Fulfilling Career

Daniel Baskin · #1 04-25-2005, 10:57 AM

At 17, a kid shouldn't know exactly what they want to be when they "grow-up", or rather, enter college. I don't know exactly where to begin.

As a fact, I've spoken with a couple people in these forums about bass lutherie, but I don't feel like that would encompass exactly what I could find myself doing everyday. Too much wood work. And yet, I don't want to be a professional performer as a full time job, yet I do want to be as professional and good as possible--and I mean that. Then I thought of being an acoustical engineer or musical mathemetician or even a recording studio technician.

Other than that, I could just go to college, get a history major of some kind and see what jobs I could find that just want people from college, not of a particular major. And I wouldn't mind doing a job that isn't music related as long as I like it.

I'm just asking for some information or websites that can give me an idea of the many post-college, intellectual but musical jobs there are out there. I don't mean that being a non-college music profession is not intellectual, but maybe something having closer to do with the sciences of sound.

Thanks in advance.

hdiddy · #2 04-25-2005, 11:07 AM

I work at Dolby Laboratories. You could be an engineer writing code for signal processing or have a background in sound. Lots of guys at my company play music on the side or are studio technicians or what not. There are acoustic engineers here, but there are alot of electrical, mechanical, and software engineers too and they all require different disciplines. Of course we have all the regular office types here, human resources, accounting, marketing, etc. etc. too.

There are other companies out there who seek engineers working in signal processing and such.

mje · #3 04-25-2005, 11:32 AM

I once read "Find something you like to do so much that you'd do it for free, and then learn to do it so well that people will pay you to do it."

But yeah, I'd say go to college and take as many different classes as you can. A good friend of mine went off to college intending to be an architect- he was always drawing building and designing interiors from the time he was a little kid. Around his third semester he took a course in economics that really resonated with him.

Thirty years later, he has his PhD, he's taught at schools here and in Europe, and he still loves economics.

A lot of my friends ended up in careers that they didn't even know existed when they wnet to school. I started out to become an astronomer and ended up in a PhD program in cognitive and physiological psychology. Another friend started out as a cop in Baltimore, and ended up with a PhD in psycholinguistics. And another grad school friend was a doughnut shop waitress when a customer said "you know, you should take some psychology courses. You'd find it interesting."

You never know what might be out there that will capture your passion.

anonymous0726 · #4 04-25-2005, 11:51 AM

I think that I've mentioned this here at TB before, but...

I firmly believe that you can't choose your path, but instead you find it. Expose yourself to everything you can.

Steve Killingsworth · #5 04-25-2005, 12:24 PM

The other guys have offered some good advice. If you immediately continue your education, you should expose yourself to several different fields or areas of study. Ray's thing about your career finding you is very relevant--I firmly believe that is what happened to me.

BUT it could take a few years for that career to stumble onto you. Be patient, after all you are only 17. Don't get the idea that I'm talking down to you--I am speaking from experience (4 major career changes over the last 24 years). Your perspective will change (probably dramatically) over the next 5-7 years and what sounds good now might no resonate at the age of 25.

Daniel Baskin · #6 04-25-2005, 10:46 PM

Ok, so I understand you guys' advice on a career and will try to hone my falling skills.

(or rather, career stumbling over skills).

Ok, I like the part about where mje, you, said that friends of yours ended up in careers they never heard about. And I think that's where I'll fall, but, hdiddy, what exactly is a singal processor. And even though I used the job in my post, I didn't really ever know what an acoustical engineer was except for the vague image of a guy contemplating how sound will move through particular spaces.