As a prospective business major, I’m not really sure what employment I could find after college.
My white collar parents both do accounting and always complain about how boring their day was, so I don’t think I could ever work like that.
I really do enjoy math, English, and communications though. I was considering maybe going into the entertainment industry. Not as like an actress/singer tho (bc I suck). Does anyone kinda know what goes on off stage?
And I would prefer if the workplace was more relaxed, without a strict dresscode, since my parents have to dress super formal everyday. Somewhere that wouldn’t care if the workers dressed strange or dyed their hair. I actually posted a question about whether I’d be penalized for dying my hair odd colors (thank you for all the answers btw). And most responses said that it wouldn’t matter for college, but that employers wouldn’t be too thrilled.
I don’t mean like buzzfeed or entertainment magazines, but maybe like the marketing and finance work for T.V. shows and in the music industry? I used to dream of being a band manager and getting to tour with them, but that’s probably really unrealistic. However, a job that requires a lot of travelling would be more than welcome.
I’ve tried to contact a few independent and major record labels, but sadly with no success.
The daughter of a friend of mine is studying music business management. With your dream of working with a band, that might be a good major. If you are good with numbers, an accounting minor might help you carve out a niche.
I would suggest that you get a solid, versatile education. Accounting + something else. thus, you could change industries and figure out which one you like most.
Colleges accept any kind of informal dress and hair color. I don’t mean student times. You could work for college - it is a cool place for a full time employment.
You are better off figuring out what industry you might like to work in and then thinking about what jobs you might be able to fill given your preferred work environment. The music industry is in flux right now, but there are plenty of opportunities in social media related to entertainment and music industry for instance. If you want to do something in this area , bone up on your social media skills, your writing skills, photography skills, InDesign etc. Marketing and communications in general is becoming content driven and the entering positions require some skill in all areas. Another way in is through project management or as someone said, accounting or finance. Volunteering during college with a non-profit is a great way to get some experience on a resume for a business major in communication, development, marketing etc. Another industry that is fairly supportive of young college graduates with advancement opportunities in a plethora of areas of interest is the hospitality and resort industry.
The industry that seems to have the “craziest” folk are the big concert venues, like Burning Man,…they have “year-round” staff and they are pretty out-there. Read the job descriptions…they are pretty ‘conventional’ jobs being done by unconventional people. But you’ll need to open your eyes and ears and network like crazy no matter what you decide to do, if you want to do something “unconventional.” http://burningman.org/network/about-us/people/year-round-staff/
I’m going to be perfectly honest: I think you should drop this line of thinking immediately because it’s at odds with anything you will really want to accomplish in life. Everything else can sort of come together if you spend a little time thinking about it, but this is just the weakest link in your entire plan.
Yes, it’s a little bit unpleasant to have to wear a suit every day. It’s kind of stuffy and it’s something that takes a lot of getting used to. But honestly once you do get used to it it’s not that bad, and it does foster the kind of environment that lends itself to good, high-quality work that will appeal more to you with adulthood. Wearing shorts and a t-shirt and dying your hair gets really old really quickly, and it gets even more annoying when other people do it and just generally makes the atmosphere worse. You might not see it now, but trust me when I say that you do not want a workplace that’s like that. And you will really come to regret it if you structure your career path based on wanting one that will give you that.
When you’re young, you think of “perks” in terms of the kind of stuff associated with companies like Google: free catering, pool tables in the lobby, relaxed dress codes, and free massages. But the reality is that those are fake perks. Real perks, the kind that you actually do want, are career advancement, stability, healthcare, enough time to see your family after work, professionalism, etc. The reason fake perks exist is because real perks are expensive and difficult, but that children (including those in their 20s and 30s) really love those fake perks. And if you aren’t treated like an adult, don’t expect to be paid like an adult either. Google specifically pays not too badly (for programmers from top tier schools anyways), but the vast majority of companies that love those fake perks (e.g. entertainment) just want cheap manual labor.
Take some time to appreciate why your parents wear suits and do white collar work every day. It’s not because they failed in show biz and had to move to something boring instead.
Travel also might be great but you likely will not want to do it your whole career, so think about that. Travelling for work can be exhausting. For example, my husband worked for a big hotel group and was at three locations a week for years. Flying multiple times a week all over the country. Cool big cities but also places you wouldn’t, for example, ever pick for a vacation. That is a lot of plane and airport time, which isn’t great. Sometimes you get stuck in one of those places unexpectedly overnight or during a storm. And after work you aren’t yet “home” to do the stuff you want there/with the people you want to.
Yes, there are many startups that try to keep payroll down by offering equity participation in return. If you get in at the right time and your deal does not allow you to get jammed behind a preference this can be pretty good. But many never see the money, even after an exit, for many reasons. This is bad and any offers containing this need to be considered carefully.
The “perks” you mention are much more about creating a culture, which is the single most important factor in creating a motivated workforce necessary to compete in today’s economy, especially in tech. They are not fake at all. They are about getting and keeping the right employees.
At our small shop, we have unlimited vacation (which I have had at various enterprises since 1997 and no one has ever abused) no set work hours, video games, music studio, and a keggerator always stocked with local craft brew. Combine that with flat hierarchy, respect for good work, and good pay and (company) performance bonuses and guess what? People love their jobs, do great work, and don’t leave you for a 6.5% increase somewhere else.
Most importantly, they feel valued, and part of something.
You have no idea how many times people from our main reseller/client – a Fortune 15 company – visit our shop and ask “Can I come work here”?
Travel is exhausting. Seems fun in principle but planes and airports aren’t much fun, and after a while you start to miss your family. Add to the fact that you basically lose one day in each direction in the time it takes to recover from the feeling of actually flying in a plane. Also your work doesn’t just disappear while you travel and you have a lot of catch up time.
I once liked travel. I now try to limit it severely so that it’s at least somewhat interesting. Young people tend to underestimate how good stability is when you are at least a little older.
Try to get internships and spend some time in diverse workplaces, so you can figure out what employer style you prefer. Who knows, you may thrive in a highly structured environment - but you’ll never know unless you try.
Also… your post focuses on how YOU’ll feel in a certain type of workplace, but the employers are more concerned about what you bring to the table and how you can contribute to their business. Ponder your specific strengths and talents, and you might be able to figure out what industry will use them to the fullest.
Don’t feel pressured to plan everything out now. Few people wind up in the careers they expected when they were in high school. Try to do a variety of summer internships when you start college and see where you fit.
I would start in a general business major rather than a program focused on a particular industry. Keep your options open until you really have to specialize.
Feeling lost is part of growing up. Use it as motivation to challenge yourself and grow, not as evidence that there must be something wrong with you.
@Postmodern
Alright, so your objection is from the perspective of a startup. Before considering anything further, I will say that startups have a wild variation in quality. Some are fantastic and really manage to make progress from a minimized bureaucratic overhead. The majority are not so, and they’re a total mess. On the average I would have to say that startup quality is worse because most startups do fail, but most established businesses (even unpopular or weak ones) do not.
Again, this is the issue: the money isn’t there, and perks like health care are expensive. So startups try to offer other accommodations that make up for it. The good kind are those such as quick career advancement, an R&D feel, the ability to be a core contributor to a critical project, etc. The bad kind are, once again, the fake perks like being able to dye your hair or bring your dog to work.
And a lot of startups do indeed just need low-cost labor on simple tasks. Most aren’t doing anything particularly technically involved because real R&D requires real capital. Startups are instead taking ideas that are commercially viable but underdeveloped, and making a business out of them on a small salary. Which requires cheap labor. This is not without exception but as far as I’ve seen it is the general rule.
Strongly disagree with this. A lot of the best are those with qualities that are not well-values by “tech” in general: academics, immigrants, minorities, women, older and more experienced people, etc. Most of those don’t really care about being able to play pool with their coworkers but want to be able to see their family or make sure that they can get good health insurance. There is far too much work in tech that is, frankly, so simple that a monkey could do it, but who try to pretend their work is so complicated that you need genuine talent which is hard to come by. The real issue is the overabundance of funny money being thrown around. A lot of things in tech are structured in such a way that, if true technical talent were really the primary concern, these practices would be suicidal.
Great. A lot of people like that, and it’s not always about salary. It’s also an environment that quite a lot of people would say “no thanks” to. Especially older, more talented people who care more about “real perks” than “fake perks” with age.
My general rule, and the rule of people who are capable of having a choice in the matter, is that if you are truly valued then you will have something to show for it. Promotions and salary boosts perhaps. Otherwise it’s just empty words.
A lot of people are drawn by the initial, almost magical allure of startups. I know I was at some point in my life. Some people end up loving the almost childlike lifestyle of “fake perks” that many of them like. Some startups aren’t like that and take a more professional R&D style, becoming something like a private research lab for talented people. Quite a lot of people get burned by being drawn into a lifestyle that really isn’t great for a standard adult and having their career be stained by the not-so-great experience of a startup. Or, to be slightly more on topic, the rather similar experience of being a low-paid worker in an industry like entertainment which comes with the same demerits and strike-it-rich mentality of startups.
The initial allure is always there - the question is if it lasts. My experience is that no, all too often it’s just hot air. And that’s something to be wary of.
You are far too young to worry about so far in the future. You will start college taking classes that relate to your abilities and interests. Once you are in college you will discover fields that most interest you. This will lead you towards your major. There are many, many jobs that are not through the business school fields. Perhaps your forte will be some kind of engineering or math/computer science. Many software development jobs do not require the stuffy business attire your parents need for their firms. There is no need to confine yourself to business school majors just because that is what your parents did. In fact, most college grads are not in business. Be aware that information technology is a business school version of dealing with computers.
I am going to disagree on the concept of planning a career trajectory right out of college. Careers are additive. Each job builds on the next one and they may not necessarily be in the same industry and these days likely not in the same company. Average job tenure is running less than 5 years. I have always highly recommended young people try things on during their early twenties just like we encourage them to try different majors in college…live where they want to live, work how they want to work and so on. There is no way to predict today whether the young workforce’s penchant for ‘soft’ perks is a bad thing tomorrow. With the lack of pensions, the preponderance of companies paying only 2-3% 401K matches, the move toward high deductible insurance plans, the lack of stability at most at-will employers, and other global issues… the younger generation already knows that companies are not existing to provide them a path to retirement. or really any kind of benevolent state and are far less likely to “conform” to their parents’ concept of what work entails or even “how” they are willing to work. Even the new workspaces don’t come close to resembling the hard wall and door offices of my early career or even the cubicle farms that sprung up in the 80s. New offices that I’ve been in lately don’t even have assigned workspaces, you come in and decide where you want to work on a particular day, whether it’s on a couch, in a comfortable chair or in a small quiet space or in a cafeteria type atmosphere.
Have you worked at a place that offered those perks in lieu of health insurance? I think that is rare, and a reputable company would not do that.
Well now you are talking about pre-funded companies, and that is an entirely different dynamic. Nobody should go work for a pre-funded company without major equity participation, IMHO. The risks are too great.
Again, none of these things you mention are mutually exclusive to providing heath insurance, which is a basic requirement for most knowledge workers. And I think it is ageist to think older people don’t enjoy being part of a culture that includes fraternization, respect for individualism, and a strong sense of team membership. I sure do, and I am old. But we can disagree, and you of course are completely allowed to not value those things yourself.
False Dichotomy. Yes, some people prefer to work at banks in cubes, some in a casual loft, and some at home, and some outdoors! Doesn’t make one “real” and the others “fake”. And the idea that “more talented” people at any age are turned off by these things is patently ridiculous.
I regret you had those experiences. I have had the opposite ones.
Quite a few startups are not what I would call reputable. Almost by definition since if they are an actual startup (and not just a growing stable company using the “startup” descriptor) they are not established with an established reputation.
Again, there are different stages of companies. Being in a startup that isn’t stable is part of the game, really.
My original point is that for quite a lot of people, those feelings don’t last. For some it does - some would like life to be a fraternity club up until old age - but I think it’s dangerous to tell young people who may not feel the same way in a decade that that’s what they should seek to become. If anything, the problem here is taking a specific case that works for a specific subset of the population, and thinking that that has far more widespread appeal than it actually does.
The perks are “real” and “fake” in the sense of what would matter to most adults. I mean sure, it does seem at first that it might be fun to be able to have alcohol available at work. But at the same time the majority of people would rather not have drunk coworkers either. The general environment of professionalism developed for a reason.
I have had good and bad experiences. I’d say that the majority have been good, and I like to think that it’s because I have good enough judgment to smell a rat and to see when a company (including a startup) is generally rotten. Overall, I can’t complain how things have turned out for me personally, but I can’t speak for everyone.
What bothers me is when people try to assume that if things worked for them under one set of circumstances, that that was how it was meant to be and how things should be. I have had good and bad experiences with startups and I know enough about them to say that both good and bad ones exist. I think it disingenuous not to inform people of the possibility of a bad outcome - not just from a financial perspective, but also from the perspective of how many (if not the vast majority) of people change with age, and how that might affect your outlook on life and life priorities. Blind optimism only ends well if you’re lucky. Most people have no such luck and are better off knowing how things can go well or go poorly.
Drunk co-workers? What are you talking about now? Where are you seeing drunk co-workers?
Respectfully, that was not your original point that I disagreed with. Of course there are good and bad companies. You referred to certain corporate cultures as having “fake” perks, and even referenced Google (!!!) as one that had those but “pays not too badly” and then that “the vast majority of companies that love those fake perks (e.g. entertainment) just want cheap manual labor” which I don’t believe to be true.
As I said, we can disagree, and you don’t have to value those types of work environments, but please don’t try and turn the discussion to be about whether bad companies are bad companies or not. I’ll sign off this discussion now if you don’t mind.
I am almost 60; I wear suits to work almost every day. I don’t mind that at all – if I did, I wouldn’t wear them. But none of my younger partners do that, and I would fight any attempt on the part of our firm to make them.
@NeoDymium 's advice is pretty much the worst sort of condescending grown up lecturing. “Fake perks” indeed! There is nothing about getting dressed up that guarantees real career advancement – you can talk to anyone who works at a Burger King about that – and nothing about workplace informality that’s inconsistent with it.
It’s true that if you prioritize comfortable dressing and unnaturally colored hair, you will be cutting yourself off from some otherwise excellent opportunities. It’s also true that, as time goes on, you may be less interested in dying your hair blue and more interested in the quality of work and career advancement available to you. It may happen sooner than you think – there are lots more 18-year-olds running around with blue hair than 25-year-olds. I trust when that happens you will have the sense to adjust your priorities. But getting a sensible hairdo and business suit isn’t some kind of hazing ritual you have to go through to become an adult. Feel free to say no to that for as long as you want – as long as you don’t make a fetish out of your rejection of it long past the time when that serves your interests.
Travel – sure, it’s for the young (and a few older people who don’t care about having a home life). But you’re young. If a job with a lot of travel is attractive to you, have at it! Just remember in the back of your mind to plot some kind of escape, because chances are you won’t want to be travelling all the time when you are 35 or 40.
Meanwhile . . . the music business is largely disorganized and in crisis. One reason indie labels may not reply to you is that indie labels often consist of one or two people. Indie bands tour in cars or vans with minimal, if any, staff. If they are lucky they can afford to hire someone’s brother to come along as all-purpose roadie, driver, guitar-tuner, IT guy, etc. The kind of travel they do is beyond punishing – load-in at 2 am, drive all night to avoid paying for a hotel or having your gear stolen, shower at fans’ apartments . . .
If you want to get involved with the music business, and you aren’t already a zillionaire, you are probably going to have to start by doing scut work for free, as an “intern” for a local promoter, or as a favor for your favorite local band.
