As you may recall from our past conversations, I was also a music
track student that switched midstream... I was a jazz major, and got
pretty far along playing in the top jazz band at IU, but decided that
I would ultimately be happier when I could approach music in my own
terms, making it a pleasure rather than a source of anxiety and
financial dependency.
There are actually a *lot* of music students that have done this as
well, so you aren't alone. There are several musicians here at UITS,
and I know of several musicians outside of IU working in IT.
Some specialization is useful, as well as some serious thought into a
business model, if you choose to work freelance. Otherwise, if you
want to work a day job in some enterprise computing environment, you
will need to work your skills up to the point where you can compete
for jobs in this space. Since, like me, you probably are all too
familiar with making life as a freelance musician work, freelance
computing or starting your own business might be a good fit for you.
There are many different angles you could explore: web development,
graphic design, and traditional programming are often jobs that work
this way. System administration I'm guess is more of a full-time sort
of job. There is also retail, of course.
If you are semi-interested in any of these areas, it is never too late
to get your chops together. There is a lot of demand for talent, and
the talent doesn't always lie with people with the most book smarts or
experience or certifications, but with people with serious critical
thinking abilities that can figure things out quickly. Your musical
skills should give you a leg up in your problem solving ability, many
successful musicians are quite bright.
What sorts of things interest you, and are you interested in freelance
computer work, or something more career-like/full-time? If the latter,
working at IU can be a good step into the scene, as there is always a
need for talent at IU, and often a shortage of qualified applicants.
On Mar 21, 2008, at 4:03 PM, Ben Shewmaker wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> I was hoping to get a little bit of advice from people on this
> mailing list. After getting an undergraduate degree in music
> education and starting a masters in saxophone performance at IU, I
> quit after a semester because I wasn't enjoying it anymore. I was
> looking at other options and thought I'd like to try electronic
> music and so started a masters in electronic music from the
> University of Miami. But, after a semester there, I find myself
> back in Bloomington again searching for a career that excites me and
> also has a better chance of gainful employment than finding a
> position to teach electronic music at the university level (which is
> what I thought I would do with my masters in electronic music.
> turns out I wasn't that into the program and there are very few
> positions for what I was training myself for. maybe 5 to 10
> positions in the country every year according to a proff at IU).
>
> Anyways, I am again reconsidering my options and was at least
> glimpsing in the direction of some sort of career involved in
> computers or networking. I know saying I want a job here is like
> saying I want a job doing music; music is too broad a
> categorization as there are many specific areas of study within
> music. I was just hoping if anyone could at least point me in the
> right direction to find out what types of positions are out there,
> how hard they are to get, how rewarding they are, etc. And also,
> what type of education is required to enter this field and are there
> any really good schools nearby for computer science type degrees. I
> know IU has a great music school but I know nothing about their
> other departments.
>
> Any help anyone could give me would be really appreciated!
>
> Ben Shewmaker
>
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