Career Opportunities After Graduation

The college experience is a time of personal growth, relationship building, and living in a community, but it’s also a means to an end: a degree helps you become established in your profession. While knowledge is worth the time and energy it takes to learn it, we do live in a society where nearly everyone has to have a job. Going to college, luckily, provides you with some time and resources to learn about career opportunities after graduation.

Attaining a college degree is an investment in your future. Every dollar you spend on your education tends to be regained many times over in income, opportunities, and more.

Music engineering is a technically-demanding profession. You need to know how the electronic equipment the musicians are using works. Not only do you need the technical knowledge gained through hands-on experience, you need critical problem-solving skills as well. No matter what company you end up working with, a solid foundation of critical thinking will help you go far.

Music engineers find employment in a wide range of fields, including the following:

• Managing the sound at rock concerts, hip hop concerts, and in a variety of other music venues
• Working in TV and film studios with soundtracks and other related music
• Running privately-rented music studios
• Teaching at universities
• Supervising the sound at radio stations

One of the best ways to learn more about music engineering career options is to talk to people working in the field. Recent alumni of your school may be able to give you a good picture of what the employment landscape looks like. You may also be interested in looking over the CVs of your professors, who have decades of experience working in the field. Professors are typically more than happy to talk to you about where they’ve worked, what it was like, and whether it seems like that kind of job would be a good fit for you.

As a student, one of your greatest resources is your professors. They have years of experience in diverse contexts, working in the field and building connections. As you matriculate, you should be continually thinking towards the future. Exploring possibilities and establishing goals are key factors in the road to success. University professors are resources for you both inside and outside the classroom. Make sure to visit office hours, participate in department activities, and ask your professors if they can answer your career-related questions.

Being accepted to a university is a sign that the school believes in you. Successful alumni equal a successful university, so it is in the interest of the school to prepare you along the way for a successful launch into the rest of your life. Your home base is your department: these are the professors who know you the best and have specialized expertise in the field. They may be able to help you land internships or jobs, give you advice about applying to the graduate program, and give you valuable information about sustaining your strengths and improving your skills in areas that challenge you.

Aside from your department, universities offer a plethora of other career-related resources. Just about every university has a career center. Visiting this office can give you access to a repository of jobs, grant applications, and fellowship opportunities. The office may also be able to put you in touch with alumni in key positions, allowing you to take advantage of your university’s network. It’s important that you don’t wait until your last semester to take advantage of this important resource. The earlier you begin planning, the more likely your plans will work out.

If you are pursuing a career in music engineering, you already have engineering acumen and musical skills. Though these are aptitudes that all music engineers have in common, no two careers look alike. When you’re thinking about what kinds of jobs to apply to, there are several questions you should ask yourself:

• Do you like working closely with other people, or primarily by yourself?
• Do you want to move around a lot, or live in a single location?
• What styles of music are you most interested in working with?
• Do you have an important secondary interest (film, commercial work, etc.) that you want to be a part of your career?
• Are you interested in working with celebrities, or do you want to stay far away from the limelight?
• Do you want to teach?

It’s rare for a graduate to get their perfect dream job immediately after college. As with any field, in music engineering, you have to work your way up. However, it’s important to be aware of your preferences and goals from the get-go. Knowing what you want will help you make better decisions along your journey.

There are many factors that go into choosing a music engineering program at a university. The quality of instruction, resources on campus like hardware and software, and breadth of the alumni network are just a few considerations. The Frost School of Music at the University of Miami offers a first-of-its-kind music engineering program that encourages students to gain hands-on experience even before they graduate. All of the programs in the school use the unique Frost Method, a signature approach that pairs small groups of students with instructors. With the Frost Method, each student can play to their strengths and shine.