1. Creatives can’t choose when inspiration strikes

“I’ve always been a ‘when inspiration strikes’ kind of person, which makes a 9-to-5 job particularly hard to hold down — I’m so bad at being productive exactly when I’m required to be. I love that my creative job allows me to be flexible with my work hours. I’m still doing the same amount of work as other people, but on my own schedule.” — Maria, 24

2. Breaks are important to the creative process

“My least favorite part of working a traditional job was that my managers were so weird about breaks. When you’re a creative person, you need to be able to walk away from your work when you start to get a mental block or it only gets worse, which is hard in the regular working world.” — Mark, 30

3. Creatives can’t deal with the traditional

“I hate the idea that there’s one way to do something and one way only. Some employers don’t really care to hear your ideas and only want you to do things their way. Nope, not for me.” — Elise, 21

4. It’s impossible to separate personal life from work life

“When you’re a creative person and your job is to be creative, it’s hard enough to separate your work life from your personal life. If my work is going to consume my life, I might as well do it on my own terms.” — Selena, 25

5. Creatives aren’t always detail-oriented

“This probably doesn’t apply to all creative people, but I’ve always felt like my biggest problem is that I’m not very detail-oriented. As a creative, I’d rather see the big picture.” — Sam, 24

6. Normal working environments are too distracting

“I work from home now, which is great, but I used to work in an open office and it was terrible. It was so difficult to focus on my own projects with so much going on around me. Headphones kind of helped, though.” — Nico, 32

7. The regular working world is too dull

“Honestly? I just get so bored so easily. I was never able to thrive in what other people considered a normal working environment. I’d always end up daydreaming or checking my phone hundreds of times in an hour. It’s just not my scene.” — Shiloh, 25

8. It’s difficult being the only creative in a non-creative environment

“I used to have a creative job in an otherwise non-creative company. I really loved my job, but god, I couldn’t deal with my coworkers or the office politics. I thought differently than a lot of the people I worked with. Sometimes it was really obvious I was the odd one out.” — Kristen, 27

9. Creatives thrive when they’re out in the world

“I need experiences to stay inspired, but most jobs are pretty strict about time off. It’s not like I need a ton of time off, but one week off isn’t enough to keep me inspired for an entire year. It’s restricting.” — Robert, 30

10. Some creatives work best on their own terms

“I’m not great at being creative on command. My boss would say, ‘I need X, Y, and Z by a certain time today,’ and it would stress me out because I couldn’t always deliver the best results in a time crunch. Or my boss would ask for something really specific that wouldn’t make sense, but when I tried to explain it to him, he just wouldn’t get it. I felt like a bad employee, but really we just didn’t see eye-to-eye on how things should work.” — Cale, 28

11. Creatives don’t like being micro-managed

“I don’t think I could deal with someone constantly looking over my shoulder and telling me how to do something. No thanks. I work best alone.” — Kelli, 24

12. Creatives don’t feel fulfilled in non-creative jobs

“Before I decided to go all-in on my art, I tried all kinds of different professions, but I never found anything that fit. I hated going to work, and I’d spend all day waiting for the moment I could leave. It was miserable. It wasn’t until I talked about it with my therapist that I realized it didn’t just make me feel unfulfilled, it made me depressed.” — Jordan, 28

13. They need time for their creative pursuits

“The worst part about being a creative in the working world is that you never have time to be creative anymore. When you get home from a long work day, you don’t want to sit down and do more work for you personal projects, you just want to lay around and watch Netflix and eat.” — Sierra, 25

14. There isn’t enough room for emotion in the average workplace

“Maybe this is just me, but I’m a really emotional person — I think that’s why I’m so creative. But yeah, that doesn’t always work out well in some work environments. I’m sure it depends on the company, but I always had bad luck about getting jobs in places full of people who made me feel crummy.” — Sara, 23

15. Creatives take their work personally

“Not everyone understands that creative people take their work really seriously. It’s an extension of themselves. When you work with people who don’t get that and take your work for granted, it can leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth, especially when your coworkers don’t think twice about tearing your work down.” — Eric, 26