Leave a Safe IT Job for Music Tour?

DecisionTime asks: "In this US economy, it took me a whole year to find my current IT job, where I've been for less than a year. It's fairly dull, but pays ok, and I believe it is relatively safe. Now, I've been given the chance to use my talents and tour full time with a band overseas. With the corresponding drop in expenses, my net income on this tour would remain about the same as now. However, music jobs are inherently risky, yet the touring could become long term. On the other hand, I could potentially be IT job searching again within four months with a dubious hole on my resume. I'm single and have no kids or major commitments, but I do not want to destroy my IT career either for the future. I can't get unbiased advice where I am, so perhaps Slashdot can lend me some wisdom?"

Comments

Do what makes you happiest

[JonnyRo88]

Seriously, nothing these days is certian job wise. Just do what makes you happy in the near term. Cheaper than therapy later.

Re:Do what makes you happiest

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm with this advice. 4 months off an average job isn't going to ruin a career, the most it'll do is set things back to another year or so of job hunting. Decide you're going anyway, and talk it over with your employer. It could be that they're understanding and can rehire if all falls through - and if you're going anyway that's only a bonus on top of things. I wouldn't depend on that, but I'm all for not burning bridges.

Last thing anyone needs is to see their bandmates go on to become the next Stones or ABBA and be left behind in some lowlevel IT job

Go for it.

[Anaxagor]

Go and see the world while you can, because let me tell you once wife + kids + career job come along, you won't be able to pursue any of those opportunities even if they do come along, and you don't want to get to 40 with nothing but regrets to show for it.

I speak from bitter experience here man.

Get out and enjoy your talents while you can.

How old are you?

[trentfoley]

• Under 20, Go back and live with your parents.
• 21-30, Go have a blast. Make us all proud.
• 31-40, Move out of your parents house. Go have a blast. We know you don't care if we are proud.
• Over 40, Buy your parents house. Go have a blast. Why are you still asking permission?

Music Industry

[littlerubberfeet]

Go for the band. You will regret not doing it. IT jobs will be there in some form for a while. Have fun.

I probably have one of the most stable jobs in the music industry. I write music for TV. Music is fun, and you always meet interesting people. You might even meet musicians who need IT skills. Or, if you are brave, set yourself up with a DAW, Protools or Digital Performer and mix your skills.

You are involved in two industries that are very unstable. Go for what you want. Have fun. It is not a black mark on your resume, it is an "enhancing experience".

Go.

[ghost.]

No amount of lucid, well thought out reasoning in favor of staying will ease the bitterness and regret you will feel ten years from now if you don't go. There will still be sterile, soul-sucking cubicles here when you get back, I promise.

Sorry to oversimplify a tough decision. All I can say is what-if's and if-only's can haunt like demons.

I guess I'll toss in my 5 nickles here.

[Anonymous Coward]

I've done a lot of stuff and ultimately failed at nearly everything I've tried. And yet I only seem to regret the chances I didn't take.

Same for me!

[codeboost]

It's kind of funny, but I'm in exactly the same position right now.
Except, I'm offered the opportunity to start a comedy show on tv.
I'm a (hardcore) c++ programmer and I actually like what I'm doing.
I also run a dark comedy web site (with a partner) which has suddenly become 'The next big thing' in my country (radio stations started playing our scenes, invitations to talk shows; my phone never stops ringing).
Two tv stations offerred us a contract and we must choose one of them by the end of this week. It's really tempting, but I know how show-business is, you can burn really quickly if you're not careful or good enough to handle the stress.
On the programming side, I'm the dev lead on a project which we've been working on for 2.5 years (full time) and will launch the public beta in two months.
This only makes things harder for me - I don't want to abandon the project at this stage, but the show-biz opportunity is very tempting.
I guess I'll try (really hard) to work on both jobs, at least until the final release of our project. By that time, If i'm not dead or in a mental institution, I will hopefully be able to decide what to chose.
Eventually, I think it's best to listen to your heart and go with that.
Even if you fail, it's not the end of the world - you can always start drinking.

MOD PARENT DOWN

[oiarbovnb]

Cash is what counts

Go find a single philosopher who said anything remotely similar. Cash is not what counts. I'm not going to pretend that I know what does count, but it certainly is not cash.

I used to work for IBM in a job I liked, except that I had to travel. The hours were not that great either. I didn't love the job at all, but it wasn't bad at all. The traveling on the other hand was just too much for myself and my new wife and family (consists of 2 dogs and 2 cats). My brother gave me some advise. He said: "Nobody on their death bed has said, 'I wish I would have worked just one more day.'" And I listened to this advise and quit my job for a shittier, lower paying IT job so I could stop traveling and spend more time with my new family.

Although you are right about just about everthing in your post, cash is not what counts...Please mod parent down.