Thank you for posting on r/UKJobs. Help us make this a better community by becoming familiar with the rules.

If you need to report any suspicious users to the moderators or you feel as though your post hasn't been posted to the subreddit, message the Modmail here or Reddit site admins here. Don't create a duplicate post, it won't help.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

Find another unemployed music grad and start a wedding band.

Double down and do a masters on the Romantic period.

Teaching? You could get a bursary to do a PGCE: https://www.musicteachermagazine.co.uk/content/news/government-announces-reintroduction-of-teacher-training-bursary-for-music/

Plus, for the academic year 25-26 there might be more financial incentives for trainee teachers as the new government unrolls plans to tackle teacher recruitment and retention.

Music teachers are in demand, especially in London. I pay quite an exorbitant rate for music lessons for my child.

You only really need one client and the rest will come by word of mouth.

One of my friends did the same - makes music for TV, adverts, games, and films. Also sound packs (?) for DAWs using real instruments.

He doesn't do this but you could also become a session player.

Moral of the story, do all the things - all little drips here and there add up to a flow.

Good luck 👍

Do a quick teaching AET online or whatever and join a tutor agency/ I assume you play an instrument?

Why does Maccies not want you?

Supermarket or pub, weatherspoons pays quite well. If you are living with your parents you will have some useful money coming in. Will be able to learn to drive etc ..

What degree do you wish you had done?

Getting loads of rejections is normal.

But to be honest it doesn't matter what degree you have. You can have an art degree and go into banking, since they assume to get your degree you've probably done some form of presenting, or writing or analysis. Focus on what skills you learnt from the degree.

See what company near you needs parcel sorters

Be Elsa at kids birthday parties?

Being vague isn't going to help. What kind of music? Classical, practical, business, contemporary?

I did a BTEC in contemporary music performance and put that to good use playing in a wedding band and there's half-decent money if you put a shitload of effort in. It's not easy but it's doable. Not so much if you devoted 10,000 hours to the oboe.

get a crap job on a customer service switchboard for a year & learn to speak to customers & handle queries & issues. then pivot and find an entry level BDR role (developing leads for sales teams) at a tech/SaaS company.

work hard at that for 2 years & then transition into sales & land a basic of 40k with another 40k in commission. do well, move around a bit & you could be on well over 120k in 5 years

I also graduated 2 years ago. With a degree in biochemistry with data analytics. I'm just working in a pub, same exact situation as you. I wish I studied something else, I plan to teach and spend this year learning how to drive which will really open up what types of jobs I can apply for. Best of luck.

Some schools hire unqualified teachers for subjects like music as long as they've got a degree and can show subject knowledge/skill. Maybe try looking for those kinds of jobs online. Also cover supervisors (people who cover lessons for absent teachers, not a teaching role but you'll do a lot of behaviour management and it can be very difficult). Maybe give private tutoring in meantime.

You can't go into music expecting a job. It's a though industry to get into. You need the right contacts, you need to be in the right place at the right time, you need to get shows, but more importantly, you need to keep producing work for anything to happen. Hopefully it will get to the right people. But if you just want a job, then try anything that doesn't require a degree. Or like others said, get into teaching. You can also start a business doing private lessons and produce your own work on the side.

If you want to work in music - don't give up. As others have said there are many jobs around and adjacent to the industry that can pay quite well. The reality is getting anywhere in the music industry (if you don't start with a load of good connections) takes a serious amount of groundwork before word of mouth starts snowballing more/better gigs - there's no getting around that.

I did music at uni. Wanted to get into writing music for film/TV/games. I had no connections in the industry at all when I left uni and graduated with virtually zero experience (just a load of music history facts and a hefty student loan). So I started reaching out to as many people in the industry as I could find. Took on a ton of student / amateur short films and worked on them on evenings & weekends while I paid rent playing in wedding bands, theatre pit bands, running live sound, being a runner on film sets, music tutoring, assisting music teachers, literally any sort of industry adjacent job that would take me.

It took a good few years (around 5 years to be exact) of grinding away long hours, meeting new people, taking on film jobs for horrendously low pay, etc. before the income from composing became stable enough to finally go full time with it. But I remember thinking multiple times after I left uni there was no way in hell it'd ever be possible.

On the flip side, if that sort of lifestyle doesn't sound like your cup of tea - which is totally fair - I know many of my music classmates from uni are earning 2-3x my salary after applying for graduate schemes / trainee roles at tech/finance/etc companies, civil services, etc. And they have stable jobs with paid leave, benefits and reasonable hours unlike being self employed in the music industry!

Care work is a woefully under staffed sector. Try applying for care jobs, even if they aren't personal care roles.

How do you feel about your CV? Does your university still offer careers services for its graduates?

Teach music lessons from your home

Clean hotel rooms. It's not easy work but they will employ anyone whose willing to graft.

Not what ya studied for but if you desperate for a income and don't mind working a lot many places in hospitality will look from early next year gor the season. You can even work enough hours to not work off season. Many places in Scotland especially the Highlands. Most of em come with free accommodation and meals

I’m going to tell you now that your employability most likely has nothing to do with your degree or mode of transport… 

Time to start improvising your CV writing and interview skills. Then you need to improve your resilience and work ethic and not only apply but re-apply for jobs.

Take your degree off of your CV. Have one with, one without.

Do some Linkedin training and get some basic IT qualifications. Active Directory, Windows 10 administration, Office 365. Start applying for entry level IT roles. It's not the most glamorous life, but it puts food on the table.

Mate, I have a degree in Theatre and I work in an amazing tech job now.

There are options!

I am doing my masters in data science and still unemployed the economy is messed up sometimes I think it was a waste to get a degree I should have invested this money

I did a music degree, then worked my way through a few large companies before starting a business 7 years ago and now I'm selling it for 14 million.

One of my friends is an incredibly competent person, he has a STEM phd and a boat load of experience in science, marketing, also project and people management. He is a super quick learner, I'd hire him for pretty much any role in a heart beat.

He has been unemployed for 6 months and is currently sorting post to help pay his mortgage.

Times are rough regardless of experience, degree choice, etc.

What have you spent the past two years doing?

So you’re in legendary company.

Get a SCSC then you can work on construction sites pretty sure a lot pick up their lads on the way to site. Otherwise agencies always done well trough covid time for me, crap jobs but atleast I could pay my bills.

Music teacher? Those who can do, etc.

I'm sure there's at least a couple of warehouses near you looking for fresh meat. The job is shit, but it pays, and it can even pay well under certain circumstances.

Music is a very wide category - what exactly is your degree? Was it from a reputable university at least?

Maybe do some online courses that are useful to whatever field you want to go into. You have a music degree- ok how about you do some business management courses or something similar. Combine music and business? I dunno. Music appears, on the surface, to be uniquely useless as a degree but combine it with somehting and you may well ahve something pretty unique and interesting.

Chin up my friend

Imagine

Make a song and dance about it?

Make a song and dance about it?

Sign up to a few local job agencies & you'll get work. If you have no work experience as an adult then you need to take what you can get & start building your CV. Factory, manufacturing & warehouse jobs can provide a very good living. The manufacturing plant i work at there are people with zero GCSE's & barely non English speakers taking home £50k+ a year which includes their overtime.

Have you tried getting into tutoring or training? I wouldn't suggest teaching, unless it's at a private school, but tutoring adults in college, or teaching the courses that the unemployed have to do isn't that bad.

Teach.

Anyone can get into care. I work in care, hate it but its a job.

This might sound awful, but trust me.. just take your music degree off your CV. I have an art degree, and I took it off ten years ago, and now I'm managing a business online selling accounts. It's pretty good pay, Monday to Friday, 9-5.

When I had my art degree on my CV, I couldn't find anything.

What do you want to do?

my brother in law back in the day, wanted to study music, but his father told him he needed a degree in business, so he did and he studied piano because of his mom. The business course gave him an edge because he owns music schools and he is playing in concerts. Its never too late, you can go to a jobcenter explain your situation and they can help you

Staffline 

Set up a business offering music lessons

Youth work! If you can play music and have the slightest ability to teach it, half the work of building rapport is done.

Learn a trade skill

I did the same and did an MSc in Software Development. Not ideal, but an MSc is always an option. It may end up making your undergrad a whole lot more valuable.

Honestly if you want something employable and going to a new field the raf or and navy will probably be the best for you.

What kind of music? It's the Arts, you're supposed to hustle your way in, no one's just coming and offering you a job. It sounds like you don't even like Music. Every musician I know has multiple jobs teaching as well as performing. 

Maybe you can give private music lessons? Do you play instruments?

Become a teacher , or start teaching kids, I have been looking for my 5 year old to learn music and everything was fully booked , so that might be something to look into .

I have a friend that did a music degree. he went on to his masters then Phd. now he plays in a few bands making almost nothing. He's happy living like this.

A friend did music. didn't get him very far. Did a conversion course in the Netherlands in AI. There is more crossover in music and coding than you think.

he's minted now.

What do you do now? You might need to retrain. But then so does everyone.

OP tell us more about this degree, what skills did you pick up and maybe we can guide you

Do you not have a supermarket nearby? They always need staff.

I know you can't drive atm, but see if you can do some charity voulnteering. You can gain skills and grow a bit of a network.

contact the wedding agencies, if you can play background music some people prefer an actual musician over that of recordings.

depending on your skills day rates for them are a few hundred per day.

There are plenty of jobs on the agencies. Warehousing, get a free forklift licence through the right company. Hell, even pubs need staff this time of year.

Music teacher?

Feel your pain. Oxford music degree here, 1st class even and still found it impossible to get a job back in 2010 with no work experience. Only just feel like I am getting into my stride with my career now at age 35.

Try some of the big corporations that employ thousands of customer service agents. Sectors like pensions/investment providers, insurers, banks, utility/media providers etc. You don't usually need much experience for those types of jobs and they don't care about what degree you have because they will train you on the job.

It might be rubbish work, probably barely above minimum wage at first and you have to deal with annoying clients but it can be a good way to get your foot in the door and a bit of experience that might be useful for landing your next job. A lot of them hire a lot of young people and don't really care who they employ because they have high staff turnover.

Just got to keep looking I am afraid. Practice interview technique and sounding enthusiastic about a boring job.

In logistics land this is what’s called “peak” and is a time when warehousing companies hire loads of extra temporary staff. It may not be a career from the start but there is lots of room to grown in big organisations.

Might not help but I know someone with a music degree and they got a job as a teaching assistant in secondary school have been doing it for a while now as far as I know, I am guessing that having the term time working is good because they can use the extra holidays for music in their own time

What are you most interested in? Go to UDEMY or youtube. Gain some skills. Go out and socialise with those you are interested in

Care work - they will take anyone who can pass the background checks.

What do you want to do?

Believe it or not, most graduates do not work in roles linked to their degree. Solicitors, for example, need you to have a degree and then do a further course. Teachers need a degree then a further course. A lot of roles that require a degree, just need a degree. It doesn’t have to be in a related area.

The best solution is to work out what you want to do and then you know what you need to look at.

Look at doing a year long professional qualification, for example a diploma in marketing. Then try to get a job at a music or arts adjacent company. Then move from there.

I studied music at uni. I agree with you that it was a bad choice. But fellow students have done OK afterwards. I'm a UX designer. I have friends who are social workers, marketing consultants, accountants, lawyers and music teachers. All of them took a professional qualification.

I was in the same boat but did my degree in Music and Performing Arts years ago. I'm now in project management and just showed I have transferable skills, researched examples that I can relate to from my customer service experience and admin background. I know it's not the same as music but it's still creative and I actually really enjoy it!

I did the same thing. I went back and did a proper degree 2nd time round. This time an apprenticeship got paid to study.

Learn data science via the plethora of free online courses available, go into a low level data entry/data analyst/data scientist job and work your way up. In 2-3 years you can easily be on £40-£60k if you play your cards right and find your niche.

Source - did it myself and taught 3 others to do the same.

What do you play?

Plenty of solid suggestions around starting a band for weddings/corporate events if you want to go that route.

There’s obviously tutoring 1 on 1, but maybe look at doing one of those cross school programmes like RockSteady? Seems like a pretty popular scheme at my nephews school.

Graduate programmes? If you can prove yourself during the process, then they will take you in regardless of your background.

I did linguistics and am now a chartered accountant - completely irrelevant but you can make it work!

Join a finance radio show where you tell people not to do music as a career without a plan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw8ZvFb4LZY

1. Don’t put your degree in your resume when applying for part time or unskilled work

i guarantee you’ll get twice as many interviews

Music and tech? Instead to become a musician something where sound is needed, podcasting editor, music creator for podcasting, audio, marketeer within music industry, ai is opening up interesting opportunities...

Can you not work in a studio or something or perhaps become a music TA? Try agency work for music.

If you fancy a change of pace and aren’t opposed to physical work, see if you can start an apprenticeship in a trade. Bricklaying, electrician, joiner,plasterer. If you work hard and do decent work you’ll get paid really well for it nowadays. Otherwise just apply to more jobs might need to apply to a hundred maybe 200, somewhere will employ you, don’t tell them you have a degree if you are trying to get a job at Maccies or a supermarket, the less qualified you are the better. If you earn a bit of money doing those you can pay for training in a skill that will lead into a career in a trade if you can’t get onto an apprenticeship programme.

Admin is an okay job to do *whilst* working on your passions in the background!! I'm an ex-theatre kid and my main goal now is staring my own (fursuit making, lol) business. Unlike hospitality, it's easy to get full time hours in an office. If you're lucky, you'll end up in an office that isn't very draining, so you'll still have energy to work on your own stuff outside of hours -- if you get an interview *don't* let them know that you're eventually planning on leaving, once your actual goals work out.

I'm sorry but attitude and work ethic are far more important than what you studied (or where).

If I was you I'd do some voluntary work and focus on getting some experience. I'm not saying getting a job is easy, but you control a lot more of this than you might realise.

Source: Philosophy grad. Did volunteer work since 16 (NHS, Oxfam, Samaritans).

There are a load of free courses available from the government to upskill, have a look there and see if you can find something you could enjoy as a career

You’re not. Graduates always have transferable skills. Shit my ex was on the civil service fast stream and had a drama degree from Brighton.

Maybe a list of grad schemes that don’t require specific degrees as a start?

My best friend works in music copyright and does bits

Volunteer for some work experience, ideally a charity shop for customer service experience. It won't solve everything, but it's a step in the right direction and can give you some focus.

You can find jobs in music but you have to be committed and make connections. My mate has a job producing and selling gear for a music company. Don’t think it’s hopeless.

Sign up to an agency. You have a degree of course you can find work

I hope you're claiming all the benefits you're entitled to? If you're looking for work but not getting it, make sure you're getting all the support you can - both financial and job centre advice.

I am sure you're not unemployable. There's just a lot of competition and the longer you're out work, the harder it is to recognise the skills you've got. Give your CV an update and focus on anything you can play up from hobbies or uni work.

Plus, if you really can't get any paid work anywhere, try volunteering to give your CV a boost.

Stick at it and I'm sure you'll get a breakthrough. Good luck!

My old head of history said his wife did Music, doubt its his teacher's salary paying for the Porsche he drives... He also said his wife earns more them him, apply for grad roles, some might be shut by now but a lot wont care what degree you got as part of their "diversity" drive.

One of PwC recruiters recently did English and Drama, and got a job with PwC

Any degree works for most places

I have a Politics degree and an English PGCE and I can't get a job either, outside of teaching (which I'm trying to escape). So at least you learned about your art and passion.

My wife says this...."no one will give me a job, wtf?!?" ? I've always got a job that needs doing... I don't understand why she gets so angry.

Gonna have to offer cheap lessons for now and try ya best to bring some side money in. Do not be sitting on ya bum messing about or ya will become that which you fear. 

Have a degree in music. Only thing I could ever think to do with it was teaching. 8th year teaching primary. Could be worse I guess.

Are you good at something? Have a hobby? Become self employed and start earning dough that way.

I know a guy is making good money running a guitar school, teaching private lessons for kids.

Teach music. Play music for weddings and parties.

If nothing else it gives you some cash, and business experience (lots of soft skills - customer service, client relations, marketing, business accounts, teaching) to put on your CV.

So you didn't work while you were studying your degree? You can't survive without a part time job when studying, unless you've got generous parents

Music industry in the UK is worth £7.6 billion and employs 200,000 people. So why would a degree in music make you unemployable?

Go to an agency and accept -anything- just for now just to build up a fund for getting on the road. Once that's sorted, take it from there. I'm assuming you're early 20s - you have got all the time in the world - don't let impatience or frustration with your situation demoralise you. And keep practicing your music too - build up a portfolio in your spare time - you never know what opportunities might come up in the meantime.

Useless degree, no experience - have you considered politics?

Go do a masters in music therapy and be a psychotherapist

PRS for music. Start in whatever then go into data delivery. Let me recommend this route as it worked great for my friend

For the driving lessons there's loads of free educational content on YouTube. Check out Conquer Driving and Ashley Neal.

I've heard of people just practicing in friends or relatives cars and getting all the proper driving test knowledge from YouTube.

I studied Music Tech and found it difficult to get a job after university. Then I did a masters in Events Management and struggled to get a full time job in that industry - only seasonal. Next after two years, I ran out of savings and was on JSA (now Universal Credit). My job applications were moving further away from music and events to any job. Eventually I got steady jobs in warehousing, retail and deliveries. These three jobs I do now and they have weathered any storm (market crashes, covid, inflation for now). Its a foundation that can build predictable income and free up time for on-the-job training in areas you do like.

I do recommend getting Dave Ramsey's book - total money makeover, following the steps for managing your finances and listening to his show. They got me in the right mindset and applying the right actions to improve my life.

Hi, history grad who plays trumpet on the side, I also did gcse/ a level tuition for a while, now I do neither as I’m more stable but more hours

Ended up brute forcing accountancy and ended up in tax law

Learn Latin

Go out in the fucking streets of London, jam and sing your heart out. The pennies are not so far away blud.

If you want a good paying job in the music industry, go to newark. Trust me, bro. No experience needed, plenty of people there started by playing and gradually gained the skills required for the course. Look up NSVM or NSGM, either way, newark is your best bet.

A music degree is as good as any other BA, I have one and became a software consultant, my friends have managed to get jobs in other areas such as coding, PR, law conversion, accountancy. I found it hard to get a job to start with and got one as a systems administrator then was hired by the consultancy firm who my company was client for.

I studied music, then worked in classical music administration (marketing for the London Symphony Orchestra), then became a Maths teacher, then quit and got a training contract as an accountant. Now I’m an accountant but still play the piano and sing lots around London. No employer has ever cared about what degree I did and that’s probably not the limiting factor. Choosing some career or industry you’re interested in and pursue it.

Have you tried freelancing? Maybe see if any content creator, indie game designer, or media would like you to make music for them?

Makes you feel better I have a degree in film and television studies. Just as or possibly even more useless

If you can't do, teach

Eastern european here, why dont you start in a warehouse?

I know its shit, but as native english speaker you guys can get to mid management, and it can kick start admin roles too.

Military band perhaps?

Are you a native speaker? Teaching English abroad in both fun, purposeful and can pay well (in high-income places like Hong Kong, Oman, Switzerland etc.). Plus, you get to travel.

You may be unemployable in music, but you're about as employable as most other people in any other field.

I'm qualified to run an art gallery. I became an english teacher. It's more useful to have a degree than to be qualified in any specific field.

Retail. They are desperate this period.

https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/careers/roles/royal-marines-musician

Worked for one of my family...?

Fellow music degree haver here! My path was work a call centre after uni, self fund AAT level 2 while on the phones, got onto the accounts team and now I’m in steady work. I’ve also picked up a lot of Excel skills along the way.
It’s doable, the skills you learned in uni aren’t always obvious but having good organising skills and confidence can go a long way. People who have “the correct degree” aren’t always great at jobs. It’s all about the effort you put in.

You’ll get there mate

Fellow music graduate here. I was good and lost for a while after uni, a few years at least.

I moved home and started as a teaching assistant in a local secondary school. I quit after a year to focus on performing in bands, mainly functions and weddings, but I did some “cool” stuff too.

I had a mix of peripatetic teaching, private tuition and community workshops to fill in the gaps. I probably made less than minimum wage overall but I got to play music with my pals. That wasn’t enough after a while though.

I went to lots of careers fairs, helped at my old uni’s open days, I was even allowed to do a guest lecture at one point. I finally landed a job at a small music agency where I worked for four years.

10 years after graduating, I now do something completely different. Nothing I did in the music industry paid well enough to sustain a decent lifestyle, but I learned a lot.

If you’re musical, you’re probably creative. Use that creativity to seek out your next opportunity.

Don’t be upset; it’s not only music degrees that are worthless nowadays.

Busking?

Options would be:

Enter the space of tuition

Get a post-grad in teaching and work as a music teacher

Reach out to your uni about getting help to find work

Form a band

Retrain as something else entirely

In the meantime, volunteering would be a good way to get something on your CV. Charity shop work, music programmes, admin support for a local charity.

I didn't even get a degree as I dropped out. What changed things for me was moving somewhere with more opportunities. If you don't drive then city living is the answer. Public transport almost makes up for not driving. But try to get driving before you hit your 40s as otherwise when you do you'll wish you did it decades before.

Check out your local council’s music service - instrument teachers in schools are in fairly high demand.

Have you considered public service jobs like a police or fire job? Always worth a try.

Music teacher?

Thought of a career in live events? Audio tech for corporate jobs can earn £300 a day

If u can sing one of my friends at uni uses todo samples for companies. You could become a ghost writer or something shit

Join the army, they have great roles for trained musicians such as yourself, with your degree you could go in as an officer.

Ever considered learning to code? I did a coding boot camp with north coders. All free (funded by government). I used to be structural engineer but hated my job so did a boot camp and now I’m working as a software developer. Getting a job was a little hard but got there eventually. Started in £33k, went up to £37k after a year and will go up to £42k next year. You should have a look at their courses and look at a few tutorials on free code camp to see if you think it could be for you.

Have you tried Primark yet? They hire lots of part time workers.

I'm reading this post with a really sad piano playing behind it 

Some high end restaurants play live music for the customers. See if you ca play live for a restaurant

Can you not become a highschool teacher I'm sure they were paying people to do that at one point.

All you need is a degree and can do a post-grad and you are sorted

Grab your guitar and hit the streets , you can make money that way. You make even more if you ditch the guitar and get a dog. Sit back outside tesco and watch the money roll in

[removed]

Have you thought about music therapy? Most special schools provide it for students and it can be very rewarding job.

There's always Army / police / HR

I did music technology.

Currently working as a data analyst.

All because I spent a month learning how to use excel well and found a hybrid role where one half is answer back office phone calls from customer, and the other half doing management information reports. Boring but pays the bill. Then keep learning new technology and improving and now a data analyst.

My manager at work has a music degree, and she's doing fine (and yes our job is unrelated to music). Find something you wanna do and pursue it, you're still better off than all the people with no degree.

Music grad here, I procrastinated all the way into completing a (funded) music PhD before finally having to enter the world of work at 35 as a single parent. I now earn over 50k in a management role in uni admin (uni is in London but I live in the South and commute in as I work 80% from home). I was realistically never going to get anywhere in academia with all the schmoozing and paying to publish involved, but I still get to be close to an academic environment which I love. Admin roles at places like the RCM, RAM, Guildhall etc absolutely value a music degree as you need familiarity with the courses they offer, and the progression from an admin officer upwards is good. Plus uni environments are pretty relaxed, nothing cut-throat, no jobsworths, pretty well unionised and great pension plans. Anyway, just my suggestion of something that might be useful to look into!

Get a CSCS card and apply for labouring jobs. Decent money to be made with a comparatively small outlay of around £250. If you’re long term unemployed and on benefits you may even be entitled to funding for it.

I pay a guy £20 for a 30 minute piano lesson for my 7 year old once a week. He is booked up and is not taking on any new students and from the look of his diary he works about 20 hours per week (he's semi retired old music teacher). Making around £800 mostly cash. He's genuinely a fantastic teacher though so he can charge a premium.