Highschool student, only worked a fast food job for a little while once. Probably gonna go into computer software and repair type career. Still really undecided
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Toronto, Canada
I program stuff, video game related, mostly computer graphics.
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Chicago, IL
Up until a year and a half ago, I worked full time as a Database Admin/Manager for large banks. I was able to quit and do what i call "living off the Internet" full time. I can't say I do music full time nor any of my other jobs, but between writing for blogs, writing music (mostly for iOS platform games), sound design, designing levels for games, translating websites, and doing contractor programming jobs, I pay my bills and make close to what I did at the bank. Music actually makes the most, but I will say, if all I did was chiptune, I'd only make like $1000 a year 
Also, most people don't want authentic chiptune, they want watered down fake bit stuff or OC remix kind of things. It's still fun though. I try to do something interesting even if its for a boring preschooler game.
It's not always easy to do music and sound design for a job. It is work; It gets exhausting and you run out of creative energy sometimes. Also its very up and down, one month, I might have 4 clients with games coming out who need a ton of stuff, then nothing for a month or two. If ALL I did was music, I think I'd be barely scraping by.
I agree with what BitJacker said though: Write off your stuff! Even if you aren't making tons of moneys, you'll be chipping away at what the government can take from you every year (which is a LOT when you have your own business, it's obscene).
Last edited by BeatScribe (Mar 29, 2013 10:47 am)
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Melbourne, Australia
I'm a motion graphics artist and video editor. I make pretties for TV, the web, and internal stuff for companies like BMW, Myer, MINI, etc.
It's pretty fun, although sometimes being creative all day makes it hard to come home and still have any juice left for music.
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Boise, ID
I'm still in high school, going to boarding school in Indonesia. I'm thinking about taking up welding when I get back to the US.
And I'd have to agree with Downstate, I want a more physical job with stable pay so I can let music just be a creative release.
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Madriz, Supain
I hunt deers and we sell the meat to a mayorist
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washington
kitsch wrote:
but, its true, out of the people i went to school with, NONE of them are cooking now (who i've kept up with at least)
nerdsome wrote:
But out of 50ish people she kept in touch with, the only one who is successful right now worked in a kitchen during school.
wow guys, thanks for the advice. a few of my family friends are chefs, but they're not working as chefs either. i guess it's kind of expected, the whole culinary school thing seemed a little too good to be true.
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Grimsby, UK
godinpants wrote:
I'm getting paid to eat a kit Kat while I watch tv from another country and occasionally repeat what the tv is saying to a computer so it can print the words back on the tv in another country.
i'd really like to know what that job is. it sounds fantastic.
im at secondary school, after i finish in a month im going to 6th form to get A-levels.
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Youngstown, OH
This thread got so real and I'm glad.
kitsch wrote:
the job you think you'll have with a culinary arts degree most likely won't be available. (and i graduated magna cum laude with that degree and had a great internship to boot). culinary schools are a good example of the new business of education, they just want to make a buck off you[...]
[...] but then again, i have a MA in PoliSci too, and NONE of the people I graduated with are using their degree in a paying job (one person got a (volunteer) non-profit job in the field). the student and job markets are so flooded with people right now even doctoral school just to take out more loans and waste time for a job to show up isn't happening for my fellow grads...
This is something I'm seeing more and more of. It seems just about everyone I know is working on a second, unrelated degree because their passion really only got them into debt. I'm one of the lucky(?) ones, I went to a renowned music school at a state university for four years and came out with only $20,000 in debt. But, no degree too. This sucks, but is nothing compared to my girlfriend's debt. She went to OSU to become a sonographer but her major filled up so they didn't accept her. Now she's graduating with a family science degree (think daycares) and all the debt of a medical degree. Needless to say our numbers have me looking for a more financially stable industry.
Downstate wrote:
commercial work - its cool i guess, but they're either living the good life or stressed as fuck about where the next job is coming from.
Ultimately id rather a secure job with regualr income so that my music making is a chilled out affair.
Absolutely. I work in the commercial sector as well, but I'd hardly call it work when you've got national clients but don't see much income generated at all. Maybe $100 per spot. I suppose that's what you get for working casually with friends who run an advertising studio though. You get paid in some pizza here and there because you're buddies and you wanted to build a portfolio for hypothetical later work anyway.
BeatScribe wrote:
It's not always easy to do music and sound design for a job. It is work; It gets exhausting and you run out of creative energy sometimes. Also its very up and down, one month, I might have 4 clients with games coming out who need a ton of stuff, then nothing for a month or two. If ALL I did was music, I think I'd be barely scraping by.
I agree with what BitJacker said though: Write off your stuff! Even if you aren't making tons of moneys, you'll be chipping away at what the government can take from you every year (which is a LOT when you have your own business, it's obscene).
I should really look into forming an LLC. Thanks guys. I'm hoping once the two games I'm composing/sound designing for launch this will pick up. Game composition and sound design has been my dream since I was 12, it's the reason I went on to study music academically. It's started to pan out recently and my name is definitely getting out there, but between lengthy development times, flaky developers, small indie budgets and lack of marketing for projects, it's just hard to make ends meet. But, I'm still working at it. I'm pushing to get the one on Steam Greenlight, maybe that'll do something.
Maybe hopping trains to an engineering field in the meantime would be beneficial. But not sound engineering. I think I want out of the biz side of things.
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Chicago, IL
sleepytimejesse wrote:
I should really look into forming an LLC. Thanks guys. I'm hoping once the two games I'm composing/sound designing for launch this will pick up. Game composition and sound design has been my dream since I was 12, it's the reason I went on to study music academically. It's started to pan out recently and my name is definitely getting out there, but between lengthy development times, flaky developers, small indie budgets and lack of marketing for projects, it's just hard to make ends meet. But, I'm still working at it. I'm pushing to get the one on Steam Greenlight, maybe that'll do something.
Maybe hopping trains to an engineering field in the meantime would be beneficial. But not sound engineering. I think I want out of the biz side of things.
It was my dream too, sometimes I can't believe I'm really doing it. I'll probably never be Hanz Zimmer but that might be more than I want/could handle anyways. I think I do maybe 10-20 hours of music a week, and it took me almost a year to get enough clients to get to that. I'm not really sure I'd want to do more, I think it would be stressful then. Sometimes I just have no song ideas and I hate to just rip off another composer's sound 
A great way to get started, is to offer to do someones game for free, troll kickstarter for something that looks promising, and tell them you'll do the whole thing just for credit. You'll learn a ton and have something real to add to your portfolio.
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Youngstown, OH
BeatScribe wrote:
troll kickstarter for something that looks promising, and tell them you'll do the whole thing just for credit. You'll learn a ton and have something real to add to your portfolio.
That's... actually a really good idea. haha I'm composing for two full-scale RPG's at the moment but the problem with that is the lengthy development times are leaving me without much new to talk about. I'll start looking for maybe some casual games to score. Thanks a lot for the tip.
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I'm 38. Majored in Philosophy in college. Graduated and got a job doing system admin / web design stuff. Now I am a software engineer that programs HVAC and security systems. Married with two kids. After they go to sleep at night I rock out on my computer. I am hoping to add a Game Boy DMG to that scenario soon.
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Chicago, IL
It's a rough industry, at the start I was spending 4-5 hours a day just marketing myslef, and 20 hours would maybe net me one small job, but it worked...making the music is only like 20% of the work/complexity...oh, also helps if you donate to their KS first
Last edited by BeatScribe (Mar 29, 2013 3:06 pm)
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Baltimore, MD
Multimedia producer & editor. I get my own coffee.
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Florianópolis-SC, Brasil
Pursuing an Information Systems degree, but already working as a system developer.
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Austin, TX
Another high schooler here. I've written about games for various publications for the past two years but I've yet to be paid for anything I've done. I'm planning on going to UT Austin for accounting mostly so I can get a stable job. I've enjoyed what I've done in that field (UIL Accounting state champion over here), but I'm mostly in it so I'll have money to support my other interests, like music and writing.
Right now I'm the managing editor (and primary contributor) for this small site I run with a few friends. I figured if I'm never gonna get paid for this shit I'd might as well do it on my own terms. So far the only claim to fame I have is getting featured on Gamasutra once for a thing I wrote about a campaign to boycott Atlus and their North American publishing branch.