I am curious if there's anyone here who is in the musical instrument repair & restoration line, technicians repairing instruments as a career.
I am seriously considering exploring this line, though I guess I am a little scared of making such a drastic switch in career & I'm not even sure if I'd be suitable for this job.
I'm currently 28 (young but not that young anymore I guess), been working for around 4+ years now? I graduated with a degree in Psychology, always imagined I'd get my masters in clinical and go into research, therapy or even lecturing. However, as life has it, I ended up being an office admin for the past 4 years, maintaining the office, operation processes, pantry and office supplies etc. I was hoping I would eventually branch out into more Psychology-related work in the same company.
But my manager has been steering me towards an IT support (or even IT solutions) field, as they've noticed my knack with troubleshooting hardware & software, on top of being a little "creative" in fixing & repairing stuff around the office. Of course, the IT field isn't as simple as just doing IT support, assisting your colleagues with slow computers or infected systems, being able to provide IT-related solutions like infrastructures, application designing etc, are all unique fields of their own that you'd need to go deep into, which is a whole different field that my background in Psychology.
That said, I've gotten an epiphany, of sorts. I've always known that I love troubleshooting problems (which, I guess, was why I love Psychology and counseling too), working with my hands, dismantling and putting back something together (mostly laptops and computers right now, but I generally love dismantling stuff and figuring out how they work), and of course, I love music (though, only background I have in music was my years of playing the Euphonium in school and on my own after I graduate, I do not have in-depth knowledge of music theory aside from the basics).
If I were to choose between reading a textbook or a journal on some IT-related stuff, like the cloud infrastructure or database systems, and a textbook on how a clarinet is made & how to repair it, I think I would probably have more fun with the latter? But it's a niche field, I have a stable job right now and it is terrifying thinking about switching career and starting from zero. I happen to know the owner of a Yamaha certified repair center in my city (the only center, mind you. The other 5 certified repair centers are in other states around the country). I guess I can try to contact him and see if he'd be willing to get an apprentice.
But yeah, I don't know. I guess I'd like to hear what other music instrument technicians have to say about their experience and how they get into it... and maybe if I'm even a suitable candidate. I guess the fact that I have no formal education in music kind of makes me think I'm a bad candidate for this. I gave up on pursuing music in my tertiary as it felt like I would not be able to catch up in terms of knowledge or skills, so any music related career has always been seen as an "exclusive" thing to me, for prodigies and what not.
I am seriously considering exploring this line, though I guess I am a little scared of making such a drastic switch in career & I'm not even sure if I'd be suitable for this job.
I'm currently 28 (young but not that young anymore I guess), been working for around 4+ years now? I graduated with a degree in Psychology, always imagined I'd get my masters in clinical and go into research, therapy or even lecturing. However, as life has it, I ended up being an office admin for the past 4 years, maintaining the office, operation processes, pantry and office supplies etc. I was hoping I would eventually branch out into more Psychology-related work in the same company.
But my manager has been steering me towards an IT support (or even IT solutions) field, as they've noticed my knack with troubleshooting hardware & software, on top of being a little "creative" in fixing & repairing stuff around the office. Of course, the IT field isn't as simple as just doing IT support, assisting your colleagues with slow computers or infected systems, being able to provide IT-related solutions like infrastructures, application designing etc, are all unique fields of their own that you'd need to go deep into, which is a whole different field that my background in Psychology.
That said, I've gotten an epiphany, of sorts. I've always known that I love troubleshooting problems (which, I guess, was why I love Psychology and counseling too), working with my hands, dismantling and putting back something together (mostly laptops and computers right now, but I generally love dismantling stuff and figuring out how they work), and of course, I love music (though, only background I have in music was my years of playing the Euphonium in school and on my own after I graduate, I do not have in-depth knowledge of music theory aside from the basics).
If I were to choose between reading a textbook or a journal on some IT-related stuff, like the cloud infrastructure or database systems, and a textbook on how a clarinet is made & how to repair it, I think I would probably have more fun with the latter? But it's a niche field, I have a stable job right now and it is terrifying thinking about switching career and starting from zero. I happen to know the owner of a Yamaha certified repair center in my city (the only center, mind you. The other 5 certified repair centers are in other states around the country). I guess I can try to contact him and see if he'd be willing to get an apprentice.
But yeah, I don't know. I guess I'd like to hear what other music instrument technicians have to say about their experience and how they get into it... and maybe if I'm even a suitable candidate. I guess the fact that I have no formal education in music kind of makes me think I'm a bad candidate for this. I gave up on pursuing music in my tertiary as it felt like I would not be able to catch up in terms of knowledge or skills, so any music related career has always been seen as an "exclusive" thing to me, for prodigies and what not.
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