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There's a world of difference between being a music producer and a graphic designer. I live in Metro Detroit where the major advertising firms have a major presence in the region due to the autos. I know plenty of people who majored in design and graphic arts who have well paying jobs with those firms.
Honestly, the "worthless degree with $100K in debt" meme has been played to death.
As for graphic design and other fields, again graphic designers are a dime a dozen, I see many doing gigs on fiverr or craigslist for peanuts because there's so much competition.
I personally would probably advise many of these people to get an internship or get a job working in a studio and learn on the job instead of paying 30 or 50k a year to go to school for it. Not only will you make money and make contacts wile working but your also not getting yourself 100k in debt.
Just curious what others thoughts are on this. Would you encourage someone to follow their dreams and go to Columbia or similar schools for some of these degrees or would you encourage them to get a more practical degree and take a class at a community college in this, or rent studio time or get an internship?
Bottom line is that it is not your job to advise other people, in particular, strangers.
I know a decent number of people who went to school for graphic design in the 1990s. Back then, especially if you graduated before the year 2000, you could stand to make serious money right off the bat. In the early 2000s that started to change with growing popularity of peer-to-peer networks and file sharing. Adobe CS was a popular thing to "share". Then of course GIMP and a host of other free design/editing programs started to become more viable.
Here is the catch: just because someone can teach themselves how to use a particular piece of image-manipulation software does not mean they have talent. Sure, graphic designers are a dime a dozen these days and most are paid peanuts, but make no mistake: those who actually have artistic skill and vision, especially if they also keep up to date with latest trends, get the best paying jobs.
I do have another friend who went through a two-year community college program in CGI, but it took him roughly seven years before he even began to go anywhere with it. It wasn't for a lack of skill or talent, either. Another guy I know went to the same community college, but for photography. I got work right away with various studios but like the first it took him many years before his career took off. You need to remember that a part of what the high price tag of art/design school buys you are connections. Connections are everything in the artistic world, and something that is hard to come by at a community college.
You also got to keep in mind that in order to get into any art/design program above the community college level requires a portfolio; so you need some skills to begin with. Anyone can walk in off the street and into a design program at a community college.
Now to your question: I don't believe in the "follow your passion" mantra. When you do what you love for a paycheck what you love starts to feel like "work" and lose appeal. Research the topic and you will find that most who currently love what they do did not begin that way.
I would encourage someone to do what they want to do. If they specifically ask for my opinion, I would give it. Otherwise it makes no difference to me what someone else does.
Now, do you need college to hone talents and skills? Of course not. Most talents and skills, the one's that are worth a darn anyways, will be learned on the job or will come from years of practice outside/after college.
I am a huge fan of community colleges. I would encourage my son or daughter to go that route first. If they don't want to, that is their choice. My only requirement would be that they put in an honest effort to do well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Felix C
Finally there is that well known statistic that applies to all fields of creative talent, whether writing, or sports or fighter pilots! The cream of the crop always succeed in their chosen field. Others take years to hone their abilities and find work. Others never proceed above a certain workman level and trudge along for years. Other aspirants just plain fail. The success slope is shaped like an isosceles triangle. It is similar to the 80/20 rule for business except the A-list actors are a much smaller percentage of the big earners. Hopefully the aspirant knows where the stand in relation to peers.
The cream of the crop all share a few things in common that the rest do not. They push themselves harder and farther than the rest. It is more-or-less a personality trait; they would be just as successful not matter what they did/do...even if they were English or History majors.
It is not that they don't settle, it is that they continuously push themselves to improve their craft.
People who research this call it deliberate practice; which also proves that no one is born with innate talents for things such as math, basketball, piano, and so on.
Cal Newport is probably more widely known to hawk the concept. Not sure if linking to a blog violates TOS, so just google cal newport or study hacks (his blog/website).
I guess another point is say you go for accounting. You may not be the best accountant out there but if you're not a complete idiot can probably get a halfway decent job and live comfortably. On the other hand with music producing, movie making, producing movies, etc your either rich and famous or your doing part time gigs off craigslist and at schools and churches. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of in between.
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i don't know if that is true or not anymore. It feels like for most fields that aren't medical related, you need to be in the top 30 or so percent or you won't make a decent living.
There's plenty of unemployed or underemployed accounting, engineering, finance, computer science, etc majors out there. Nothing is really a guarantee unless you are in a a medical related professional school (med, pa, pt, etc)
I personally know a guy from Duke University who double majored in economics and computer science. Interned with Microsoft for 2 years who is currently an assistant manager at a local fast food restaurant. He could never find a job in the tech industry.
i don't know if that is true or not anymore. It feels like for most fields that aren't medical related, you need to be in the top 30 or so percent or you won't make a decent living.
There's plenty of unemployed or underemployed accounting, engineering, finance, computer science, etc majors out there. Nothing is really a guarantee unless you are in a a medical related professional school (med, pa, pt, etc)
I personally know a guy from Duke University who double majored in economics and computer science. Interned with Microsoft for 2 years who is currently an assistant manager at a local fast food restaurant. He could never find a job in the tech industry.
OK, I'll believe your story because you say it's true, but there's something else going on there.
OK, I'll believe your story because you say it's true, but there's something else going on there.
it's not the norm, but to the best of my knowledge he doesn't have a criminal record. He's not hard to get along with either. He got into GA tech's masters in comp sci program for this upcoming fall, so he'll hopefully be ok. It's sad what happened though.
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