Career Advice?

[jmoose]

I'm another one of those audio skool drop-outs that you read about all the time. I started out gunning for a 4-year degree in audio production & music performance but after a year of school I realized that there just wasn't all that much 'value' (in the mid 90's anyway) in having a four-year degree in those subjects.

I went to smaller school and got to know the head of the audio department pretty quickly & some of the seniors who were going to be graduating during my semester...kids with 3.7, 3.8 GPA's and a 4-year degree in "Audio Production" and they couldn't get jobs ANYWHERE, not even the local rehersal rooms!

Everywhere they went people were saying "You've gotta intern first" and their reply was always "But I've already interned a lot!"

"Not here 'ya haven't"

So I took that in stride, got some numbers...made some calls & landed an internship at a BIG room that was 10 minutes from my parents house back in NJ and dropped outta school to work there. One of my first sessions as a runner/assistent was on the first Days of the New record and I was hooked. Never looked back either.

If I had to do it all again, I'd have gone for a two-year in music business...but honestly, I think getting a 4-year degree in music production is useless especially if you already have something going on your own.

Good luck with it!

[penrithmatt]

i'd just give up.....or carry on as you are.........in the last ten years i've had to "sit in" on sessions run by a couple of guys that teach music technology at some very established schools,one in Boston and one in New York.........both occasions have been a fucking nightmare,only adding to,and confirming my contempt for these so called "institutions".maybe i'm bitter,cos i slogged it out from age 18,first as teaboy,then assistant and on and up,but really,these guys couldn't engineer their way out of a piss soaked paper bag.it made me very angry that they were being paid a fucking fortune and really didn't have a clue about anything in a "real world" situation,i mean,the last guy,head of his department,sat down at the console to mix this record with a copy of "The Mix Engineers Handbook"...now,i'm sure this a very informative read,and all,but........come the fuck on.....if yer gonna teach this shit,and charge some poor,misguided sap of an "artist" for your "expertise" then i would think it only good manners to have a clue before begining to do so and not be sat reading "how to" manuals on the day..........but what the fuck do i know??

[joelpatterson]

Deese is words of wisdom, kids.

[Scodiddly]

College is NOT a waste of time, but most of those "recording schools" are. I'd suggest going to a regular college/university and studying real engineering (electrical, computers, whatever) and business.