What up with your job?: Yuki Kokubo
Issue #23
By Amy Schroeder
Published: March 1st, 2005 | 12:23pm
Occupation: office assistant at a non-profit organization
Age: 26
City: Chicago
When you were in high school, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I went to Bronx High School of Science in the Bronx, New York, because I wanted to be a marine biologist. After a couple of years I decided that science wasn’t really my thing. During junior year, I had started shooting and printing black-and-white photographs and decided that I wanted to be a photographer.
You went to college at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where you graduated in 2000 with a degree in fine art with a focus on photography. Why did you choose art school?
I wanted to learn about photography and apply my education to making artwork.
How did your major prepare you for life after college?
My major prepared me to be an artist, but I would not say that it prepared me for “life after college.”
When you were in college, what were your career plans for post-graduation?
When I was in college, I had no career plans. My only plan was to become an artist. I knew that I had to hold down a job, but I had no idea what I would do.
What did you do after college before starting your current job at the non-profit in September 2004?
I’ve worked in Chicago doing various jobs, including being a data-entry supervisor, a classifieds representative at a newspaper, an administrative assistant at a law firm.
Do you like your current job?
Yes. I like my job because I work for a great organization. The organization is a community foundation that gives grants to other nonprofits in the Chicagoland area. It’s one of the largest community foundations in the U.S.
Do you have a “dream job”?
My dream job would be to play a more active role in this — or a similar — organization, helping people. My dream job also would pay enough so that I could easily pay off my school loans, buy a car and a home, and start planning for my future.
If you could do it all over again, would you do anything differently?
I find personal satisfaction in making artwork, but I never wanted to do it as a job. I believe that there is a certain kind of purity that is maintained when art is made without the expectation of making profit. When I was younger, I thought that as long as I was making artwork, it didn’t matter what I did for a job. But after being in the real world for a few years and working 40 hours a week, I realized that I have to do something that I have a passion for. Because of this, I’ve decided to go back to school to study social work. And I will continue to make artwork, probably for the rest of my life. If I were to give one piece of advice to people who are considering studying fine art, I would encourage securing your career goals first, then pursuing your creative endeavors.
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