What non-music jobs do music majors get?

College Majors Music Major
1

<p>Since many music majors don't actually land a job in a City Orchestra,
what jobs do they get? I'm wondering specifically about UMich music majors. </p>

<p>Do prestigious music school graduates, such as UMich music school grads, have more job prospects - in jobs that just requires a college degree, not a specific one like Engineering degree - than non-econ/stat liberal arts majors of prestigious schools?</p>

<p>I guess you could always move to a big city and do lessons and charge $30/hour which is a lot compared to liberal arts majors earning 30-40k. (I guess if you don't get enough students you'll at least be earning as much as other liberal arts majors earning 30-40k working full time, while you are only working part time giving lessons to a few students )</p>

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<p>I could swear we had a post which was verrrrryyy similar to this a couple of weeks ago. And it too, was about UMich -Violadad, do you remember? That one pertained to jobs in major orchestras, I think…
Atually, I just found it:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/789294-being-music-major-umich.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/789294-being-music-major-umich.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Just because I’m curious, I’d like to know what’s up with UMich and whether the OP attends/ed the school!?</p>

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<p>There appears to be a fixation with prestige, numbers, and pigeon-holing that one cannot typically apply to music degrees from UMich, Juilliard, Curtis or any number of programs. (The exceptions can be in the music academic disciplines of theory, history, musicology for grad schools, placement rates for music education majors, etc.) One can argue a stint at Curtis or CIM, Northwestern or Podunk U may position a graduate for an “in” somewhere given the instructor or instrument, but again that discussion tends to be better served on the pro and instrument specific boards than here.</p>

<p>A sampling from the forum from a few years back:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/312752-music-majors-post-college-goals.html?highlight=performance+music+ed[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/312752-music-majors-post-college-goals.html?highlight=performance+music+ed&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>violadad, thank you for the answer but I have trouble understanding what you mean by “There appears to be a fixation with prestige, numbers, and pigeon-holing…”</p>

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<p>Violadad will respond I am sure, and I might even have a close approximation to what he is going to say, but here is my answer based on my interpretation of the sentence in question.</p>

<p>A lot of the questions on here often center around predicting specific outcomes, like in the case of the original post, “Do prestigious music school graduates, such as UMich music school grads, have more job prospects - in jobs that just requires a college degree, not a specific one like Engineering degree - than non-econ/stat liberal arts majors of prestigious schools?” It is a question that cannot be answered, it is like asking how much someone would make in the academic world if they graduate from Harvard versus graduating from a state university, it is based on a false premise that there is some way to validate this. Like everything in this world, it depends on the person. Someone majoring in music might have taught themselves computer skills in demand, so if they don’t go into music, they can get a job that pays well, someone else might end up doing something else that pays less well…</p>

<p>From another perspective, you often see questions that in effect ask if you got to Juilliard, does that mean you have a better chance at higher level music positions then if you went to let’s say a music program at a liberal arts college…leaving out the obvious (that Juilliard and other high level conservatories have the mystique that attracts a lot of people applying, which in turn translates to high levels of achievement at entry), the answer is there is no way directly to answer that, because cause and effect is hard to calibrate, and it certaintly isn’t going to be “you are twice as likely to get a spot in the NY Philharmonic if you go to Juilliard then if you go to podunk U”, because admission to the NY Phil has a lot of factors associated with it that have nothing to do with the school you went to <em>shrug</em>. </p>

<p>There just is no good way empirically to answer such questions, in other words, and I think that is what Violadad is talking about and quite honestly I think if you are focusing on that in terms of deciding what to do, you may end up disappointed at the results if you assume thinks like that. It is like the mentality that if you don’t get into Juilliard, NEC, Curtiss and so forth, at the ‘top’ (in quotes for a reason), you are doomed to second rate status, and that is simply not true (that today is even more true, as kids apply from foreign countries where often achievement is directly tied to where you go to school, rather even then on the quality of the education or the like). There are advantages going to a top program in terms of teachers, relative levels of the students, opportunities and so forth, but there are a lot of people who graduate from Juilliard and struggle, or leave music <em>shrug</em>.</p>

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<p>tentai, my reply did not address your question. </p>

<p>However, musicprnt summed up my meaning pretty well here </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>In scanning through and reading some of your past posts both here and in particular, the UMich forum on CC, you seemed to be focused on an “if, then” scenario. If I go to UMich, what is the success rate for “x” major, how much will a UMich graduate make as a starting salary with a “y” major, or what are the chances of getting an orchestral job with a UMich degree.</p>

<p>There are variables in each of these “equations” that are unknowns. These may include but are not limited to the specific company or position you apply to, the geographic location of same, their history of remuneration, the level of competition (and experience) relative to your own skill sets within the applicant pool, and currently the state of the economy both long and short term.</p>

<p>Reverting to the orchestral position question you posed in your other thread, your talents and artistry within a historically extremely competitive audition pool are paramount. Hypothetically, one can argue that as a viola student of Yizhak Schotten at UMich a student may stand a better chance than many. But that same student might well be as equally successful as a student of Slowik at Oberlin, Kaskashian at NEC, or Diaz at CIM, or McInnes at Thorton, or an “unknown” at Podunk U. A good part of success is what a student gains from the experience.</p>

<p>Just my opinion, but it seems like you are trying to choose a major or career path with a predetermined outcome. I don’t think that can happen. Nothing wrong with having goals, or trying to assess potential for success. If you’re trying to apply statistics to a music career, it’s like searching for a needle in a haystack.</p>

<p>Again, just my $.02.</p>

<p>Perhaps this link may point help answer part of your question [Navigating</a> Music Careers](<a href=“http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~navmusic/careerpaths/index.html]Navigating”>http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~navmusic/careerpaths/index.html)</p>

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<p>To add to what violadad has just said, a student of a well-known highly thought of teacher MIGHT have an edge on the competion because of the connections the prof has which MIGHT, in turn, help open doors. I see your $.02 and raise you $.02.</p>

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<p>Personally, I don’t think “knowing” the well known teacher will get you an orchestral job. Remember, these jobs are by audition that is held behind a screen…and applicants are assigned numbers. The audition committee would have no way to know if you are a student of a specific teacher.</p>

<p>BUT a teacher can (and often does) refer students for jobs within the community. My son’s trumpet teacher connected him with many sub jobs in orchestras near where he went to grad school. Those connections fostered additional connections…and so forth. He was able to earn some decent money while also getting some valuable experience on the suggestion of his teacher. Could any of these have turned into “permanent” jobs? We dont’ know. He left the area for another job opportunity.</p>

<p>Some of the music majors we know who did not land music jobs have done the following: worked in music admissions on the college level, worked in music libraries, taught in community division programs, set up private studios, waited tables, did data entry, got jobs as receptionists, applied to and got accepted at law, medical and nursing schools.</p>

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<p>^ and, while a contact may be able to open a door, it’s highly unlikely that they will also hand you a chair. ;)</p>

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<p>Life can be funny at times. For example, my wife has a bachelor of music education degree with no graduate degree and on her worst day is twice the musician that I am at my best. She is currently a senior project manager in the IT department of a large insurance company and wishes she could spend less time doing that and more time playing music. I, on the other hand, have bachelors and masters degrees in engineering from two highly-respected colleges and not even a formal minor in music, but I have earned more money this year from singing than from technical work.</p>

<p>While you can play the odds as they stand now, the rules of the game change over time, sometimes drastically. The degree that seems like a safe choice now may turn out not to have been such a good idea in ten or twenty years. Music performance degrees in particular require a leap of faith because there are so few jobs that offer a living wage available at any given time. There a lot of wisdom in the advice given here on many occasions, “Don’t be a music performance major unless that is the only possible choice for you.”</p>

<p>I happen to know lots of people with music degrees (easily in the hundreds given all of the professional contacts that my wife and I have) and all of them seem to be surviving one way or another. Some of them are doing quite well. Many have turned to other professions for their main source of livelihood, but almost all of them are still involved in music in one way or another. Several have managed to cobble together a decent living by piecing together some teaching and a part-time job or two with the occasional freelance gig. A lucky few have found full-time jobs with major symphonies or in the Met Opera chorus.</p>

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<p>I think these kind of questions are driven by a number of factors:</p>

<p>1)Given the difficulties of going into music as a profession, some are probably trying to find a way to rationalize going into music i.e “well, if music majors from Top U have a better chance of getting a job as a management trainee, then I will have that to fall back on if I go there”. Not exactly imponderable, given how tough music is…</p>

<p>2)For some, they may be trying to convince skeptical parents that they will be ‘allright’ if they go into music, there is an old expression about that, that if you can ‘show the numbers’ it means something, whereas if you say “we know people who have done x, y and z” it is more nebulous.</p>

<p>3)Some of this is also probably based on misperceptions, especially with students from overseas and/or certain backgrounds. In many cultures, in Asia in particular, a lot of stock (and actual results) often depends more on where you go to school then anyplace else. In Japan, for example (which may have changed since we studied this in grad school, back in the 90’s), your future career path is heavily influenced by where you went to college, with the prestigious (ironically public) universities are the top prize. From what I could tell in the coursework, that was almost enough in itself, and students in those schools didnt exactly kill themselves, because just going there meant so much…and going down the line, even after being out in the work world, where you went to school is considered one of the paramount things looked at (whereas in the US and most other places, it stops mattering after the first job, at least not much). In Korea and China hierarchy is based upon prestige as well, meaning that the prestige of the program is often the key reason to go there (it would be like going to Juiiliard or NEC, not because you want to work with a certain teacher or teachers, but rather because of the name of the school, its reputation).
If the assumption is that reputation of school has direct influence on future success (by itself) then questions like will going to a higher level school mean X$ more in a job if you don’t go into music then if you go to less higher level school…</p>