Flexible jobs combined with performing career

CoachC
Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:47:05 +0000

In response to elbie’s post 2 up -

Speech Pathology is a GREAT career for someone who has a good ear and loves voice-related things, especially if you can manage to snag a job working solely or primarily with voice disorders, like I do (those jobs are fairly scarce) - BUT I wouldn’t consider it a “flexible day job”. It CAN be that eventually, once you have completed your education, done a required year of clinical fellowship, and gotten experience under your belt so that you are marketable enough to be wanted as a part-time or PRN (as-needed) employee. But the schooling for SLP is intense - you must have a Master’s degree to be clinically certified, and that’s a six-year commitment to a very science-heavy and demanding program where you have to do clinical rotations and go to class at the same time. Last year, my final year of grad school, I had clinical 8am-4pm every day and class from 5:30 - 8:30 two nights a week. I’m not saying any of this to discourage people here from investigating SLP - like I said, medical voice therapy is an amazing career for people who are passionate about both medicine and the arts!! Last week, for example, I worked with 2 veteran performers with Broadway credits AND got to go see them in the show they were both working on later that week, to check on how their fatigued voices were holding up under real conditions (I can’t tell you more because of patient confidentiality, but it was COOL!), and I also worked with a well-known broadcaster, an almost-major rock singer (MTV presence), 2 MT students, and lots of “regular” people, too! But I work 8 am - 4 pm or 10 am - 7 pm, and I’m only able to coach a lot also because I control my coaching schedule. :)