Dear Employers:

Have you ever had applicants who have artistry - sculpture, painting, dance - in their backgrounds and you don’t know if they would be a good fit with your company since it’s not arts based?

Let me tell you. It’s a good idea to hire artists for non-arts positions. Here are six reasons why:

They can work without getting distracted.
They ideate/visualize a project before inception, solving problems before the project is started.
Discovery is their passion. You’ll have a learning organization without even trying.
Technical difficulty is not an issue with them. They hang in there with the result they visualized and see multiple ways to accomplish it.
Skill development is easy for them; they learn all the time by experimenting.
Design thinking is their metier. They know a good design when they see one.

Add to these their other experiences in production and management and you have a good deal going for you.

I’d love to hear your comments and experiences.