Although the promise of summer begins to shimmer through the depths of coursework, I’ve found that thoughts of sunshine are muddled with anxieties about finding a career. After spending far too much time simmering on internship possibilities and scrolling fretfully through LinkedIn, I decided to chat with some inspiring women to (hopefully) discover a few career insights.
The Journey of an Artist
I first spoke with Mette, a young woman who started an illustration and design studio that focuses primarily on watercolor wedding maps, stationery, supper club menus, and guest portraits.
Although she studied biology at university and worked a corporate job for several years afterward, Mette’s life-long passion for art prompted her to explore creativity as a career. Alongside her 9 to 5 and working as a weekend Yoga Sculpt teacher in New York City, she began by selling paintings of homes to real-estate agents who were looking for thank-you gifts for their clients.
Through both word of mouth and promoting herself on social media, she gradually built up her clientele. In early 2025, she decided to pursue art full time. While her career in art is still very new, Mette has gradually been building up her business, and is thrilled to have recently been commissioned to create a piece for Ralph Lauren.
In addition to the many amazing opportunities that have stemmed from pursuing a creative profession, Mette has also described the challenges. She says that her career can be ‘lonely and stressful’ at times due to the individual pressure of starting a business by herself. She also notes that sometimes ‘it feels like it would be easier to have a normal job’.
However, Mette also expresses the freedom that her work offers. She gets to establish her own schedule, travel often, and create intricate custom pieces by frequently collaborating with clients.
By delving into her genuine interests and unique skillset, building connections, and forming a business model with relatively low initial investment costs, she’s been able to create a career that, despite its difficulties, is full of flexibility and imagination.
The Journey of an Architect
I also talked to a woman who owns a successful architecture firm. After spending her childhood building forts in the woods behind her house and constantly reconfiguring all the furniture in her room, she set her sights on becoming an architect. Despite later being temporarily deterred by a painfully boring mechanical drawing class in high school and opting to pursue an undergraduate degree in English literature, she eventually returned to her initial passion. She attended the Yale School of Architecture in 1988, and was soon hired by a corporate architecture firm where her works won several national design accolades.
However, after discovering in 2000 that the man who held a position junior to her was ‘being paid significantly more’, and when her boss ‘gifted the female receptionist lingerie for Christmas’, she decided to quit and start her own firm.
The early days of her company were largely spent designing small basement remodels from her home-office while holding her infant son in one arm. Despite these challenges, she gradually built her reputation and worked on increasingly large projects, eventually creating a firm of 85% female employees and designing multimillion-dollar homes. While her journey has been far from smooth, she’s been able to pursue a career doing what she has dreamed of since her early days of whimsical fort-building.
Reflections
The stories of both these women have truly inspired me. Not only did they both work through various challenges and pursue careers in which their degrees were largely unrelated, but they also decided to establish their agency and creativity within fields that they were passionate about.
Their journeys helped me realize that, shockingly, I really don’t need to have everything figured out at 19. The best I can do right now is invest in my interests and find what brings me joy. At St Andrews, perhaps that could mean starting a little art business on the side of studying, or even just carving out a bit of time to explore new hobbies and interests. Although it feels like there’s a lot of pressure to have a sparkling CV and a fabulous summer internship, life is long, and LinkedIn can wait!