what job should I take?
 

how retarded am i to come to this place seeking career advice.

here goes.
i've played guitar since i was 16, and for many years kind of thought someday i'll get serious and form a band and shit. but, as life went on i saw that regardless of how good i am (and i wasn't bad at all), chances for success, surely one that would make me a living, were extremely scarce... so i went to study what i thought was the next best thing, which is sound engineering (hold on to the unemployment jokes please). studied that for two years, got an internship in the best studio around. got virtually abused there, and for no good reason. more than anything else, i was a lackey, and although they liked me and wanted me to stay and even suggested that i'd record a low-profile record by myself, i kind of saw where it was going, which was nowhere, and i still wasn't getting paid a penny for 10-12 hour days (this is about 3.5 months time) so i just said fuck it and moved on. worked a couple sound-guy jobs and lately, been unemployed for like 2-3 months. the unemployed sound guy, so embarrassing :(
anyway throughout all this time i was (and am) constantly questioning if sound engineering is even the right thing for me to do with my life... i mean, you have to chase a gig after gig after gig. some guys can handle that but i can't, really. im piss fucking poor, i can't afford this, i need some security. besides, it's one thing to make your own songs sound awesome, and a whole other thing to do various tiring chores that are mostly grey and unrewarding.

anyway my frantic searching for a job blew up in my face time after time and now all at once i've got two places willing to hire me and they totally collide with each other.

i take the red pill, i stay in the sound business, i go to work in the Big Brother broadcast control room, pay is good, it's an 8 minute drive to there from my house, but the show ends in 3 months and essentially i have to rely on my bosses being so pleased with me, that they'll give me another job in one of their studios.

i take the blue pill, i go work for Intel, 4 days a week with 12 hour shifts (working in the clean room as an operator) and having four days off. pays better. about a half hour drive away. more 'secure' and stable. but also it feels like selling my soul to a bunch of procedure-following nutsacks.

im fairly sure i won't be working in the sound field in 10 years anyway, but i do feel like i've only been out there a year, haven't really given it a real shot, and this is the first REAL job i'm being offered, and that could promote me (then again, it could also get me nowhere. life's playful like that).

with Intel i'll be able to get promoted if i do my job well and stay long enough, I think. it's much more secure, it pays great and overall conditions are excellent. the job itself, being an operator in the fancy clean room, is not so fancy though... but i suppose it's manageable, like any other job.

^ i know this is serious tldr material right there but i am so deep in this i can't really see things straight. maybe one of you guys has a better perspective.

what do the two jobs entail exactly? which job, content wise, are you more excited about? wtf is a clean room?

job interviews don't usually tell you that much about what actual work you're going to be doing...
purely content wise, the Big Brother control room job excites me much more.
it's basically having access to the house, making sure the mics are right every now and then, operating the broadcast (i.e, someone talks, open their channel, mute what doesn't need to be heard at that particular moment, some editing now and then, etc).

the clean room is this hyper sterile area in Intel factories. i'm basically in charge of a certain manufacturing aspect of microchips. they use big ass silicone plates and they they print microchips on it with all sorts of advanced machinery. i'll be the guy operating it.
it's pretty much like working in any other factory or assembly line, just with more prestige, a very clean environment and great conditions. the work itself doesn't excite me , BUT...

i think job interviews should be a great place to get to know what actual work you'll be doing... if not that's the part where they ask "do you have any questions?"

anyway, is it time for you to get 'comfortable' with your life? i'd take the job that seems more fun.

if you can support yourself with the sound job do that

you can go back to microprocessors later

seems like you've actually set yourself up nicely for a dream job with a fallback capitalist whore gig.

i mean seriously though don't like CASH IN

whatever you do don't do that.

Am I reading this wrong?

no

i dunno man. Intel doesn't recruit that often and I might not have this chance again.
on the other hand, the Big Brother thing is also a pretty singular opportunity...

this indecision is over me like a ghost for at least the past year and a half...
this is like the gods pointing and laughing at me.
it feels like i have to choose one path and whatever i choose the other gets cancelled out.

tbh im kind of tempted to cash in (really appropriate terminology btw)

i really doubt that you're closing the door on a career as a microchip engineer by passing intel up

fuck me if i know how i neglected to mention this, but both jobs have approved me and expect me to begin work around january 1st.
by the time i got an answer from Intel i went on with my job search and things happened simultaneously. so i have to keep one and let the other go

are you ok with the prospect of being unemployed in three months

not really. im the anal type and uncertainty, not to mention being broke and stressed for a job with impending rent and payments, is hard on me

well put that on the con side for the control room job then, yeah?

don't be practical! be careless!

uh, i did
see first post in thread

how big are your chances of being picked up again after the show is over? i mean in the sound-guy world, you said its basically jumping from gig to gig, but does that ALWAYS happen? do you know anyone who's attained a comfy spot somewhere like that?

big brother does sound more exciting, and more what you know....

would you rather be unemployed with another notch on your sound guy resume in 3 months, or be pushing a button on an assembly line for intel?

is the difference in pay enough to shift your feelings?

i dunno...i think i'd go with big brother. 12 hour shifts are a bitch. even when you get 4 days off...your 4 days on will ******* nothing but working, commute, eat, sleep.

shit's tough these days, man. thats a hard spot. but kudos landing 2 good jobs! it could be worse :)

personally, i would go with the intel job.

for me this kinda conflict is more like what do you want to do - mix work and play (sound job) or keep them separate (intel). i like to mix them but with the uncertainty you are presenting with i'd more likely go to intel

well i meant more what SSS just said about it

if you don't have any idea what your chances are of nailing something down after three months, it seems like it's not the way to go.

i say go for the sound guy job. work really fucking hard for 3 months. like really work to make a splash and try to get picked up again. i think this is your chance to really give it a shot and maybe really make something out of it. it sounds like this is something you LIKE to do and not HAVE to do. usually when you like what you do, you're much better at it and people notice.


maybe it wont work out. maybe you'll be shit out of luck in a few months struggling for rent. but you gave it a shot.

at least you wont be at intel sitting there for 12 hours a day wondering about "what-ifs".

isn't there a chance though that at some point down the road, a similar gig could open up that doesn't have a three month limitation?

that's what im talking about.

it sounds like your only sound job so far was shitty (not your fault). this is a real job with real opportunities after it. you might not know what they are now, but you wont know until you try.

well here's the thing... when they interviewed me at the big brother, at some point i had to meet like the vice president of the studios. he was the nicest guy, really caught me off guard. during job interviews everybody tends to be so uptight you couldn't pry open their ass with a fucking crowbar. he was just the nicest guy, he told me that even though i don't have much experience, if i do well, he has been known to pick up sound guys and make them HIS employees and set them up with a job.
but on the other hand, due to various political reasons (too long to get into that now) TV in israel is really dying. the big companies are in financial difficulties and one of the two national channels is about to close down in what seems like a matter of months. this has an effect on me, because A) dying TV = less work for everybody in the TV industry and B)more guys more competent and experienced than a newbie like me competing for jobs.

all in all, it could happen, but it's at least 50-50 and there certainly could be a situation that even if i do my job very well things won't work out in my favor.

it's around 250$-500$ more a month, which is fairly substantial...
but as you said, 12 hour days mean a work-eat-sleep cycle with little else in between.

del

man you are way too smart for that username

by the way most people i know who have done the four day work week thing say that they're so fucking exhausted by it that the three days off are practically a joke

how old are you btw OP? sorry if you said and i missed it just wondering

48 hours in 4 days does not sound that bad... but that depends heavily on how monotonous it is, i guess. and i get the impression the intel job would be pretty monotonous. is that true?

man there isn't a time i log on and not cringe
someday i'll have to suck it up and stuff that 20$ bill under pakula's panties :(

eh, just own it.

i'm named after a tool song.

(which i still enjoy)

i really wish you changed it to Eugoogily

yeah
again, they weren't extremely specific about it (probably by intention). but it's pretty clear that it's the nature of the job

my o-board name is eugoogly

27

if it's literally doing the same basic movements over and over again for 12 hours then that would probably be soul destroying

i dunno bro it's a tough choice.

i thought it was eulogay or something

@eulogy

it might have been that at one point

i've been banned a couple times. or once? i dunno.

yeah okay if it's literally 12 hours of stamping or something... that would suck

eulogoogly and trots, it's 4 days of 12 hour shifts (two morning shifts, two night shifts) and 4 days off

but yeah i doubt those 4 days off really cut it when working hours are that long
by the time my sleep cycle recovers ill have to go fuck it up again

yep

alternating shifts is bullshit