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Not sure. All the people I know that make a living off of art, musicians, sound designers, illustrators, film makers, fashion designers, etc. have one thing in
by smoe 5y ago
Not sure. All the people I know that make a living off of art, musicians, sound designers, illustrators, film makers, fashion designers, etc. have one thing in common: a 10+ year grind of barely scraping by, working ridiculous hours and multiple jobs before getting in a somewhat comfortable spot.
There is just not much demand for certain jobs while it is a dream of many many people. As an average software engineer you'll still easily make an above median salary somewhere. But from what I've seen, as an artist, if you are not in the top few percent, not in terms of skill but perseverance, networking and self-marketing, you'll starve.
- tomcam 5y agoBut I assume you knew that before you went to college, right? Not trying to be a jerk here, just trying to gauge what peoples’ expectations are.
- tayo42 5y agoI didn't really have a frame of reference for what was realistic or enough to get by with. 40k sounds like a lot when your high school job paid 150 a week. I thought 100k a year was rich. I didn't realize until the end of college music would only ever be a hobby for me unless I wanted to sacrifice everything else in my life
- smoe 5y agoSure you heard and read about it, but I don't think at that age you fully realize of just how hard it is and how long 10 years can be. Personally, I didn't study anything related but was in music semi-professionally (more on the production side) for about 5 years until I decided to just keep it as a hobby. In my case, I realized that in the end, I'm just not passionate enough about it to keep accepting the trade-offs. The ones that made it are. Deeply so, and they don't regret anything. Nobody wishes they had picked another career path.
- honkycat 5y agoPeoples priorities change over time. And young people don't really understand how much the low status and grueling grind they are getting into sucks. And then you are 28, already in debt, having wasted a decade without a decent career to fall back on. Also, people tend to expect positive outcomes for themselves. "It is going to be hard..." yeah, sure gramps. But I'm different.
- sjg007 5y agoOvernight success takes 10 years... this is basically true for all jobs.
- smoe 5y agoBut for some jobs the road to it is more comfortable than others.