Plans after Graduation
With the Spring Semester winding down (actually its continually accelerating to terminal velocity before it smacks into the concrete wall of May 1st), one of my last assignments in my Job class is a career plan essay. The following is my current game plan for after I graduate GrooveU. I’m hoping this essay will help get my career thoughts in order and allow me to get feedback from anybody who reads it.
The Long-Term Goal
My end goal is to be a music composer for media. With some rare exceptions, to obtain composition gigs outside the realm of high school and middle school commissions (which has a 4-year degree wall as well), it’s almost a requirement to live and work in either New York City or Los Angeles. However, I do not plan on moving to either city anytime soon for a couple reasons. Firstly, I want to use up my remaining years at Ohio State, both to get my 5 years out of the marching band, which is unrivaled in musical fulfillment, and to see if finishing the B.A. in Japanese is doable with a small course load. Playing at the high level that marching band does will allow me to keep my classical music skills maintained and my composition mindset focused.
I learned a lot about film scoring in my brief lessons with Steve Thomas, but at the forefront of the things learned for me was that I was lacking in both the skill to write music properly, and my over-scheduled lifestyle greatly limited how much I could hone the craft. With these problems at hand, it would be extremely difficult to be competitive in the composition market currently. It is with this in mind that I do not want to move to one of the industry centers until I’ve had some proper composing practice. I have learned the methods I need to improve and build my portfolio on my own, I just need the time to do it.
And I must stress that this isn’t a case of “waiting until you’re good” to write music, like I’ve done in the past. I will be diving headlong into composing projects, whether they are for clients or not.
This means I’ll be tethered to Columbus for probably 3 more years. While sticking around here, I will remain active in several areas that I think will advance my career:
-MOFA and other film groups
-freelance production work
-live sound and performance gigs
-personal internships
-industry events
First Steps
My internships this year are to boost my viability in the areas I work in and to observe the Columbus job market in audio. I’ve already done and will continue to work on MOFA projects to continue working on film audio. I will also be working with Joey at Oranjudio and will be doing a few projects with Vince and Grant at In the Record Store. In my talks with Joey and Vince, it seems I will be a little more hands-on than I was at VMS, something I look forward to. On top of this, I’m aiming to work with WCBE or Mills James to see if I can get some work with radio engineering or full-on postproduction. I’m taking a multi-faceted approach; I want to see which avenue is most likely to lead to paid work while in Columbus. I think I can safely say that I work in the music industry if 50% of my income is from music work, I want to hit that goal by summer 2018.
Potential Issues
Moving to a LA or New York will present a major challenge. In my interview with composer Brad Breeck, he stressed that when you move to LA, you should make sure that you have a music job in place when you get there. It’s cliche, but if you don’t, you’ll be “waiting tables the rest of your life.” I hope to mitigate this and other general “moving to the big city” problems by taking trips out to the city at least once a year while in Columbus, some in the form of short-term internships. I’ll also need to pick a city to move to, but that decision will become easier as I spend time or find opportunities in each one.
Additionally, I’m certain I will have some emotional trouble leaving Columbus. Even though it should be easier later rather than sooner so that I can have a feeling of being “done” in Columbus, I imagine I will only grow more attached to the city as time goes on. i think the only way to handle this is to just deal with it and commit to moving, as I basically am in this essay.
Thinking more locally, an elephant in this digital room is that performing in the OSUMB is an astounding time-sink during the Fall, usually taking up 25 hours a week, with 3-5 out-of-state trips. This will be hard to match with many types of jobs, and will make me take a hit on time devoted to freelance projects. I will have to weigh the pros and cons and strike a balance between these things during Fall. If someone offers me a well-paying studio job, I will almost certainly quit band, but if it’s a 8-16 hour a week internship, I will try to work it in.
Final Thoughts
My ultimate fallback in Columbus for all of this is my hotel job in Dublin. I have a good relationship with the people there and the scheduling, even full-time, still works with Marching Band. As far as entry-level jobs go, this one is pretty nice. It’s not a music job, but it offers a shocking amount of downtime while on the clock that I can devote to personal projects. And this is especially the case for the night shift.
I’m not (too) afraid of completely throwing this plan out the window if opportunity comes knocking. The two most important things I’ve learned at Groove U are how to self-improve, and how to not just get opportunities, but capitalize on them.