Absolutely. Someone else’s kid isn’t going to interest me. But a kid who matches my kid in interests, background, likes and dislikes would be a good person to talk to.
Having a general sense of how that career/job fits into the overall economy or field is also helpful as are cost of education. But data needs to be tweaked to be applicable.
And it is not true that I can call in an internship/job :-). Large companies don’t work that way. But you have a nuanced understanding of how the hiring works. What do you need on the resume. In some spaces referrals help for the interview etc.
Also most of the jobs that my kid is interested in are hyper competitive. Direct influence doesn’t work unless, maybe, you are a C Suite parent.
I love the story of Diane Warren. Also Carole King. Songwriting prodigies.
Right, but you know the basic hiring screens. If your kid were the 3.9+ GPA from Harvard, would get foot in door at quant shop.
Yes. That would get you an interview provided you have the right courses on your resume. You need to know the hiring screens four years in advance in order to build a background in time. You can’t manufacture it in a semester.
There has been a lot of data thrown around in this thread which would bely that. Certainly employment market trends are certainly more than anecdotal evidence.
People do look at trends. But not trends on broad data. You look at trends for your micro cohort. Your college/gpa/major/minor/sophomore internship/research etc determine your profile. How was hiring for a kid with your profile over the past 2-3 years from your college at firms that fit a particular profile? That is a very different analysis vs some aggregate data.
I totally agree w/helping one’s kids find the tools to make informed decisions. 
Just to clarify this is not the training or career path for “composition.” The paucity of academic positions and financial challenges of adulthood are forcing many schools to move in a more commercial direction, because that is what kids and parents want. There are also issues of diversity, equity and inclusion on the traditional classical or experimental classical fields and curricula. @lettiriggi is correct in surmising that things are much tougher now for concert music composers versus instrumentalists (who can do paid gigs)- and tougher financially versus those doing more commercial work. (The same is probably true in visual arts with commercial art being more immediately capable of providing support.)
My kid does both.
@ucbalumnus re: your point about anecdotes…yes, many, including myself, are sharing anecdotes, but the thread title is asking about parents’ own kids.
I think the difficulty arises when one’s personal anecdote is extrapolated broadly to a field, e.g., a while true that a few supermodels do very well, but most are unable to support themselves in the modeling field.
@jonri Very cool about your D’s friend! Several years ago, my daughter wrote songs for Sesame Street, as well as the theme song of another children’s TV show. This is not her main “job” but were things she has done.
In my case, even if I mention my own kid’s career and ability to support herself, I can very readily say that she has lots of friends in her field doing likewise or even better. She’s not a unicorn. Her friendship circle includes many like herself in her field. Several are even from her own class in her college.
I feel as if colleges should offer a class on career options for various majors, and what people get paid, and how the career looks etc. They should have alums come and talk to the kids. This should be done very early in the undergrad – like first semester. So kids are better informed making decisions on majors. At a minimum this will level the playing field for low SES kids who are not otherwise connected.
One would expect one’s friends to have a similar level of success or lifestyle. That has little to do with the broader field.
I do not know anyone who has ever been homeless. However, I recognize that thousands have been and it is a major problem in many places. Similarly, I know many successful lawyers like myself. That does not mean most lawyers are very successful.
@roycroftmom I never said that most people in the performing arts are very successful. Some are, some aren’t. When I mentioned “friends” of my D’s, many were her cohorts in her class in college. A significant number of them are successful in the field. Not all, but some. She is not unique in that way. Some are more successful than she is. Some have won Tony awards, starred on Broadway, been directors or choreographers on Broadway, started and starred in their own very successful award winning TV show, star in movies, produced shows on Broadway and Off Broadway, and so on. Come to think of it, if I add in her cohort from her summer theater camp, a lot more could be added to this list. These are all kids she knew before she was in her professional life. And sure, in her professional life, she now has more successful friends in the field. I don’t sense my kid as an outlier among the many I know from her youth in this field. Again, some have had good careers so far, yet not all.
Some schools do exactly that and college career centers should and can do for students.
We have alums come and talk in the school once or twice a year. I think it is helpful, but it is not a comprehensive and sustained effort. and cannot substitute the kid reaching out and having a lot of conversations with seniors 1-5 years out of the school in various majors. In college this is undertaken by student clubs like ACM in CS for instance, or through informal peer mentoring. But this requires to student to show up in the first place. I think the college should make attendance mandatory, just like a writing course is mandatory in most colleges.
I had excellent career center, they helped me hone my interview skills, I didn’t get a job from all the companies I interviewed with.