Hello, Right now, I'm in my second year of my double major, Marketing + Japanese degree. You know that question to find out what you're supposed to do when you grow up? It goes, "What would you do everyday, if you had a billion dollars, and didn't have to work?" My honest answer to that is, I would go to my studio everyday, and produce music (House, tech-house, down-tempo). Then, I'd DJ at night on the weekends. Well, I'd love to be the music producer for a game company. However, most of the positions I've seen for "music producer" tend to be contract based. And they usually miss out on benefits and such. So, I'm looking at a few different positions to pursue. 1. Japanese liason - I'm fluent in Japanese, and should be at the native level once I graduate. I've lived in Japan for two years already, and I'd love to live there again. I'm sure there are several different positions in game companies that require japanese language knowledge. 2. Marketing - this is afterall what my degree will be in. However, I would rather work on promotions and advertisement than direct sales. 3. Music producer - I've been producing music for about 5 years now. It's mainly just a hobby of mine. If I could go to work everyday and make music, I'd be in heaven. The only problem with this is I probably wouldn't be able to use my Japanese language skills. However, I would still enjoy my job. 4. AI programmer - Another passion of my in AI programming. I've been programming for quite a few years now. However, in order to apply for these positions, I would need to switch my major to Computer Science. Again, I don't see the use of my japanese skills coming into place. I'm really looking for a position that will allow my to move to a more managerial position after some time. I'm much more interesting in directing a company than actually being involved at programming or game design levels. Don't get me wrong, I'd love either position. But if you look at my personal book case at home, it's full of entrepreneurship and marketing books. Not programming books. (mabey a 80:20% ratio.) I always try to look at the open job positions at various company websites. But, can any of you recommend positions given the interests that I've listed? Unfortunately, I like many Uni students who arn't able to figure out exactly WHAT they want to do. Thanks.

I know how you feel; I haven't fully decided on what career I want to stick with for the rest of my life, and I'm several years on from my undergrad. days (still narrowing down the list [smile]).

I've been out of the loop on professional work in the computer industry for some time, but reading through your skills you seem best suited to be the project leader; unfortunately that's not a job you can easily just walk into fresh from college. Management training is a skill that a lot of project leads lack, and your degree in marketing and entrepreneurship would help there. Since writing music doesn't usually take the entire length of the project it would be great as part time work for the project lead, and your skills in programming would also be an asset.

If you were wanting to enter the game industry in the music side, as you've noticed I don't think there are many full time composers attached to a development team. When I was working in the industry, the musician quadrupled up as the general audio guy, an extra artist, and as a tester. If you work as a contract musician you wouldn't really get the experience to move into management.

A.I. programming is a bit of a niche, and would be hard to get into without a computer science degree (at least). General programming might be possible, but I'm not sure whether you'd enjoy that.

With a degree in marketing, you could join a publisher. I'm not sure what their job structure is like or what you'd need to promote about yourself however; the business side of things is the major weak spot in my skill set.
However your fluency in Japanese will be a big asset, especially for management positions. You'd be able to act as liasion between the U.S. and Japanese companies.

Not sure how helpful that is; I'm sure you've thought of most of that already...