Industry Insight:

Gian Fiero on Teaching Music Industry Career Planning

Gian Fiero is an accomplished consultant with a focus on business development and music/entertainment industry operations and an adjunct professor at SF State Extended Learning.

I designed the Music Industry Career Planning class at SF State Extended Learning to create awareness; awareness of the challenges and difficulties that students will face in their music industry endeavors, as well as self-awareness of who they are as professionals so that they will embark upon pursuits that enable them to use their gifts, reduce the frustrations that result from being ill-prepared for the music business, and fulfill their visions of happiness.

We use what I call “career building diagrams.” They help reveal the story of who my students really are as people; what their natural competencies and most viable skills are; and the areas of the music industry that best suit their talents. Students have let me know that this is a very effective self-discovery process which leads to the discovery of the appropriate career paths.

The class culminates in thesis presentations in which each student summarizes what music industry direction they’ve chosen as a result of taking the class, why they chose it, and the reasons they will be successful in that endeavor. Their presentations, which are done in front of a panel of industry professionals and the entire class, include the use of visuals and the career building diagrams that they construct during the course of the class.

I invited a panel consisting of my colleagues and associates to the presentations, because I wanted them to help me objectively evaluate the students on professionalism, articulation of industry vocabulary, and clarity of career objectives - all things that we cover in the class. It worked out so well that the panel evaluation is now a staple of the class. The panelists gave crucial feedback to the students to further prepare them for the “real music industry,” and some offered internships and jobs.

I’m very passionate about this course. Pretty soon students everywhere who have questions about where and how to get off to a successful start in the music industry will have the same resounding answer: MRI Program’s Music Industry Career Planning Class.