# A Minor?



## Shawncfer (Dec 10, 2011)

Right now I'm in my junior year working towards a BFA in Theater Technology. However, this is only my second year at Texas State (I did a year at a community college first). So I'm suppose to graduate next spring, but at the same time I'm wanting to stay an extra year to graduate with all my friends who I cam here with. So I was considering a minor. Now I speak spanish, and the spanish language is something that I have always been interested in, all aspects of it. So I was considering minoring in Spanish. But I wanted to get an input from you guys as to how much it would actually help me with my career in the future, or if I would just be doing it to stick around an extra year. I'm not so much interested in theater like running shows backstage. But rather, working for a production company. My dream job would be something involving PRG, maybe even on an international level.

What do you guys think?


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## Tex (Dec 10, 2011)

Shawncfer said:


> Right now I'm in my junior year working towards a BFA in Theater Technology. However, this is only my second year at Texas State (I did a year at a community college first). So I'm suppose to graduate next spring, but at the same time I'm wanting to stay an extra year to graduate with all my friends who I cam here with. So I was considering a minor. Now I speak spanish, and the spanish language is something that I have always been interested in, all aspects of it. So I was considering minoring in Spanish. But I wanted to get an input from you guys as to how much it would actually help me with my career in the future, or if I would just be doing it to stick around an extra year. I'm not so much interested in theater like running shows backstage. But rather, working for a production company. My dream job would be something involving PRG, maybe even on an international level.
> 
> What do you guys think?


Is it possible to get all the hours required for a minor in a year?
Spanish isn't a bad idea in Texas; especially if you're going to work on an international level. Perhaps a minor in business would help in working for a rental/supply company like PRG.


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## gafftaper (Dec 10, 2011)

Spanish isn't going to hurt you but it's not going to be really useful. I always recommend students consider classes in business (if you want to be your own boss some day or if you want to be some sort of a designer you should consider classes in art/art history and drafting/CAD.


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## Footer (Dec 10, 2011)

Spanish will help you if you want to tour with some of the pop acts that travel to south america. French will help you if you ever want to work on a Cirque show that is not in Vegas. None of it is a horrible idea, however, don't go into more debt because of it.


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## Shawncfer (Dec 10, 2011)

Yeah! A minor in Spanish is only 15 hours after you get past the 12 hours required to take upper division classes. But I've already tested out those 12. So I only need 15 more.

And I don't know where exactly I'll be working. My ultimate dream job would be to work for the PRG branch in Madrid, Spain. But thats a longshot, just a dream.

And I know PRG has done some events in Mexico, particularly their latest:
PRG at the Pan American Games Guadalajara 2011 - Episode 1 - YouTube

And in cases like that, I feel like it would be useful to have a spanish minor. But I don't know how likely it would be that I would for on a show like that, or in a spanish speaking country for an American Company. 

Thanks guys for the input.


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## Footer (Dec 10, 2011)

Shawncfer said:


> Yeah! A minor in Spanish is only 15 hours after you get past the 12 hours required to take upper division classes. But I've already tested out those 12. So I only need 15 more.
> 
> And I don't know where exactly I'll be working. My ultimate dream job would be to work for the PRG branch in Madrid, Spain. But thats a longshot, just a dream.
> 
> ...


 
K. If you dream is to work for the borg... more power to ya. 

However, Feld would be a good one for ya. They travel into the Latin countries pretty often.


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## MrsFooter (Dec 10, 2011)

You stated in your original post that you speak Spanish already. If you're already comfortable with your fluency, I feel like getting the minor would be overkill; you already possess the skill set and the piece of paper isn't going to do jack **** for you. I would encourage you instead to use the credits to round out your education with either something of the Business variety or something in the History or Writing vain. 

And definitely don't go into debt over it.


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## gafftaper (Dec 11, 2011)

MrsFooter said:


> You stated in your original post that you speak Spanish already. If you're already comfortable with your fluency, I feel like getting the minor would be overkill; you already possess the skill set and the piece of paper isn't going to do jack **** for you. I would encourage you instead to use the credits to round out your education with either something of the Business variety or something in the History or Writing vain.
> 
> And definitely don't go into debt over it.


 
Awesome point Mrs F. As I have said far too often around here. No one is going to care in 5 years what your degrees were. They will want to know what you can do. If you are fluent in Spanish (and keep it up which is a whole other challenge as time passes), you can put that on your resume and it may (or may not) help you get a job. The most important part of this is don't go in debt further over it. 

I had a second thought as well. If you are done with your degree why are you looking back at another degree? Are you unsure about tech as your career choice? Unsure of yourself or your skills? Is there a significant other? Is your primary motivation just to have an extra year hanging out with your friends? If hanging out with your friends is that important you might want to think about a dream gig other than PRG. Because spending the next 40 years or so of your life on tour is not exactly consistent with hanging out with your friends. What's holding you back? It strikes me as interesting that you aren't jumping up and down eager to get to work. Maybe it's nothing, but it is something to ask yourself. 

If not move on and start getting paid to work and start building your resume. Again back to my old rants, where you have worked and who you impressed while working there is the most important part of getting a good job in this industry. Taking an extra year for a Spanish degree doesn't help you put work on your resume, it ends up as one extra line on your resume. In short, I believe an extra year of work on your resume would be far more likely to help you get your dream job than a year of Spanish.


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## Shawncfer (Dec 12, 2011)

gafftaper said:


> I had a second thought as well. If you are done with your degree why are you looking back at another degree? Are you unsure about tech as your career choice? Unsure of yourself or your skills? Is there a significant other? Is your primary motivation just to have an extra year hanging out with your friends? If hanging out with your friends is that important you might want to think about a dream gig other than PRG. Because spending the next 40 years or so of your life on tour is not exactly consistent with hanging out with your friends. What's holding you back? It strikes me as interesting that you aren't jumping up and down eager to get to work. Maybe it's nothing, but it is something to ask yourself.


 
Woah, trust me when I say its nothing other than wanting to stay with friends. And I'm wanting to stay with friends because I know after college, we'll all split off, start working at different theaters, different companies, different tours, and probably hardly ever see eachother. I love being apart of great shows. I love being the person that programmed that awesome light show for the designer, I love building new things that make crazy lighting effects on stage, I love all aspects of lighting for entertainment. But I can do that at my university. And while I'm excited to get out, and start working with bigger budgets, more lights, as well as smaller budgets and less lights, I'm enjoying where I'm at now.


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## DuckJordan (Dec 12, 2011)

Shawncfer said:


> Woah, trust me when I say its nothing other than wanting to stay with friends. And I'm wanting to stay with friends because I know after college, we'll all split off, start working at different theaters, different companies, different tours, and probably hardly ever see eachother. I love being apart of great shows. I love being the person that programmed that awesome light show for the designer, I love building new things that make crazy lighting effects on stage, I love all aspects of lighting for entertainment. But I can do that at my university. And while I'm excited to get out, and start working with bigger budgets, more lights, as well as smaller budgets and less lights, I'm enjoying where I'm at now.


 
But are you getting paid or paying out? at some point that debt is gonna catch up and when it does its gonna bite hard.


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## gafftaper (Dec 12, 2011)

Shawncfer said:


> But I can do that at my university.


 
What he said AND... doing it at a university for an extra year doesn't help your career at all. PRG is going to say, "You went to college. Cool, almost every other applicant did too. So, what did you do AFTER college that sets you apart from everyone else?" 

Getting a College degree is not the door to your future, it's one key to that door. You've got to get out there and work hard to open the door for yourself *after* college.


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## rochem (Dec 12, 2011)

Shawncfer said:


> My dream job would be something involving PRG, maybe even on an international level.


 

This is totally off-topic, but companies like PRG don't really care about your degree, and they definitely don't care about your minor. On the contrary, they actually asked me repeatedly to drop out of school to take a job with them, and many of the shop management positions are filled by great people who never went to college at all. Unless you get really lucky or know someone, you're gonna get hired on as a cable coiler or box pusher, making hourly rate and working alongside the high school dropout who's father was the CEO's son's baseball coach. And yes, if you're smart and cooperative, you'll quickly get a promotion to somewhere like Effects or Moving Lights. And if you're still doing well, and you really get yourself out there, they could put you out on a tour. And if you're still doing well, you might even become one of the few PRG Event Services technicians, who get flown out every week to manage some of the largest shows in the world. I know this isn't what you asked at all, but if you do want to work for PRG, your best option for getting a foot in the door is to do an internship there and get yourself known to the guys who actually do the work. Feel free to shoot me a PM if you have questions about the program. I'm not trying to suggest that you drop out of school or anything, far from it, but maybe instead of staying an extra year, you can look into a semester-long internship somewhere that will help your career way more than any minor.

Sorry for drifting so far off-topic.


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## JLNorthGA (Dec 12, 2011)

Shawncfer said:


> Right now I'm in my junior year working towards a BFA in Theater Technology. However, this is only my second year at Texas State (I did a year at a community college first). So I'm suppose to graduate next spring, but at the same time I'm wanting to stay an extra year to graduate with all my friends who I cam here with. So I was considering a minor. Now I speak spanish, and the spanish language is something that I have always been interested in, all aspects of it. So I was considering minoring in Spanish. But I wanted to get an input from you guys as to how much it would actually help me with my career in the future, or if I would just be doing it to stick around an extra year. I'm not so much interested in theater like running shows backstage. But rather, working for a production company. My dream job would be something involving PRG, maybe even on an international level.
> 
> What do you guys think?



I'm with the others - you don't really need a minor. Some extra classes won't really do anything for your employability. If you already speak Spanish, that's a plus. 

When I was hiring (albeit in a far different field), I looked for what the candidate did during and after college. As an example, one guy took the spring, summer and fall quarters off and hiked the Appalachian Trail from beginning to end. He made up his course work and graduated 1/2 year behind. What he did proved that he could set a goal, plan and execute his plan. He also had the solid course credentials and reasonable grades. 

If you show the future employer that you can do something (other than college), that sticks in their mind.


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## Footer (Dec 13, 2011)

Shawncfer said:


> Woah, trust me when I say its nothing other than wanting to stay with friends. And I'm wanting to stay with friends because I know after college, we'll all split off, start working at different theaters, different companies, different tours, and probably hardly ever see eachother. I love being apart of great shows. I love being the person that programmed that awesome light show for the designer, I love building new things that make crazy lighting effects on stage, I love all aspects of lighting for entertainment. But I can do that at my university. And while I'm excited to get out, and start working with bigger budgets, more lights, as well as smaller budgets and less lights, I'm enjoying where I'm at now.


 
Friends come and go. Debt stays with you forever. In this industry you are constantly in a state of flux. Be it what crew you are working with on a daily basis such as on tour or in a house gig or who you are working with seasonally. Leaving college sucks, however, at some point it has to happen. No one likes the guy who stays at college too long (we all knew that person...). 

Get out in the real world. Suck it up. Time to start actually living. There are cool people everywhere. One of my college friends is working in a theatre 10 minutes away from my venue. Another is 3 hours away in Boston. A host of them are 2.5 hours away in the city.... and the college we all attended is a 14 hour drive from here. However, all of my co-workers are good people. I have plenty of friends in the town I live in. 

Staying in school one more year, accruing more debt, and putting your real life on hold for another year is just pointless. 

....Go get a job... contribute to society.... be a real person and not the creepy guy at the party that is still at college just to hang out. On that note, when was the last time you saw all your HS friends and went... why did I ever hang out with these people.... same thing happens with many of your college relationships (not all, just some).


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## MrsFooter (Dec 13, 2011)

Footer said:


> Friends come and go. Debt stays with you forever. In this industry you are constantly in a state of flux.



Amen. I'm only 3.5 years out of college and I'm already on my fourth gig. I've met some fantastic people, and I'd take a bullet for my current crew. But if my venue shut down tomorrow, you think I'd stick around an extra year to hang out with 'em? **** no! I'd be moving on to the next city and the next gig. This is your _career_ you're talking about, man! Are your friends going to pay your rent? Are they going to buy your groceries? Put beer in your fridge? Not a chance, because they're going to be just as broke as you are. But you know what will pay your rent? Real world experience. Go experience it.

I'm not saying friends aren't important. They're terribly important. I couldn't get through some of the tougher gigs if my coworkers weren't some of my favorite freakin' people on this planet. But unless you're a total douche canoe, you'll make friends anywhere, and you'll stay in touch with old ones where ever you are.

We all have to leave the nest sometime. Might as well grab the edge of that band-aid and pull it fast.


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## josh88 (Dec 13, 2011)

^ I love my college friends, but I moved 300 miles away from them for work. So what do we do? we meet up in Chicago for new years every year.


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