Imagine you just got out of college. You are extremely talented in whatever you majored in; however, that doesn’t matter, since there’s a good chance you won’t find a job in your desired field. Now, imagine you just graduated from college with a degree in filmmaking. Although it depends on what you specifically want to do (e.g. a director, producer, or writer), you are still going to have difficulty finding a job.

Believe it or not, YouTube is the out-of-work filmmaker’s solution.

On April 19, 2012, YouTube announced that they will be throwing out the old critica and allow anyone with eligible content to join the YouTube Partner Program (the old critica made it almost impossible to join). The YouTube Partner Program allows YouTubers to get paid when someone clicks on an ad next to their video. It doesn’t sound like it would generate any cash, but YouTubers such as Freddiew, Smosh and Nigahiga make around one million dollars every year.

Now that the program is open to anyone with high quality videos, the possibilities are endless. Thanks to other social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, video “virality” can literally happen overnight.

I for one am definitely going to take advantage of this. As of now, my YouTube channel is filled with school projects and randomness. The videos are decent; however, I have made much higher quality work in the past. My plan for this summer and the entirety of high school is to post entertaining and original videos to a new YouTube channel, where I intend my work to be viewed by a much larger audience, not just my friends and family.

To any other aspiring filmmaker, I challenge you to join the YouTube community. Maybe one day being a YouTuber will become a respected job.