Do you love what you do for a living?

Had been curious if anyone was able to make their living with music, and seems like about all of us are in the same boat having to pull down a real job to survive with any quality of life.
 
So was wondering about the day jobs, and idle curious about what you guys do to survive.
 
Saw an interview some time ago with a lady who was an engineer for NASA. She said how from the first second of waking up, the adrenaline rush started and she could not wait to get to work. She said couldn't believe she was getting a good pay check to do what she loved.
 
Can't say I had too many days when the alarm went off and I was in bliss over the prospects of 11 hours on the killing floor.
 
Did anybody find their dream job?
 
John

While after 23 or so years of being a self employed computer service dude (by necessity) in a 2 tech Mom n' Pop shop, with my feet up most of the time running something on one or more pcs, and occasionally having to go out on site to lay hands on something (as we have screenconnect for most of our base now), all located in fantastically beautiful setting 9800 feet up in the Rockies next to lake dillon. With a single family 2 car garaged home with my "studio" in a finished basement 15 minutes away around the lake, I can say if I don't love what I do for a living, I'm lost sight of my good fortune.
 
That said, the pressures sometimes can be so that after years of this and yet another walk-in with crypto-locker I want to walk away (with my acoustic) and go live in a box in some tent city.
 
It's nuts, and my dear tech wife has to remind me how much I will miss all the cushy from time to time when all I want to do it tell all the spoiled to call someone who cares.
 
It's Saturday now so all's well. Gotta go the Rockies are coming on TV.

jude77
Considering I'm retired, yes I do love what I do.  When I was "employed" I was a clergyman and licensed psychologist.  The business end of ministry got utterly soul-sucking and draining by the end (my last church had 2,000 people and a $4 million budget: it was sort of like being mayor of a small town where you're also the police chief, sanitation department, food services provider and comptroller).  However, I always loved working with people and find great satisfaction and joy if I could help them find a measure of healing and peace.  So overall I'd say "Yes" I was happy with what I did.

Hey Jude, don't make it bad! 
(Must learn to resist some day...)

Yes I love what I do for a living and it is music would you believe. I have survived doing composing and production since 1980 and basically still doing it. I have supplemented it with teaching in the same areas to keep the money flow happening. I used the teaching to sharpen my skills doing the production. The teaching also gave me access to great recording spaces and microphones! I also played drums at least two nights a week since 1970 and for a large part of my live playing career it was 4 or 5 nights a week and that all helps too. I had some drum students too for a while.
 
With music composing especially it goes up and down. You can be busy for months on end and then nothing for a while. They are using composers less and less in the more main stream composing areas.  I am moving more into library production now which can offer longer term royalty income. In the middle of all this I also studied a Jazz degree, on drums but piano as a second instrument and also for the theory and harmony knowledge. This improves your composing skills big time!
 
I also produce albums for artists and they come along at least once or twice a year. They are good but require a big chunk of time. And hard work. Your mixing chops get pretty sharp when you do something like this. 
I sometimes get work mixing other multitrack sessions too and if I am happy with the quality of the raw materials then I do those jobs knowing I can pull a good sound out. Mastering too. I have mastered quite a few CD's now. There is always a smattering of simple easy to do jobs that are well invoiced jobs. Voiceovers, sound effects, transfer of analog to digital formats etc..
 
Live sound is another area for income for me. Not huge amounts but they do come along. It is good to translate your studio mixing skills into a live performance situation. If the room is half decent you can usually get a pretty good sound happening. If you don't mind the pressure of a live gig it can be rewarding and enjoyable too.
 
I also have a very supportive wife who has enabled all this as well. She is in highly paid teaching position now as Head of Strings in a very good private school and that certainly helps. But it was not always that way though. I earned a lot of money while my son was very young and that is an important time.  Studio, live gigs and teaching.  
All good and it is great when everything relates to each other. Each thing can enhance the other or compliment it.
 
We have moved too to another smaller city and regrouping there too. But I am close enough to a very large city to pull work in as a composer again. With the libraries you can write, produce and upload to anywhere in the world. There are demands in other areas for composing you just have to seek them out. You also need some great ideas and some killer technology to do it all but after all, that is the easy part!

jude77
 "...When I was "employed" I was a clergyman and licensed psychologist.  The business end of ministry got utterly soul-sucking and draining by the end (my last church had 2,000 people and a $4 million budget: it was sort of like being mayor of a small town where you're also the police chief, sanitation department, food services provider and comptroller)."  /quote]
 
Jude, I never thought of being a minister as having that much of an administrative burden. But wow! That is having a lot on your plate.
Cheers,
 
Bert
 

craigb

jude77
Considering I'm retired, yes I do love what I do.  When I was "employed" I was a clergyman and licensed psychologist.  The business end of ministry got utterly soul-sucking and draining by the end (my last church had 2,000 people and a $4 million budget: it was sort of like being mayor of a small town where you're also the police chief, sanitation department, food services provider and comptroller).  However, I always loved working with people and find great satisfaction and joy if I could help them find a measure of healing and peace.  So overall I'd say "Yes" I was happy with what I did.

Hey Jude, don't make it bad! 
(Must learn to resist some day...)

Craig, everybody does that.  I love it!!

I spent 25 years in the signmaking industry, which became more and more stressful as the years went on. Both the companies I was with ceased to exist, and I would imagine all the signs that were so crucial to be fitted by a deadline have long since been replaced. Kind of pointless really.
 
Now I'm a self-employed gardener, and I like it, but I wouldn't say I love it (too wet in Scotland for that )

I'm a designer in the chemical plant industry. I started "on the board" back in 1979 and eventually started using CAD software.

After ten years in a staff position I went "contracting" and, despite the perceived lack of job security I have only been out of work for about a year, in the last 37 years or so.

Lately, I got fed up with working on crap projects and I threw my ticket in. I am lucky, I guess, that I have some savings to live off in the meantime (I say lucky, but I spent six weeks in hospital at the time... long story...) and I am currently working part time for a mate, at home.

Do I love it? Well, as an inherently lazy bar steward, I would rather pack in work altogether, but, over the years I can honestly say that I have enjoyed what I do (or did...)

paulo
Just the thought of having to put up with people that I don't really care for all day, having limits to when/how I can have time off and then there's the politics..... I sure don't miss any of that BS. 

Wait a minute... and you post here??! 
 

Oh, yeah.  Riiiiiiight...  

From my late teens to mid 30's I played music and loved it, til I didn't. Mostly due to band mgmt issues.
Mid 30's to late 40's, corporate job flying around the country firing people. Great money, but a complete mind****.
Late 40's to early 50's. Played poker professionally. Absolutely loved it until all the bad players went broke.
The last 4 years I've owned and operated my own used car dealership. For the most part, it's been very enjoyable. The money is great, and the freedom is even better. I've built the business up to the point that I can leave when I wish and go do what I want. I can choose who I want to sell to, and more importantly who I don't.

I think the most fun I had in a job was when I was developing software in the mid to late 90s. I was absorbing every sample project on Compuserve and reading every book ever written on Microsoft Access. I was innovating - doing things that weren't done before. I ended up writing development books for IDG, MS Press, O'Reilly, and Pearson and I was speaking on Microsoft technologies with the guys I was looking up to! Microsoft even flew me to Redmond to consult on new releases of Access. The sky was the limit in those days! :)
 
Now I run the company. I have about 43 employees and we have over 40,000 users of our software. I am not allowed to touch the code. :) While I don't think being a CEO is my life's purpose and I can't say I love it, it's really a fantastic job that allows me to feed my gear lust and make music for fun in a fantastic home studio (and educate my kids, have a house, etc.) I do love that I have control over who I work with, and I do a good job overall balancing work and personal life - that's important to me. I'm about to turn 48, and I'm hoping I can retire at 55 with good health and a solid bank account. That dream gets me up in the morning! ;)

I envy my better half (in a positive way). She has an interesting job as a journalist and interpreter and she really likes it. Allthough, sometimes it's incredibly stressing, obviously. So much so that I sometimes worry for her health.
But I can't complain. I've made my choices without anyone pressing on me.

I clean toilets. What's NOT to love?!