Thinking about a change of career

[fuzzybuzzytoys]

So, I was out in my hometown of Christchurch UK at the weekend and I came across this fella, enjoying the sunshine while advertising a local party hiring place....

I then go home, inside out of the sunshine, and start packing boxes to send stuff to buyers from eBay etc..as well as list stuff, price stuff, try and find stuff to sell.

Then to cap it all, I get a lead and drive out into the holiday traffic to a house the other side of Bournemouth to buy a rare Captain Scarlet 105 Vehicle (or something) to find the thing in the worse condition ever, repainted, and I couldnt say no as the poor lady was sitting there with a little baby in a tiny flat.

So my thoughts returned to the peacful Stormtrooper. And I thought, why not just sell up, buy a costume and join these guys. The costume would be paid off in no time. The evenings would be mine again. I can watch the boats go by like that guy.

What you fellas think? Time to call it a day?

 

[spacemarine]

WOW, a dream come true ! Being PAID to be a Stormtrooper.
I think we should all get together and form our own costume based events
company.

Geeks Unite!

 

[edd_jedi]

I don't know - standing in the sun for 8 hours with all that on sounds like my idea of hell! :lol:

 

[Michael Sith]

Go for it, joking apart never write anything off, if you fancy something have a pop, better to think well at least I tried than regrets and what ifs

Stormtrooper ....cool idea, you'd need a back up though I case yo get attacked by the ducks :lol:

 

[plantman]

id rather be on one of the boats myself

 

[Richard_H]

The only way you'd be surrounded by birds :lol:

 

[plantman]

The only way you'd be surrounded by birds :lol:

 

[Grant_C]

The only way you'd be surrounded by birds :lol:

:lol:

 

[PGowdy]

People thought i was mad starting an ebay business as my "life career" and for quite a while i really wasn't sure i could make it work. But i'm pretty determined and VERY smart. :lol:

When i was 26 i had my last ever "job" and swore i'd never work for anyone ever again. I don't think a single person believed me nor thought it a plausible possibility but here i am not far off 10 years on. To be fair i did spend the majority of those years as a skint musician making ends meet however i could and when that ended i really had no clue what i was gonna do with the rest of my life (especially with the "no job" pact i made with myself :lol: :? :shock: ). So i signed up to college to do music production. It was the only thing i was good at. And altho i considered myself pretty smart i had no real actual education past the age of 16 and no certificates, a-levels, degrees etc etc (and in my 30s now with no decent job experience worth a dime) so any job i could get would be **** or take another 10 years to get to any kind of level i would want to be at (that is to say running the ****ing thing :lol: ).
A couple of months before my course was due to start i was producing a friends band's record and all of a sudden it hit me... 'i don't wanna ****ing do this the rest of my life'. Failed musician record producer cliche. 12 hour shifts in a basement with no windows. 6 days a week. Likely income- 22-26k tops! **** that.

For me it's always been important to be happy and fulfilled even at the risk of losing everything. I don't have a female or an infant thing to answer to so in that sense i am lucky that i can take big risks not knowing if they'll pay off.
The ebay thing was hard going for the first year and a-half/2 years. Still is but i worked hard at it. Invested ****-loads and i never stop thinking about my next move. And to be honest i love it. Every minute of it. It can be stressful but what job isn't. You gotta deal with idiots from time to time but in what job do you not??
It definitely isn't for everyone and there are so many ways it can go wrong but for me it was the best decision i ever made. Still a ways to go before i am where i wanna be financially but i'm only limited by my imagination and determination. (so quite limited :lol: )
Thing is tho, if what you're doing doesn't make you happy and doesn't provide significant financial compensation then maybe it is time for a change. The only thing i regret is not having the balls to make a change earlier.

 

[BlueDog]

Feel the same way Pete, spent may years in a dead end factory job. Starting at 7am and not seeing the light of day for the next 9 hrs, we were fortunate enough to be offered a friends house to house sit for a few years which gave us the financial freedom for me to have a go at starting up my own business.

Never regretted it, got to the point I was that depressed turning up to work for an ungrateful boss it was affecting my home life. Not everyone finds them selves in a position financially or otherwise to take the risk but I'm sure glad we didn't waste the opportunity given to us to do so.

 

[plantman]

ive loved most of my jobs, im content at the moment and saving, i used to be a heavy ebayer and got the bug, buying and selling, i dont do it anymore on that level, although i do like to snag a bargain every now and again.

they say money isnt everything and thats true, but it can take a lot of troubles away and solve a lot of problems.

 

[edd_jedi]

A couple of months before my course was due to start i was producing a friends band's record and all of a sudden it hit me... 'i don't wanna ****ing do this the rest of my life'. Failed musician record producer cliche. 12 hour shifts in a basement with no windows. 6 days a week. Likely income- 22-26k tops! **** that.

Very true mate and you made the right decision. In the late 90s/early 00s myself and my music 'partner' were trying to make it as professional DJs/producers, and were living a very similar life (beans on toast every day!) but at 19/20 and living at home that's not really a problem. Within a couple of years I realised that it's much more fun to do music as a hobby, and I still DJ now and then but not for money so it's just a bit of fun. I started a proper 'career' nearly 10 years ago and am now in a decent position with a future.

My mate on the other hand continued trying to live the music dream, was very successful as far as the music industry goes just scraping a living and getting tracks on albums etc, but ultimately it amounted to nothing and now he's a thirty-something with immense talent starting from scratch at uni again. I respect the fact he stuck at it, but I know I made the right choice.

 

[x-pack]

A couple of months before my course was due to start i was producing a friends band's record and all of a sudden it hit me... 'i don't wanna ****ing do this the rest of my life'. Failed musician record producer cliche. 12 hour shifts in a basement with no windows. 6 days a week. Likely income- 22-26k tops! **** that.

Very true mate and you made the right decision. In the late 90s/early 00s myself and my music 'partner' were trying to make it as professional DJs/producers, and were living a very similar life (beans on toast every day!) but at 19/20 and living at home that's not really a problem. Within a couple of years I realised that it's much more fun to do music as a hobby, and I still DJ now and then but not for money so it's just a bit of fun. I started a proper 'career' nearly 10 years ago and am now in a decent position with a future.

My mate on the other hand continued trying to live the music dream, was very successful as far as the music industry goes just scraping a living and getting tracks on albums etc, but ultimately it amounted to nothing and now he's a thirty-something with immense talent starting from scratch at uni again. I respect the fact he stuck at it, but I know I made the right choice.

Been there as well mate - 'the dream' :roll: Had a studio with two mates around four years ago. Just ended up like a ****ing circus with people taking the piss, including mates ..well one in particular. It was supposed to pay for itself but i'd come in and nothing would be finished, crap all over the place. My 'mate' would have been shagging his latest bird over the drum kit, which was borrowed. He broke the seat like that!

In the end it got on my pecks and i went in, collected up my gear, and ****ed off.

 

[PGowdy]

A couple of months before my course was due to start i was producing a friends band's record and all of a sudden it hit me... 'i don't wanna ****ing do this the rest of my life'. Failed musician record producer cliche. 12 hour shifts in a basement with no windows. 6 days a week. Likely income- 22-26k tops! **** that.

Very true mate and you made the right decision. In the late 90s/early 00s myself and my music 'partner' were trying to make it as professional DJs/producers, and were living a very similar life (beans on toast every day!) but at 19/20 and living at home that's not really a problem. Within a couple of years I realised that it's much more fun to do music as a hobby, and I still DJ now and then but not for money so it's just a bit of fun. I started a proper 'career' nearly 10 years ago and am now in a decent position with a future.

My mate on the other hand continued trying to live the music dream, was very successful as far as the music industry goes just scraping a living and getting tracks on albums etc, but ultimately it amounted to nothing and now he's a thirty-something with immense talent starting from scratch at uni again. I respect the fact he stuck at it, but I know I made the right choice.

I achieved what i could as a musician. Gave it everything i had and came close to the "big deal" a few times but it all came to and end. We were too old and too tired. Producing records was something i was good at so it seemed a natural progression. But it was just trying to hold on to a world i didn't really wanna be part of any more. Producing records is really only fun when it's your own (or maybe if you were working with the best band in the world) it's exhausting work and like you say- not very financially rewarding and there are very few avenues left to the 'big time' these days.
I actually DJ too now but i'm not a "proper" DJ. :lol: It was something i fell into a couple of years back mainly due to my love of music and the fact that i needed money while i started up my business. I've been pretty lazy with it only playing gigs i feel like playing and not really pushing it as much as i could but it started to snow-ball recently and i'm doing 7-8 gigs a month. The nights can get very late but it pays well enough. It's the kind of thing i can do as much or as little as i want and again, i'm my own boss, for the most part. If i DJ somewhere and i don't get on with the manager or the crowd are nobs i don't go back. Simple.

 

[escapist]

Amazed at the number of producers/musicians cropping up in this thread!

I work full time in an office and in my spare time write and produce music with two mates. Our 2nd EP came out in January this year and got airplay on 6 Music (played by Lamacq no less!!), Radio 1 and XFM. We thought we'd made it.

We've sold 59 copies apparently.

Needless to say, the label advance (we aren't talking much here, just video and mastering costs) is a long way off repayment.

"Don't give up your day job" never felt so appropriate.

 

[plantman]

i spent 7 years as a security person in Tesco, filling wines and spirits and electricals when bored, i used to build customs PC's with perspex cases and liquid cooling ect so i ended up fixing mates pc's network issues and then just decided to apply for an IT job and got it.
Due to my first manager being awesome i'm now a manager and deal with everything IT from servers, virtualisation, cisco ect

i never ever thought about IT even when i was younger, its strange how things pan out.

 

[edd_jedi]

i spent 7 years as a security person in Tesco, filling wines and spirits and electricals when bored, i used to build customs PC's with perspex cases and liquid cooling ect so i ended up fixing mates pc's network issues and then just decided to apply for an IT job and got it.
Due to my first manager being awesome i'm now a manager and deal with everything IT from servers, virtualisation, cisco ect

i never ever thought about IT even when i was younger, its strange how things pan out.

Yep likewise, messing around on Spectrum's, Amiga's and later PC's and Mac's as a kid eventually lead to me becoming a developer. It didn't even cross my mind to do something computer related until I was 21, I was working as a waiter!

 

[itfciain]

I was working as a waiter!

In a cocktail bar ??

 

[Richard_H]

:lol:

 

[edd_jedi]

Sorry did I forget to mention my short stint in the music business was as the female singer in the Human League!? :lol: