I studied music at Leeds and have a number of good gigs under my belt both as a live person, composer and studio guy...but that's never taken off for me. This is due to a mixture of small-fish-in-a-big-pond syndrome but also a lack of discipline on my part. I've sort of come to terms with it and am still going through the process of 'relegating' music to hobby status.
So anyway, to pay the bills I work as an IT technician at a University. It's boring as fuck. There's no career development, i feel underappreciated and I spend a lot of my time watching green or blue bars fill up on a screen, or showing lecturers that PCs don't work unless you switch them on.
It does have it's benefits though - I'm often out of the office by 4pm, the pay is pretty good and I have a good set of lads in the office. Unfortunately though I still spend time day-dreaming about travelling, music or working a different job. I'm concerned that the lack of stimulation at work is driving me mental - something that's easily seen just by how much time I've spent here since joining.
I think in an ideal world I'd be working outside a bit and/or have some involvement with music or pro audio; but I've realised that 'outside' jobs don't pay well and, as previously mentioned, music/audio is very competitive and I just can't seem to crack it.
So - what do you do? And do you enjoy it? I'd love to try something new, something that feels like I'm contributing a little bit. Honestly I'd consider anything at this point!
EDIT: Thanks for the replies. Much to think about. Needless to say, if you think you can find a job for an IT-Musician, send me a PM...
Comments
In my area, Portsmouth there's generally a lot of bands and gigs .... it's not hard to be gig'ing 4 nights a week. I really enjoy it and it means no early starts in the morning and generally the whole day is your own
Additionally, the studios that the University own are about an hour from where I live; which is not the end of the world but further complicates the issue.
I *nearly* did a lecture on audio implementation in video games (I work in a Computer Science and Engineering Faculty) but they cancelled it due to low attendance and I did a screencast instead.
Website || Feedback Thread || PayPal
It's mostly pretty ace. The pay is good, I am presented with interesting challenges on a fairly regular basis, most of the people I work with are enthusiastic and good at their own jobs.
There's going to be a lot more IT in AV over the next few years (working on a giant streaming project now where half the cost is the network switch) so if you're used to that and dealing with people who don't understand things that seem obvious to you, you're probably well prepared for this sort of thing.
I enjoy it a lot on a good day, but corporate crap is looking like it might fuck me over soon so i'm not in the best mood with it all this week.
Don't fear change though - I was in a boring environmental consulting thing before this and the change was a big improvement overall.
Website || Feedback Thread || PayPal
I work hard for the man, they pay me well (and have promoted me once already) and the people - this is most important of all - are sound. I've no intention of leaving.
Sounds you just need to find the 'challenge' bit. Keep an eye on the internal recruitment, something'll crop up sooner rather than later. Your management will also know this, which is why they'll have kyboshed the H&S training.
I am much happier, though, having a difficult job and hobbies!
The kids are great although they only have 1 tool in the toolbox of coping mechanisms, which is a hammer. Very prone to violent reactions when challenged. It's hard work but I love em all. I couldn't do office based work, it's meaningless to me. Although having said that there is a lot of paperwork in this job, always incidents to report etc.
Do I enjoy it? Not even slightly, but it's an easy way (for me) to earn money. I've come up through the ranks from being a lowly desktop support dude 18 years ago...I do remember enjoying it then, but I got bored easily and kept moving around. I don't think I've really enjoyed anything about my career (apart from the money) since about 3 years after I got started.
Probably the worst part is that I've essentially reached the end of the road; I actively don't want to be a systems architect or a manager of any kind, so there's not really much more I can do. This is probably it for the next 25+ years...what a joyous thought.
I've no intention of managing people though, the thought fills me with dread solely because I've had enough bad managers myself
I am based from home, fly to see my customers, pretty much organise my own diary, and am well-respected in my own company and in the industry. I kind of fell into it after technical college and I find it quite bizarre how well it's worked out for me.
6 years ago I retrained as a body piercer, absolutely love it, really good job, meeting lots of people every day most are pleasant and some are brilliantly eccentric.
I work in our (my wife and I) tattoo studio, it's 6 days a week, rarely do we take holidays apart from closing for a week over Christmas but I love it.
I'm a printer, I operate a Heidelberg press.
Sometimes I enjoy it and sometimes I don't.
My boss & I design experiments, then i do them. I also run the lab and supervise/support anyone else working in my space.
Pros:
It's good, very interesting, the money is decent & generally everyone is nice (we're all doing something we find interesting).
When I'm done I'm done & can go home. If that's at 1400 great. If it's 2200 less so.
Cons:
My salary is tied to our funding, which is by no means certain (especially with Brexit & indyref2 on the horizon). I was 10 days from redundancy recently- not good with a wife & kids to support.
When we have a big project on i often work every day. For example: I had 2 days off (including weekends) from 21/11/16-17/1/17. My last day off was 20/3 & it looks like I'll be busy till mid may.
I've been looking for other jobs, but the aforementioned political upheaval is forcing the competition upwards- I've not been getting interviews for things I'm overqualified for as people with postdocs are applying for everything!