From my experience, there are a couple of roads in music.
1.) The straight and narrow road - from music at a young age to pre-college, to “top” conservatory and then maybe an orchestra position or a successful touring artist…or possibly a gig life with teaching.
2.) The wide and windy road - from music at young or teenage years, to a top or selective or darn good music school (UG or grad level) and then maybe a permanent postion but most likely a gig life with teaching.
In either case, young adults do step off the path sometimes and do other music-related work (arts administation etc) or not (become interested in other work). Life is long. Still, a music degree is a good discipline to set you up for other “adventures” in life if you so choose.
Here is a thread on the subject for anyone experiencing angst about the future: How do musicians make money?