Hey guys, first post.. apologies if this is in the wrong place; I couldn't find a forum for career advice and all..
I've always loved music, I've always been afraid of being jobless. For that reason I went into science and I've now been accepted into medical school. That's cool and I like health and science, but before diving into that 8+ year committment I'm having misgivings.
My favorite thing to do is go to bookstores and soak up everything their magazines have to say about mixing and mastering. I love songs that just sound aurally amazing. I sit in my room tweaking a kick drum for 4 hours, and never get bored. I have a test to study for now, but all morning I've been looking up compression techniques. Lately I've been making music that is getting really positive reviews about how pro it sounds (no, its not just from my friends :) )
I feel like if you're willing to spend all of your off-time doing something, maybe it's what you should be doing on your on-time. But I've been in science all my life and don't know the first thing about going after such a competitive career, networking, hustling, and moving up the ladder. Part of why pursued medicine was to avoid having to do all of that in business, law, and everything else :)
All I really know is that there are a bunch of 6-month to 1-year courses where you learn a bit. Then you're on your own, and my question is about what that 'on your own' bit is like. Are you hustling every day? Is it hard for even a talented engineer to make a living out of it? I think i looked up the mean annual salary for an audio engineer and it was $14000. I don't need to be rich, but that's a little too little.
I'm in my 20s, and I'm also wondering if it's late to be entering one of those engineering courses, given that I could have joined up right after high school. I wonder if those who started earlier will already be way ahead of me in the networking and skills departments.
I'm not asking anyone to make the decision for me, I know it's all my choice but I would appreciate insight on what it's like starting out as an engineer and whether it's dumb for a kid to give up a guaranteed career to pursue something that he has only experienced as an amateur hobbyist.
