I'm told good sound engineers are in fairly high demand, but wally post would know more about that.Originally Posted by camisadelgolf
I'm told good sound engineers are in fairly high demand, but wally post would know more about that.
I'm not a system player. I am a system.
DBA's ALWAYS find work. Plus being a certified DBA means two types of work, steady job or contract jobs. A friend of mine just left the college I work at where she was making 37K per year (in Amarillo, that's a fairly decent wage) for a new job at a local hospital making 60K. She's a certified MS DBA. I'm working towards my MS Cert as well as one for PHP and MySQL.
Check out Monster or any of the other online job placement companies and do a search on Database Administrator or Database Programmer.
Oh, and as added incentive, SQL is the worlds easiest language to learn. Basically it's just english.
Dubito Ergo Cogito Ergo Sum.
Recording and mix people (to me, they're not engineers unless they wear lab coats or seersucker hats) no. The very best in any field will always find work. However, the very best have years of experience, networking and investment in capital equipment. Even so, _they_ sometimes have a hard time finding work. Around here, many of the mid-level to large studios have gone out of bidness leaving the guys who worked there with slimmer and slimmer pickins. This was happening even before the economy started swirling in the bottom of the bowl because _everyone_ with a couple grand and a trip to Guitar-Mart could "be a recording engineer."
Live sound guys, maybe. Learn how to use a live mixing desk. Learn how to mix monitors. Learn how to schlep it around. Get a job at your local (favorite kind of music) club. Move on up the food chain to touring companies and maybe into TV.
Sound design might be a cool field with broad opportunity.
I would avoid going to school for a loss prevention degree (or security, criminal justice, etc.) as it is really limited as far as options go. If you were really interested in this, even though you really were against accounting, business, and management, I'd go with one of those. Actually, maybe financing would be the best idea. Minor in loss prevention.
If you have any questions about loss prevention, PM me. It's right up my alley.
Creativity + analytical thinking is right up a DBA's alley, or a Web Developer's. I'm a web programmer that designs sites with database backends. I find that I have to be creative artistically in designing a site and creative with the backend to make everything work.
Plus there are tons of opensource tools for you to practice with. MySQL is free. MS SQL Server Express is free, and is at least a decent playground for learning DB management.
Dubito Ergo Cogito Ergo Sum.
I've actually spent a lot of time being a sound guy. I received a lot of compliments, but besides some routine work at a few clubs, just about everything was freelance, and for me, having health benefits is very important because I'm a Type I diabetic.
About 10 years ago, I was doing some QBasic, which eventually led to some VBA and C++. I was decent at it for a short period of time, but I stopped using computers and moved to Mexico for a while. I liked the programming languages I knew, though, so if things go well with SQL, maybe I could go further. There have been a lot of helpful things in this thread, but I think the DBA possibility intrigues me the most.
I've got a buddy, Sid Farkas, who's involved in bra sales... I could make a call for you if you want, Camisa.
I thought his name was Art Vandelay?
I'm tempted to reconsider sales, but upon further thought, I'd bet that at least 80% of the people who wear bras don't have very attractive, um, personalities.
the only issue I have with computer science (and I'm an MIS guy myself) is that most of the companies I've worked for or with, tend to outsource those positions to low cost countries (India, Central America, etc.) more often than not. If not completely, a good portion of it.
As for DBA, it's a little less likely, but more and more companies are outsourcing these operations to companies like IBM, HP, etc. (as my company is about to do) who can do it cheaper on a larger scale. If you get in with one of those companies, you're more likely to make a stable career out of it...
Just my opinion...
Depends on the company. A great place to start once you get certified would be higher education. Generally they don't outsource. They promote continuing your education and often they provide said education. My college provides free tuition to myself and my immediate family. This semester's bill for my daughter was $0. All we had to pay for was books.
Also DBA's seem to do well in freelance projects, and can charge EXORBITANT amounts of money. Our CIO's son makes 4 times what she does WITHOUT a college degree, just his certifications.
Dubito Ergo Cogito Ergo Sum.
Very true. I should have classified that more as the "corporate" world...
Freelance/contracted positions are one way to go, it just depends on how willing you are to do that and how aggressive you potentially could have to be in marketing yourself for the next position. Having a young family, it's something that I've decided I can't gamble on, and have gone the full-time non-contract route to stay as constant as possible...
You mentioned sales, and depending on the sales job, it can demand highly creative thinking.
Doesn't mean it would satisfy your particular creative needs, but I wouldn't reject it out of hand. If you got involved in international sales you'd spend a lot of time in other countries which taps into the culture and language pieces. You'd also probably get to learn a lot more about local dishes to try your hand at back in your kitchen in the USA.
And, trust me, in sales you spend a lot of time writing.
Last edited by Ltlabner; 12-10-2008 at 05:06 PM.
Engineering school is not for the faint of heart. And I agree, once you get past the first two years of classes, engineering school gets a whole lot better. Of course, by then only the true nerds, masochists and alcoholics have survived. I'm not really sure which one of those I am.
But now that I'm through it and taking grad classes, I am thankful for every minute of it.
All models are wrong. Some of them are useful.
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