Hey Guys, I was just wondering how many of you’s have full time jobs, and how do you maintain time for both your full time job, and Djing? Just curious, because I finally got called back into work. I am an apprentice electrician, but unfortunately way up here in the north, winter time hits hard, and pretty much kills construction, so I get laid off on winters. I start Monday, and a normal week is 50+ hours. This will be the first year, Djing, and not to sure how it is going to work out. Weekends and maybe an hour or two each day if I am lucky.
I am a product marketing manager for a software company, contributor to this little oasis as well as digitaldjtips.com as well as having a three year old. There simply isn’t enough time in the day and right now I am spending more time writing about DJ technology that playing.
As for how to balance everything, I don’t know that there are any tricks that work for everyone. I try and put aside some time for myself towards the beginning of the day before things start getting backed up. The best piece of advice I can give is this, if you find yourself with an hour to spare - use it!
As I dj more as a hobby and time to do so can be scarce sometimes, I usually find an hour or two after everyone else in the house has gone to bed. Sucks to do most of my playing through headphones though. I relish the times when I have hours to spend learning and practicing.
FYI I own and operate a paintball field, run another part time small business, & have a wife and 16yo.
I work a full time office job and I’m usually too tired at the end of the day to do much. I do most of my dj stuff on the weekends and I definitely don’t have time or live as close as I would like to the right areas to seriously pursue the gigs I want right now but it’s mostly a hobby for me at this point.
I definitely wouldn’t complain if I had a gig playing some music I liked one or two times a month I just haven’t had the energy to pursue it yet.
Yeah I seen that thread, sorry if it seems as a duplicate thread, I was just more interested on seeing who had Full time jobs, and wanted to see how they managed they’re time. A moderator may delete this thread if they find fit to do so.
Hmm yeah that must suck using headphones all the time, I also imagine it would be rough on the ears to! Sounds like you have a plate full holy! Paintball field where at?! I used to be real big into paintball, played CXBL in canada. Do you only run woodsball or do you also have speedball fields? My close friend owns a field here where I live/ small town. Tough business to profit from.
I also work a full time office Job a despatch manager for a scaffold company, so although my hours are down as 7am till 4.30 its more often the case that a day can range anywhere from 5am when my phone starts, till 6pm as shit often goes pear shaped in the afternoon and I have to re-organise the following day. The joys of being in charge of 40-50 scaffolders and 4 trucks drivers and & yard staff. Most of the time I feel like a councillor as people like to bitch and moan lol.
I’m also Married and Have a dog at Home (no kids yet, having fun trying) so by the time I get home walk the dog, spend some time with the wife there is not much time left to indulge in music and half the time I am to tired by the time I load up for a jam.
long story short, DJing is more of a hobby for me and I’m not really pursuing any nightclub gigs (mainly due to above) although not ruling it out one day.
Still waiting to win the lotteries then life will be different
For now I am happy playing private parties and the odd Wedding whilst building my music collection
I’m in Mobile Alabama. Field web site is http://www.xpb.us
Been doing it 11yrs
I did away with Sup Air field last year as tournament players have almost disappeared the last 3 years. Still have a hyperball field for some speedball. Also have a 2 woods fields and a trench field. Since the economy tanked and the oil spill on top of that it has been very hard to make a living at it.
Still do lots of parties and private groups, but there are fewer players with their own equipment who play walkon. It is also seasonal which makes it even more difficult. But I do love what I do (even though I don’t play anymore).
Probably going to get a regular job in the summer (when it’s slow here because of the heat) and still run the field on the weekends.
And this isn’t a duplicate of the other thread so no worries. Thought you might have missed the other one.
Same here. I’m also saving up for a PA system and some lights to do mobile gigs at bars that usually hire bands and karaoke guys. I’m too old and out of touch for the clubs lol.
Bummer man! I hope things pick up for you! You got a nice looking field. And yeah very hard to make a living, my buddy is a full time firefighter, and runs the paintball field only on sundays 8am-4pm usually, and stops in october due to winter. He looses money every year doing it, but it is a hobby for him, and he loves seeing all of the happy players. Speedball has stopped in our town as well some strange reason. It used to be his highest profitable but now, they all left, and its woodsball. I’m glad you enjoy it though, it definitely is a fun sport! It’s a shame that it costs so much though. Forced me to quit.
I work a 40 hour week standard but that rarely happens as i have at least 20 hours overtime every week..
I have seen myself with over 100 hours overtime in a month and not a single day off in that month. But i DJ every Friday and every second Saturday unless i’m away working.
Doesn’t really effect me as my gig is 2 miles from my home and my work is 3 miles. Oh and i’m on call 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
If you’ve got a job with a set schedule its easy enough to schedule gigs around that. I can imagine it would be a pain for someone that works odd flex hours though.
I’m a photojournalist with a lot of hurry up and wait time which explains my silly post count. I post and dig for music with my iPhone quite a bit. If NI ever came out with an iphone app that would let me grid and set loops and cues I would need nothing else.
I work Monday to Friday and practice in the evenings if I can be bothered, I work as an Apple technician for service provider so it’s a pretty cushty number, I’ve got some gigs on friday nights at the minute, there was a time when I had this job and had gigs, thursday, friday and saturday, damn the recession!
I’m a full time financial adviser by day!! But I also work 2 miles from home and DJing for me is now more of a hobbie. Although I have just this second found out that I may have secured my first gig for 8 years at a city centre bar in January!! Without actually looking for one!!
I trade bonds for an investment firm, so my hours are pretty set. 7AM - 4PM. I typically just do weekend gigs. I have a 3 nights a month at a club and also do 1-2 nights at a sushi bar as well as picking up a mobile gig here and there. All of which are Fri/Sat and some Sun.
I’ve got a 7:30-4:00 M-F job as an aerospace designer. I do a couple bar gigs a month in a small town where I used to live and have a lot of connections and get paid for those, but breaking into the club scene in a larger city is almost impossible for someone that has to be up at 6am every day. I did pretty well when I was unemployed and will be quitting my job to go back to school in the new year so hopefully that will enable me to get back up in the scene a little more. The other problem is image, I’m a pretty clean cut guy and all the well known DJ’s in Portland are filthy looking hipsters. It’s gonna be a challenge to convince booking peeps who don’t know me to put me on stage even though I can mix as well or better than the regulars and I’m a helluva lot more professional.
Woah seems like allot of us have a plate full! Nice to see people still having time to Dj and enjoy they’re hobby! I actually just got called back to work on Monday so I will see how it goes. Usually work 6am-5pm Unfortunately though most jobs we get pushed so we land up working retarded hours, I remember working on a government building, working 3am-8pm for 2 weeks.. Ha not fun, And being a construction and maintenance electrician, kills you, all the ladders, lifts, heavy lifting, wire pulling, countless numbers of injuries and cuts on your hand,! My hand,s turn into sandpaper pretty much!
I’m a consultant for an exhibit company full time. I also own a graphics business on the side. Then comes DJ’ing after that. Not to mention my other stupid hobbies like video games, working on Supra motors, and general maintenance around my house.
Usually work 6am-5pm Unfortunately though most jobs we get pushed so we land up working retarded hours, I remember working on a government building, working 3am-8pm for 2 weeks.. Ha not fun, And being a construction and maintenance electrician, kills you, all the ladders, lifts, heavy lifting, wire pulling, countless numbers of injuries and cuts on your hand,! My hand,s turn into sandpaper pretty much!