I am interested in HVAC work and Gig on the side as a Musician. HVAC would need these set of skills to communicate the problem in a manner your client can understand. It is also important to have strong communication skills for when you have your first talk with the customer, you want to be able to relay your information as efficiently or professional as possible. These skills could come in handy as a Musician in the sense of reaching out to people and creating an atmosphere to exist in, or even when trying to market yourself to venues or groups who need extra hands.

As far as the specific skillsets that would come in handy, you could say the main 3 are active listening, expectation management, and professional tone. Active listening is important for understanding your customers while you are examining their issue. Expectation management is important to make sure you have the ability to set timelines and prepare cost quotas. Professional tone is important to keep a respectable line between customer and client.

For Music gigging, I would consider nonverbal communication, adaptability, and professional networking are the main skills needed to succeed. Nonverbal communication is a huge part of playing music, using eye contact and body language to indicate cues. You must be able to adapt quickly and appropriately when in an ensemble of any size. Whether you are changing your volume, style, or phrasing; it is important to actively listen and adapt with your fellow musicians. Professional Networking is more of a “behind the scenes” type of skill you will need if you want to get serious gigs that pay well.

When it comes to what skills I believe I possess right now, I think I am good at active listening, professional tone, nonverbal communication, and adaptability. With my extensive resume in the working field, I have come to understand how to listen actively and properly asses situations. My past work has also helped me build a professional tone to use when in a more serious situation where I need to represent myself more formally. My background in music has helped me with nonverbal communication and adaptability, using this in my many ensembles and organizations I am apart of. These help keep time throughout playing a piece of music, keep everyone on the same track, and make the “ensemble sound” more concrete.

Skills I need to work on to enhance myself in these fields would be expectation management and professional networking. I feel as though on hand practice will make expectation management something that I learn with time. It’s not that I have no preception of how to do this, however, it is something I could and with to get better at. Professsional networking is something I have never really dipped my toe into. I have seen, first hand, how knowing someone who knows someone can be helpful, but not in a major sense for my current or past career experience.