Career Decisions

[ACEROX]

I'm a senior in high school and I've been on the verge of deciding whether to go to business or majoring in music.

 

My drawbacks: finding a job in the music biz as a trumpet player is kind of difficult, I'll still have to have a normal full-time job to pay the bills but it's what I love to do.

 

My original plan was to go into community college for 2-3 years and then transfer then go into majoring in Computer Engineering. After taking the programming class at my high school, I'm not so sure about this. I can't think of how to start my programs and I barely understand this.

 

My new plan is to go into community for 2 years then transfer and major in business and just get a minor in music.

(I love jazz with all of my being, I can't not stay away from it.)

 

Any suggestions or options that I could get to help me out would be very appreciated.

[daddymack]

I think you are on the right track. A business degree will certainly open more doors than a music degree...if I had it all to do over again, I would do that....plus, you could try and get an internship at a music publisher, or similar venture.

[Scafeets]

A Business Major will get you more work in music than a Music Major will get you in the music Business.

[The_Stringbean]

I'm a finance major, hoping to get into the music world. Either as a manager or one of those annoying executives at record companies.

You can always Major/Minor, major in business(don't be stupid and get a general business degree like management and complain about no jobs) and minor in music or music theory(depends on school).

With accounting for example, you'd get a very good job not only in the music world, but just about everywhere else. The minor in music just helps along the "music" path.

 

Also, getting a degree in accounting and minor in music means that you can be an advertising executive working in the music department.

 

All of that is IF you want to get into the music world, you're still in HS, so your taste may change, but as long as YOU change it, not anyone else.

I live in Silicon valley, there is a ton of CS people here, and honestly, not many of them are happy people. In the tech industry you have a ton of stress, they have horrible people skills as well, and are just generally crappy people.

There is also "bubbles", tech being the biggest bubble right now, I wouldn't be surprised that if by the time you graduate some 6 years down the line, that the bubble hasn't burst.

Music has always traveled a fairly linear path, there is hardly any time where music spikes and dips dramatically, because music is what sets up the foundation of popular culture, with out it, there really is nothing else.

Music is a 'safe" bet, in a weird way, given that if you're strapped for cash, you can manage some small local band and make SOMETHING, and if you manage multiple bands, you can make enough to get by until the economy flips.

 

 

But whatever you do, strive to be the BEST you could possibly be. I'm 25 years old and still have to go through community college, I just figured that I want to stick with finance, but not in a corporate banking setting. It'll take time, don't rush your self through it because of some social BS. Even if you transfer when you're 23 and your friends are working on their masters, so the hell what? I promise you that in life, you'll be far happier than them.

 

Get a degree in accounting or finance and get a masters, don't diddle off and say you're happy with a bachelors, you won't even get looked at in the business world with a bachelors degree, especially if you move to music hotbeds like Memphis or Los Angeles/New York.

Follow up with a minor or hell, double major if you have balls and get both degrees and jump headfirst into the music world. If that doesn't work, find a field that closely resembles your degrees(advertising) and just keep working your way down until you sell your soul and get a job at a bank as a tax person(who still makes some 60-70k a year, so be happy).

 

Just do whatever makes you happy man and work hard as hell for it.

[Mellott]

Best to go for a degree which can be used as a backup plan or intertwined with your passion to help launch you towards your dreams. You don't need a degree to make art, but it's useful to have knowledge in specific things to assist you.