How Your Hobby Can Become Your Job

We all know someone who has followed through with their passion and made it their daily job. A lot of these people become professional photographers, writers, hairdressers, chefs, decorators or furniture makers. The experience and knowledge we gain through learning about something we love doing can lead us to pursue a career we know we’ll enjoy.

I’ve worked with people in Africa who used to drive the open safari vehicles looking for lions and leopards on a daily basis. Some of the guides used to take their camera along on game drives to shoot images of the amazing sunsets and endless wildlife photograph opportunities. Slowly they built up their skills and compared their work with one another. Some guides even took it a step further by entering competitions, posting their pictures online and if they were good enough, get published in a magazine or land an interview. They went through the effort of learning how to take good images as well as how to edit them. As they advanced they invested in professional camera equipment to capture incredible pictures. A few years down the line one or two went on to become professional photographers, making a living out of something they thoroughly enjoy.

No matter what your hobby is, you can make it a career if you put the effort in. That being said, not everyone wants their hobby to become their job. A friend of mine enjoys working with computers, building them up from scratch and then playing games etc. He went off to university to study computer science as he knew so much about computer hardware and software alike. However, he didn’t enjoy it. He later changed his degree to business management and went on to graduate. These days he continues to work with computers but it remains his hobby.

I ride bikes, more specifically, mountain bikes. I’ve been riding and racing bicycles since I was 14 years old. It began as something I enjoyed doing with my dad on the weekend. After a lot of training we took part in competitions but were never really good enough to represent the country. As a teen I went along to the local bike store to help out in the holidays and gain some mechanical experience so I could service my bike myself. After I completed school I continued to work at the bike shop whilst studying in my spare time. I now feel like I have gained valuable experience into how to run a business and a little insight into what it takes to be successful. I hope to one day own my own shop and share my passion with others.

Whether you choose to take your hobby seriously and make a living from it or just do it on weekends to keep yourself busy, remember to do it with passion and you’ll find it will be so much more rewarding.

To learn more about how to turn your passion into a job, be sure to visit our Careers page.