The 3 Free Things I Did in College to Prepare Myself for a Professional Photography Career

My name is Sarah. I graduated in 2018 from UT with a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering and now work as a professional photographer and social media consultant at Sarah Wong Media, LLC.

My choice to pursue a creative career wasn’t common in my degree. Most of my engineering friends planned to earn 6-figures in the middle of West Texas near a drilling rig or go back to Houston to work in an E&P (exploration and production) office.

When I graduated, I got a lot of questions wondering why and how I made the jump from studying a specialized engineering discipline to owning my own media company.

To this day, some of the most common questions I get from students and fellow business owners are:

“Did you find marketing internships? How did you feel confident to start? Why did you do it? When did you know that changing careers was right for you?”

You can read the full story here, but there are three things I did to help me feel confident to pursue a creative business outside my analytical major. Here are the three (free!) things I’m glad I did while I was still at UT:

1. Attend job fairs and networking events outside your department.

When I was an undergrad at UT, I was always told to go to job fairs and networking events within the engineering school. I was an engineering major, so that made sense. When I decided that engineering wasn’t going to be the right fit for me as a career, I made time to attend other events outside Cockrell.

This gave me the opportunity to explore other career options and learn from people who worked in industries I was interested in. If you’re hoping to start your own business in the future, take advantage of getting to know the sponsors or volunteers of the events you attend and follow up with them on LinkedIn or email. You’ll be surprised how much people in the industry love giving advice as you’re starting out your entrepreneurial journey.

2. Make time to support and interact with small businesses.

One of the most valuable uses of my time in college was popping into small businesses or interacting with them on social media. For me, multiple quick “hellos” turned into curiosity about how they started their business. That curiosity turned into internships. Some of those internship managers turned into my career mentors, and now some of them are my clients! Don’t underestimate the power of honest & genuine relationship building when you’re first starting your business. They go a long way!

Click here to learn how to land your first internship.

3. Track how much time you spend on activities each day.

College was hard. Now that I’m a few years out of school, I can say with 100% confidence that I don’t miss the hustle and grind of homework and studying for exams. It felt like you could never learn enough or study enough to get an A or land a dream internship.

When you’re starting your first business, I recommend tracking how much time you’re spending on different activities each day for a week. After you have an idea where your hours are going, re-evaluate how you’re spending your time and adjust them so they fit the direction you want to go.

For example, are you spending 10 of your waking hours on school leaving you no time for your business? Is there a possibility you can prioritize important things outside of school and figure out how you can use those remaining hours to work efficiently on school?

Make time for the things you want to do and practice strict prioritization. You’ll find success where most people are just learning how to start.

Have any questions for Sarah? Find her at thebellainsider.com to ask her your career questions and book a senior photography session with her at sarahwongmedia.com.