I’ve had a long few days in the “office” at work lately, and the more I think about it, the more I know how hard it would be for me to stick at that job for my life. Maybe it’s because the job is incredibly boring and repetitive, or maybe it’s because I just enjoy composing and music in general too much, and can’t live without my job being in some way related to it.

My last “office” job (administration work in a callcentre) was pretty handy – good money, plenty of time to do my own things while there – such as update my websites, expand my online presence etc. When I was there, I could see myself slowly moving towards “The Darkside” – a light workload, good money, no deadlines etc. – an easy job basically! As Yoda would put it “An easy job leads to laziness…laziness leads to lack of commitment….lack of commitment leads to failure as a composer”. *Cue deadly lightsabre battle*

What I’m getting at here basically is the whole “Office Job vs. Composer” scenario. I think it was covered by Richard Davis in his book The Process of Film Scoring (correct me if I’m wrong) – but basically an office job, once you get into it, can be quite enticing and hard to resist staying there for a long time as the money is good, the hours are regular etc. You can get an office job, and next thing you know, you’ve been there for five years trying to “save some money” for your “Becoming a Professional Composer Fund”, but in relality, saved nothing, and lost a piece of your soul in the process. Beware the office job!

Obviously however, everyone has variying degrees of resistence to these things, but I think its important to always think about what you are doing right now in life, and how it is benefitting your current goals. If it doesn’t benefit your current goals in life, stop doing it right now, and change whatever needs to be changed so that you are at least doing something that is benefitting your goals.

Of course this probably seems quite strange coming from a guy who currently works in an office, and has worked in an office for the last 2 years – my excuse is that I’m travelling the world at the moment so its fair game. Once I’m finished, I’ll be settling down (probably in an office job again) for a while to save for my “Becoming a Professional Composer Fund” – hopefully checking my progress each step along the way.

What I hope you take away from this is that an office job can be a great way to get some money while you’re trying to buy your equipment to start off etc. But it can suck you in and you might be inclined to decide that its a lot easier than trying to become a successful film composer. In the words of Yoda (or what he would say on the subject, were he a composer) “Stay Focused Must You!” – always remember where you are, what you are doing, and why you are doing it.