Hi, Dr. Civitelli,
I’ve been in the same business my entire adult life (mid 40’s now) doing the only job I’ve dreamed about doing since I was 5 years old (sales and marketing/promotion in the music industry for both record companies and music retail). Music is and always has been both my job and my hobby and I woke up just about every day happy and excited to go to work. The business has imploded and my job in it has gone as well. What do you do when your one job, your one passion and your one dream has gone up in smoke? It’s been so hard to job hunt because I feel nothing will match the ultimate dream job I had and can no longer have.
I don’t want to be a salesperson for something unrelated to music. The only reason I was good at my job was that I truly love music and believed in my heart what I was selling. I feel the same way about marketing and promotion. If I am not in the music industry any more, I would rather not be doing marketing and promotions. My main skills are being good with people and being thorough with my work. Moving is not an option because of family considerations.
Thanks for any advice you might have.
Ex-Music Bizzer
Honolulu, HI
Dear Ex-Music Bizzer,
I am so sorry that you are going through this career challenge! To respond to your inquiry, I decided to ask a variety of career experts for their best advice for you. As you will see, they are very different in their styles and approaches to helping people going through a career transition. I recommend reading all the responses and using the suggestions that resonate with you.
Dr. Marlene Caroselli
Dr. Debra B. Davenport
John P. Engel
Darrell W. Gurney
Garret Kramer
Matt McCovann
Ruth B. Mott
Dan Purdy
Scott Rozman
Karlin Sloan
I hope this helps!