At a crossroads in my life: to pursue audio engineering or not?

[Damian B]

Here's my dilemma: Next year I will graduate with a 4-year degree in political science that will most likely not get me a job anywhere. I could get a non-paying internship or something, but I couldn't make anything a career. I have several options with regards to higher education; I could take the LSAT and apply for law school, or the GRE and get a Masters in political science (which I would most likely teach with or something).

My plan up until now was to join Americorps (it's like the Peace Corps but within the US) after I graduate and then decide what to do with my life afterward, but it's looking like the program might be cut out of the proposed House budget.

But of course, like many others here, I'd really like to be an audio engineer. It's one of the few things in my life that I'm extremely passionate about. I can literally sit for hours tracking and mixing and not notice the time that's gone by. I've been playing music since I was 10 years old (almost 21 now), and while I don't think I'm great enough at it to pursue playing professionally for the rest of my life, I don't want to abandon music altogether, and being an audio engineer would allow me to be around what I love.

Of course there are tons of issues here. The industry is changing and it's not a good time to enter the market at all. Additionally, I don't have an undergraduate degree in music, so I can't apply for graduate programs in audio engineering. I don't have enough money saved to rent a building and open a studio right now.

I'm looking for creative solutions to my problem, and maybe some insight from those who have made a career out of recording.

Should I pursue an internship at a larger studio and move where I can get a job?

Should I go to a recording school?

Should I give up and just to graduate school?

Thanks for any input guys

 

[RLab]

Lot of people around me think I'm crazy (well I'm probably) but my opinion have always been "do what you like the more in your life, don't give a shit about the cons it may bring" (not the greatest salary of all, hard work conditions...)
Ok, I'm just 18, but the only thing I know is that I will never give up music/audioengineering, even if it will be hard...

 

[AD Chaos]

When in life, do what YOU want.

Not what others tell you.

 

[Pedro Teixeira]

I wouldn't recommend going to recording school.

This really depends on the person really, it's a VERY personal decision that will affect your and your only life. If I could go back in time, I would've gone through what I was considering at the time I was finishing high school which was to enroll into electronic/computing engineering. I've got a friend that went that route and he's 1 year and a half of finishing the course and already has a job waiting for him paying 2k a month... and he is NOT a genius nor an extraordinary student, he's just good at what he does and loves it.

With AE, there will be no guarantees... So it's up to you, either you fail, you succeed (obviously this is very rare) or you stay in the middle road forever (earning the minimum or something like that). So ultimately you should weight in the advantages and disavantages and go from there. You don't want to regret anything, think very rationally but also follow your heart a little bit

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Whatever you decide to do, always, always, always have a plan B. If you want to give audio engineering a go, do it so that you won't spend the rest of your life hating yourself for it. Start small, make sure you're backed up financially and build from there. Don't jump straight into six figure loans, build an awesome studio and hope the clients will come. I've seen that happen, and it hasn't ended well.

I've been offering my services publicly for a year and a half now, though I've been fiddling around with this whole audio magick thing since I was fifteen or so, and I'm gonna try and go full-time in the beginning of June. I'm taking a small-ish business loan that's enough to support my living for a while if worst comes to worst and fund some necessary gear upgrades, but it's small enough that I won't be fucked in case things won't work the way I planned. This leaves me the option to go ahead and do what I love the most, but it won't take me to a situation where I can't pay off my debts in case I end up frying burgers.

 

[Hez]

What Pedro said about doing a more employable course is a good idea. I'm currently studying Physics, but Electronic/Electrical engineering is a very good idea, or even better Computing Science. Computing science is probably the most employable degree path in this day and age, and I think intelligence/ability to use a computer well translates quite nicely over to learning how to work with audio effectively. Likewise, Electrical engineering would prepare you pretty well for working with analogue gear and help you understand signal routing etc. a lot better. Physics isn't all that handy but I feel that the problem solving state of mind that I am cultivating is really helping me make headway with my small forays into audio engineering. Obviously none of these will prepare you for a career as a producer as well as a 2 year long music production course, but they offer infinitely better backup should you not make it in your chosen field. Furthermore, (hopefully without offending any audio engineers here!), a serious university course in any of the above disciplines is probably as intellectually demanding as music production, if not more, so you will kinda feel like you can learn anything you want to after finishing your course.

 

[midget donkeys]

Listen to Jarkko. He speaks much smartness. I had buddies in high school that took a loan and built a stuido in the mid 90's and it failed horribly. Not because they were bad at recording, but because they were bad at running a business.

Whatever you are doing at any time in life you always need a plan B. Recording sounds totally cool and you should go after it but reality is probally going require a day job. Maybe not forever but at least at first.

As for the political science degree I am sure you now know you were retarded when you signed up for it. I have known some people with that major and it has seldom turned out well in the job market for them. I think a lot of schools are cheating students by not being up front with them about job prospects before they pick a major.

Most importantly do not knock a chick up now or your screwed!

 

[RLab]

Jarkko, this is totally what I plan to do in a few years (I'm learning ATM ), so keep me tuned about how things are going for you !

 

[JeffTD]

I'm about 1.5 years away from my BA in Political Science as well, so I'm in a similar situation.

DO take the LSAT. If you get a good score on it, it's really all you need to get into a solid law school these days. Decide AFTER taking it whether or not you want to go to law school; not really worth spending 2 years if it's not going to be from a decent school, at least IMO.

Otherwise, polisci is great because it can branch to a few different paths, namely law, public policy, teaching, business, or public office.

A masters in polisci wouldn't be a bad idea, and you could teach/lecture with that degree, but I'd also look into some kind of MPP or MPA degree, which could land you a more stable/higher paying job than teaching.

If you're business minded, you could go for an MBA; polisci+MBA is a really effective combination, far more so than business+MBA or economics+MBA, again IMO.

And for the double whammy, if you get a good LSAT score but are still business minded, why not go for a JD/MBA? It's generally a three-year program, so 1 less than the two combined, but you get an insanely marketable/competitive degree that will land you a high paying job just about anywhere you want in the field.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

If you have to ask...

 

[jipchen]

Good advice in here imho, I would +1 pretty much everything.
Especially this one: Don't take a huge loan. You can be the best fucking engineer ever, it will be superhard to repay it.
And have a plan B at least, better B and C.
Good luck with your decision and its consequences

 

[Damian B]

I think it's pretty clear that I should take the LSAT/GRE as a backup, but I'd really like to find an internship somewhere if possible. Any tips on doing that?

I'm pretty sure I could make a decent living if I continued on the Political Science track, my degree is coming from a well respected school with great faculty/connections, but I just don't know if that's my calling in life.

 

[DanLights]

When you get cancer at the age of 40 and realize your life is going to end in a few months and you never got to do what you were most passionate about in life, is when you'll learn life really is short and you should follow your heart. Of course don't be a retard, do it well done, like many here have adviced, but do it.

Of course I'm not wishing you cancer, I hope you understand my point

 

[Pedro Teixeira]

When you get cancer at the age of 40 and realize your life is going to end in a few months and you never got to do what you were most passionate about in life, is when you'll learn life really is short and you should follow your heart. Of course don't be a retard, do it well done, like many here have adviced, but do it.

Of course I'm not wishing you cancer, I hope you understand my point

Wow that was harsh

 

[midget donkeys]

Harsh but true. A friend of mine got a rare form of cancer and died when he was 24 years old. He had never even moved out of his parents house yet.

You got to live like you mean it.

 

[Cryo114]

Honestly, seems like your going for one extreme or another. Might not be a good idea.

Hold off from doing anything, you don't have to decide to do anything, you could just get a shitty job and continue the AE stuff in the meantime. If that doesn't seem like fun, count your blessings for a while.

Take my advice, then do what you want.

 

[DanLights]

Wow that was harsh

Harsh but true. A friend of mine got a rare form of cancer and died when he was 24 years old. He had never even moved out of his parents house yet.

You got to live like you mean it.

Not the same case, but my dad died three weeks ago at 52 of cancer, without the chance of being a grandfather and after 25 years of undying love for my mother.

Not trying to be harsh or mean, just stating what I feel, and why I know I will always follow my dreams no matter what

 

[Pedro Teixeira]

Not the same case, but my dad died three weeks ago at 52 of cancer, without the chance of being a grandfather and after 25 years of undying love for my mother.

Not trying to be harsh or mean, just stating what I feel, and why I know I will always follow my dreams no matter what

So sorry about that man, I meant, it is harsh anyway, but I know where you're coming from and you're right... We should live.

 

[midget donkeys]

That sucks Dan. I am sorry to hear it.

 

[Felix Neumann]

Not the same case, but my dad died three weeks ago at 52 of cancer, without the chance of being a grandfather and after 25 years of undying love for my mother.

Hey Daniel, I´m very sorry to hear that. My sincere condolences!