Music, Tech, and Everything In-Between
I Switched From Music To Apps, and I’m Not Looking Back
Music has been my life for over 15 years. I remember I wanted to learn the drums because I saw the band Hanson and noticed how young the drummer was. Of course I was a cocky kid and told myself, “If he can do it, I can”.
So I started playing the drums at 7 years old and I’ve taken lessons ever since. I later started to learn guitar and bass and would eventually start my own band in high school, “Blue City Lights”. I taught myself Logic Pro and created my own rap beats and executive produced 2 mixtapes. I also taught myself Pro Tools and recorded my band’s albums as well as others.
I truly thought the rest of my life was going to be music. I was going to be the next great producer!
In 2011, I started college at Belmont University in Nashville, TN as a Audio Engineering Major. By sophomore year, I changed my major to Music Business with a Production minor, so I could take all the audio classes I wanted, but still got to take finance, accounting, and the core business classes. I started to learn my way around a recording studio, and assisted engineered on many recordings. I even got a part-time job at the Country Music Hall of Fame for recording.
A change started to happen though, the more I learned about the music business, the more I started to view music as a hobby instead of a potential career and that the audio engineer life wasn’t for me. I started to realize that this wasn’t what I wanted to do anymore. I actually had no Idea what I wanted to do.
I’ve always have been interested and geeky when it comes to phones and software. I drew an interest in mobile app design and taught myself Sketch 3 and Photoshop. I started to mess around with UI/UX Design and I started to really enjoy it. But I didn’t know if it was something I wanted to make as a career. I still had no idea what I wanted to do with my life.
That changed in the Summer of 2014.
I was driving on the interstate when I started to smell smoke. I pulled over and checked my engine, but everything was fine. I continued to drive when the smell came back. I by chance looked down and saw that there was a fire under my seat.
I pulled over and sprinted away from the car and a minute later, it was engulfed in flames. When it was all over, the car was totaled. I almost died and was a minute away from being burning to death from an electrical fire.
I don’t know how, but that experience made me realize that I needed to figure out my future, so I decided to dedicate myself into learning UI/UX Design and I picked up Entrepreneurship as a double major. I started getting into Entrepreneurship and Startups and would research anything and everything. I would go on Product Hunt and would check out all the stuff in tech. In 2015, I got a summer internship at a company that makes apps for music festivals, and would personally design 5 different apps, 1 of which is already in the app store. I graduated college in December of 2015.
I didn’t mean to tell my life story. I guess what I’m trying to say is that even though I’m told that I made a huge mistake, I have no regrets from turning music into hobby and designing apps as a potential career. I’m taking 3 months to hone my design skills then I’m off to go job hunting. I don’t know why I wrote this to be honest, I feel someone would find it interesting. I’m going to challenge myself to start “living in the public”, increasing my knowledge, and find a job in the summer.
The first time in a long time, I’m truly happy and I’m excited for what the future holds.
Stefan T.
This post was inspired by @Nivo0o0 “The 3 Year job Search and How I got Into Tech” and @jsneedles “2015: The Year of My Personal IPO”
