Day job v. Stage job

6jase5 · #1 10-01-2009, 12:09 AM

I realized today that I get the same rush out of my career as I do playing onstage. Let me 'splain.

Being up front is a rush, winning the audience, taking words on a Powerpoint and turning them into a performance takes careful planning much like a well crafted vocal harmony or bassline. It's a mental challenge to plan, execute, and then to anticipate the outcome, accept the failure or triumph in the success.

I'm competing for a project that will employ 21 full time people and today I realized that I could give a crap about the commission, it's the rush of the presentation in round 2 and then winning and employing more people!!!

Am I the only nutbag that feels this way? I just finished a 60 page proposal and should probably go to bed.

Jefenator · #2 10-01-2009, 12:33 AM

Well I certainly don't blow glass so many days just for the wages and benefits.

(Oh... right: what benefits?

)

I get to hone a whole different skill set. There's also the camaraderie. And we get to destroy stuff by dribbling molten glass on it - how awesome is that!!

()smoke() · #3 10-01-2009, 06:58 AM

yes, i think i understand--i'm fortunate in that my career is in a creative and competitive profession and i do it as much for my love of doing it as for my salary

fenderx55 · #4 10-01-2009, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 6jase5

I realized today that I get the same rush out of my career as I do playing onstage. Let me 'splain.

Being up front is a rush, winning the audience, taking words on a Powerpoint and turning them into a performance takes careful planning much like a well crafted vocal harmony or bassline. It's a mental challenge to plan, execute, and then to anticipate the outcome, accept the failure or triumph in the success.

I'm competing for a project that will employ 21 full time people and today I realized that I could give a crap about the commission, it's the rush of the presentation in round 2 and then winning and employing more people!!!

Am I the only nutbag that feels this way? I just finished a 60 page proposal and should probably go to bed.

I'm sincerely jealous of you. I wish I loved my job as much as you do.

tycobb73 · #5 10-01-2009, 11:01 AM

I think I'm one of the few here who loves his day job more than playing out. I do Accounting consulting and its so much fun fixing business' mistakes, teaching them how to better do things, put the pieces of the puzzle together, etc.

TBrett · #6 10-01-2009, 01:32 PM

Although I wish I could write and play music full-time, I actually enjoy my day job for the most part. I'm an admin assistant for our local securities regulator (equivalent of the SEC in the States). I work for lawyers and accountants. Everyone in our branch is easy going, nice to work with, and the work itself is very interesting. After years in the film biz, which employs some of the nastiest, most psychotic folks I have ever had the displeasure of knowing, it's great to come into work every morning and be greeted by warm smiles and not have any stress-induced knots in my stomach!

Din Of Win · #7 10-01-2009, 02:30 PM

The enjoyment of playing music falls into spot 2 of my 4 'things' i do.

Enjouyment scale:

#1. Martial arts instructor. I love it. i've been practicing for 19 years and i love to teach. I peticularly love working with the ones that think they can't do it or are told they can't do it. In our school, one of the first things you see is a big picture of the word 'CAN'T' crossed out. Martial arts and music have always been far and away my most enjoyable past-times, but we humans tend to enjoy things we are good at... i am a decent bassist, i am a very good martial artist. With that logic, the martial arts thing has always eeked ahead.

#2. Music!!

#3. School. After taking significant time off to play music and travel, i began my college journey again 2 years ago. I just got my AA and will be transferring... somewhere... soon. It's between Towson, UMD College Park, Hood, and Sheppard... whichever school wants to give me the most money wins

#4. 9-5 day job. I work as a contractor for the Department of Health and Human Services conducting background investigations for employee security clearences. It sounds cool, but it's pretty boring. I love my co-workers, but definetly not the most stimulating thing. It DOES provide me with the means to continue #2 and #3 though :

Eventually when i get married and settle down, i plan to open my own martial arts school which could double as a practice space

L-A · #8 10-01-2009, 03:03 PM

I love my job, but it's not a day job. I have to go through studying in the day, and work on contracts during the imaginary time left between the end of homework and the time I go to bed.

**Pacman** · #9 10-01-2009, 03:10 PM

I'm so thankful that my day job *is* my stage job!

Jimmy Bones · #10 10-01-2009, 03:34 PM

I used to love my job like that. Briefing the admiralty underway, telling the brass where we as a ship, carrying thousands of people (in the case of a carrier) or almost 200 people (on a sub) or anywhere in between what we should do, where we should go, when we should get close or run away, etc.

Was a mad rush being one of only two enlisted rates who got to go into the daily intel briefs (the other being the weather people), and the only one who got to remain and correct misinformed officers and such. Mad rush. :>

MatticusMania · #11 10-01-2009, 04:20 PM

My day job bores the crap out of me... hopefully I can get myself a decent computer soon and work a side job as a video editor, with plans on starting my own business.

Music soothes my spoilt life.

6jase5 · #12 10-01-2009, 04:35 PM

Update, the proposal is up to 70 pages. I just got finished the Implementation and Timeline section, which was about 8 pages.

My North American head honcho in New Jersey said "Looks good to me" regarding the pricing. Perfect!

I'm waiting on my pricing engineer in Pennsylvania for the Concept of Operations, my EVP in Connecticut to sign, scan and return a binded acceptance, my final once over and then my proposal formatting guru in Huntington Beach, CA will put a virtual ribbon and bow on it and email the sucker. Ah the electronic age.

Stressful...no....exhilirating....yes. I want this done so that I can make loud low end noises tonight (my bass not my @ss).

Beer thirty, I can smell it on my watch.

fdeck · #13 10-01-2009, 11:04 PM

My day job is a blast. Of course there are "somebody's got to do it" aspects, but so there are with bass playing too.

xbmedic · #14 10-01-2009, 11:39 PM

I love my day job. My office has a great view. I'm a flight nurse / paramedic on a medevac helicopter on the Big Island of Hawaii. While I would love to be able to play bass for a living, I'm definitely one of the ones that actually enjoys my day job.