and keeps people invested in your story. If you use PowerPoint, avoid clutter, and think of your slides as a way to help you get your point across, not to do all the heavy lifting for you!

Ditch the jargon

Practice your presentation by walking through it with a friend or family member. This is a good way to keep note of timings and stay on message but will also help you focus on telling the story you want to tell without all the buzzwords that might only detract from your argument.

Get involved

Many successful creative roles ask for talent in writing and design, but plenty of creative roles focus on managing projects and teams of people. Project management, problem-solving, and teamwork are also critical to creative roles. In creative projects, it’s so important that someone can steer the ship and manage egos.

Whether you’re looking for a managerial or technical role, we recommend attending workshops, reading industry journals like AdWeek or art and culture magazines like Aesthetica, and joining clubs that focus on getting your creative juices flowing, whether that’s a 6-week drawing course at the local gallery or a monthly book club.

Think outside the box

All creatives do it! A creative role doesn’t only have to mean PR and advertising. Every company in this digital age needs a content strategy, so many corporate firms will have a creative branch within the company. We suggest typing “[YOUR IDEAL COMPANY] + [CREATIVE]” into LinkedIn to see if they have people on the team with creative roles.

Brush up your CV

If you are looking for a more hands-on role, ensure you have a portfolio to showcase your creative work. Whatever we say about ensuring your CV is perfect and beautifully presented, double this for your creative portfolio! If you are unsure, give your portfolio to a trusted recruiter or graphic designer who can give you their expert opinion before you submit your work.

Prepare for your interview from corporate to creative

Interviewers will be interested in why you want to make the switch from corporate to creative. Practice telling your personal story and why this is the perfect moment for you to transition careers.

Be ready to get to the why

Don’t forget to have some social proof or examples to hand! Perhaps you wrote an article for the firm’s magazine, or you contributed to a project in a way that got the team to think outside the box.

If you haven’t done anything at work that you feel is particularly creative, think about examples from your personal life or the extracurricular activities you have taken on, and how you can weave that into a satisfying answer.

And lastly: Learn to take feedback well

Creative people are unfairly typified as being overly sensitive types. Successful creatives must get very good very quickly at accepting and implementing feedback from their peers and clients.

You are very likely to get an interview question asking how you respond to feedback—they will be looking for you to come across as positive and can-do, so make sure you have practised first!

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Many of our candidates are mid-career and looking to transition into a very different role. We also have an article on “How to move career from finance to investor relations”.

If you are looking for a different kind of switch, let us know! Our team of experts is on hand to help passionate, motivated candidates navigate the complex waters of recruitment in the London City area.