Career development: part 1

Editor's Note: This is the first of a two-part series

Each year, thousands of soon-to-be music graduates begin thinking about piece of work prospects after graduation. Some of their bear upons are reflected in questions like, "What am I going to do?" "How am I going to support myself?" "Will I be able to survive as a musician?" Here in the Career disclosure Office at Juilliard, we are no strangers to these questions. I want to share more [i]or[/i] less general career issues I believe are germane to all music scholars and offer some practical advice to help music learners succeed in their careers. As a learner you may find these issues apply to you. As a faculty member or an MTNA Collegiate Chapter advisor, this information may be useful in your character as a mentor.

Contrary to popular opinion, career unravelling is not about getting a piece of work Surprised? I certainly was when I first began to learn about the professional field of career disentanglement It seemed obvious to me that the word "career" must have something to do with "job" until someone asked me to provide a solid definition. I was hard-pressed to give a definition my colleagues would agree upon After struggling for a scarcely any painful minutes, I gave up and ran to the nearest dictionary. The first words given for career are "course" or "passage." Career unfolding is literally about developing the course of one's life.

I discovered early in my work that I was not alone in my initial interpretation of the word "career." When asked, many colleagues and learners struggle to define the word--even allowing they generally know its gist. This quasi-understanding has implications upon how all of us approach our career.

The conception of career development is especially difficult for music pupils because the course of a musician's life is in like manner uncertain. For students majoring in a profession like law or medicine, the time to come is considerably more focused. After graduation, a medical pupil usually will apply for an internship at a hospital--followed by the agency of either a promotion, a piece of work offer by a private office or plans to start a private practice. For musicians, there are small in number certain paths. If you generally are enrolled or recently have graduated with a music step I encourage you to consider a certain number of of the following thoughts and suggestions.

Niches

In the ten years I have been working in this field at the collegiate horizontal I've discovered essentially two career approaches that strike one as being to be the default setting for greatest in quantity students. I've loosely titled these approaches as find-a-niche and create-a-niche. The find-a-niche or FAN is the easiest to consider. scholars who are interested in finding a piece of work in an orchestra or [i]tout ensemble[/i] a teaching position or a certain quantity of other work such as directing, presenting, producing, marketing, consulting and in the way that forth, are looking for a niche in an established organization. They are, in nature using a FANing approach in their career unfolding To succeed using FAN, pupils must learn certain skills--some of which pertain to their craft, many more that are straited to find the jobs and succe in them.

The other approach is the create-a-niche, or CAN. scholars who prefer a CANing approach to their career exhibition like to create their hold jobs. They usually are entrepreneurial and wait on to be independently minded. a certain quantity of of my professional colleagues have drawn the conclusion that all music graduates should be "entrepreneurial" to succe To more [i]or[/i] less degree, this might be actual But I'm weary of any strategy that applies single solution to everyone. There are many graduates who find incredibly meaningful and prosperous careers but who do not fit the "entrepreneurial" definition.

In the first meeting, scholars usually indicate which approach they are leaning toward by means of their initial question(s). "I am interested in piece of work opportunities after graduation. What can you take an account of me?"(FANing), or "I have this idea, on the contrary I'm not sure where to begin. Can you help me?"(CANing). Sometimes, scholars will start off a meeting with interest in piece of work opportunities but suddenly change course by dint of sharing what they really want to do--which is many times a CAN idea. This is because a certain number of students are shy about sharing personal ideas if they perceive a potential rejection. This is for what cause [i]or[/i] reason an open and encouraging environment is critical to this proces If you are a pupil seek someone who is render free of access to your ideas and will encourage you to explore all your interests. If you are a faculty member, or professional staff member, focus upon listening instead of advising.

Getting to Know You

I like to expend some time getting to know learners before working on a career strategy. I want to establish a welcoming environment where scholars feel comfortable sharing all their ideas. The meeting is about them. Too frequently I find myself chomping at the bit, ready to download 600 gigabytes of information at the slightest sign of interest. After all, I have the two experience and resources to present This is a tricky path to navigate. one time the downloading begins, it's difficult to stop. The accrue is information overload, and the scholar becomes paralyzed because he or she doesn't know where or in what manner to begin. Downloading also plunders students of their time to learn about themselves.