There may already be a thread about this, but if so I couldn't find it.

I am curious how creative folks who post here earn your shelter and food money, how you coordinate your creative time with it, and whether you feel you've had to pass up other life opportunities because you simply couldn't stop playing music or writing or painting or whatever it is that you simply cannot live without doing.

To start, i bounce from contract job to contract job in the Chicago loop, where I am paid relatively low wages to stare at numbers on a computer screen and occasionally move information between Excel spreadsheets. I have also taught some classes, helped out with social science research, and once, through a sheer stroke of luck, I was paid to appear briefly on TV. My life-money has been provided in part by at least ten different institutions in the last two years. It's an odd lifestyle.

And you?

I work for Electro-Harmonix... I get gear and parts for cheap.

I make shit money but I have free time to do stuff. We get a fair amount of vacation time.

I do some freelance loading and installation of pro-sound and lighting equipment.

Life is ok.

I'm a grad student, getting a PhD in Political Science. I teach two classes per semester and do research on "differential abstention", which is a fancy word academics use to make themselves feel smart even though most of us are puds. It means studying what causes people who usually vote to decide not to vote in a particular election.

For teaching two classes of 180 spoiled bastards each and working with dull, repetitive statistics about voter turnout in Pigsknuckle County, Arkansas in 1954, the Great State of Indiana pays me just over the poverty line.

It is, without a doubt, worth it. Any job that has a "summer vacation" for 3 and a half months.....anyone who complains about it should be shot, irrespective of the low pay.

Eventually I'll become a professor, and life begins anew when one gets tenured.....at that point, you can sit in your office drinking moonshine while nailing 16 year old girls and firing a gun out the window and they can't fire you.

ginandtacos.com wrote: anew when one gets tenured.....at that point, you can sit in your office drinking moonshine while nailing 16 year old girls and firing a gun out the window and they can't fire you.

sounds like it's not a bad gig, such that i'm considering it myself. Ever meet a professor whose band slayed/melted your face? ah, to have goals in life...

I teach seventh and eighth grade math, algebra and life science to Jewish orthodox boys in Rogers Park. I also work as a booking agent and run a math and reading center for kids 4-18 in the suburbs. I took a pause on my masters in English lit with a focus in post-colonial to record and tour. I am usually hungry.


Faiz

I work as a software engineer for a 300+ person company, and have done so for the last 7.5 years since I left college. I love my job, because I enjoy programming a great deal. There is a graceful sense of aesthetics involved in algorithm design and coding style that I just adore. It's geeky and nerdy as fuck, but I don't care. I just love crafting well-written, bug-free and easy-to-read code.

Since I've worked here more than 5 years, I've moved from 10 days vacation a year to 15. In 2.5 years I'll be a 10 year veteran and get the maximum allocation of 20 days per year. If I went home to work in Ireland, I'd get 21 days on the first day of a new job. Grrr!

I get to play drums and guitar when I get home. I would play and record a lot more if I didn't have to work, but it's sad to say that I would have to program regularly too to keep my sanity. It's a wonder I ever found a woman to marry me

stewie wrote:...easy-to-read code.

damn, looks like you got me beat by a longshot! my code is rarely commented, and usually makes perfect sense to me and not so much to other people. oops. partly stems from the fact that everything is always such a rush job, and partly from the fact that i just don't have the habit of thoroughly commenting everything.

i'm an acoustical consultant, by title an Acoustical Engineer. i work for a consulting firm, so it's like the best of both worlds... they have contracts that need to get done, i need to have things to do, they give me insurance and all that shit, everybody's happy. i do almost entirely computer programming stuff, mostly visual basic, though sometimes macros in excel (which is just visual basic in a spreadsheet-centric context), the vast majority of the time it's got to do with aircraft noise and studying how to minimize the population that is exposed to levels that qualify as "annoying". sometimes i get to collect noise source data from military aircraft, or helicopters. in the past, i've taken measurements of new-construction homes, to make sure they conform to the standards the builder was going for and/or is required to meet. i've also collect traffic noise data, and noise/vibration measurements in federal laboratories to make sure the nearby construction/demolition wasn't disturbing the rats, but like i say, it's almost entirely aircraft noise that i deal with. that's what i do at the job i have now.

in as short as i can describe it, i create, execute, and maintain computer modelling software used to extrapolate future aircraft noise scenarios, so that the feds can make decisions about what rules/laws/guidelines will most effectively minimize the number of people who are exposed to aircraft noise that is at a level considered annoying.

i like it just fine, though i really would rather win the powerball so i can just write and record and play shows as i see fit, without concern over how i will pay my rent or buy food or new amps or fancy running shoes for my hamster.

I work for an audiovisual/acoustics/telecom consulting firm in downtown Chicago.

I design and specify audiovisual systems. I also design telecom network infrastructure sometimes too. I used to design electrical lighting and power systems for architects. I still ultimately work with architects.

I enjoy the work. I find the technology interesting. I love audio and I have been able to find myself as fascinated by video and control networks and tieing all three together. I like the people I generally interact with. When I get to work on a project such as a performing arts center I get really excited. Usually I'm working on corporate board rooms, lecture halls, conferening and meeting spaces, that type of thing. This is a field of work that is growing steadily. I would consider myself fairly well paid for what I do.

My background was in pro-audio and recording. I did not have the right attitude or professionalism to work in recording or live sound. Basically, I hate shit music and musicians who are asshats, and I could not put my prejudices aside to work in a recording studio environment and be effective.

This way I get to listen to only good music all day long. I usually only work with other professionals that treat me with respect. It's not very often I have to work late or through the night.

I work in a large chain record shop (store) in London, which isn't so bad as i get to sit out the back all day talking about oxeswolfeyesshellaclightningboltcometsonfirkraftwerkgristlechromebritneyliarsoneidasunn)))osonicyouthboredoms.... you get the idea. now and again it becomes annoying, but for the most part i feel lucky. maybe i got lucky with workmates. it makes such a differance.

I'm a low level manager at a shitty corporate textbook chain.