Posted by Joe S. on June 07, 2000 at 19:41:22:
In Reply to: Re: No college? posted by Gus Pratt on June 07, 2000 at 18:40:37:
To me, "professional" and "successful" aren't synonyms.
I have sat behind the screen at just a couple of auditions. Of course, the resume thing doesn't come into play at all until the final round when the screen is taken away.
I did hear some wisecracks during one "NOT blind" audition for a performing job about a couple of the applicants who were mediocre performers with extensive formal education on their resumes..."Oh, they couldn't play well enough to get a gig, so they had to settle for grad-assistantships."
The "degree" thing meant quite a lot in the past, perhaps up through the 1960's. As the overall quality of education, in tragically too many cases and in all fields, has become more and more watered down, generally (in most all fields) employers have been wising up and look for ABILITY combined with PERFORMANCE over all else. One example of this is one of my closest friends who went into the Continental Army Band on the trombone right out of high school. He became bored with the job and quit after his first enlistment period. He entered college to study music, but quit after a semester. He took a test which qualified him to enter an elite class of power plant control room operator trainees. Now, in his mid-40's, he is the Superintendant of THREE power plants: two fossil-fueled and one hydro-electric, with virtually NO education (on paper) beyond his high school diploma. Incidentally, he was 100% in charge of completely rebuilding of one of the fossil plants prior to taking it off "mothballs", and he COMPLETELY oversought the CONSTRUCTION of the hydro-electric plant.
"Education"?...helpful "ABILITY"...ESSENTIAL !!!
Sorry...boring
-Joe