I just joined thios forum to ask a very similar question. i am interested in bcoming a sound enginner myself but it appears that it can be a bit of an uphill struggle these days, too many engineers and not enough jobs.
I found this earlier, would people agree with this?
here is what Hugh Robjohns (Technical Editor of Sound On Sound magazine) thinks on the matter.
'I have yet to find a course which I have felt has anything valid to offer its students. The majority of these courses appear to be poorly equipped and poorly structured, and taught by tutors with little more than a hobbyist’s understanding of the topics involved. I don’t wish to insult anyone currently undertaking or working on such courses, but I report as I have found. I really don’t feel that most of these media and sound-engineering courses offer their graduates any significant advantage over a keen amateur who has spent time and effort reading and understanding relevant magazines and text books, with some practical experience gained from working (usually as an unpaid ‘observer’) in a local radio station, TV studio or recording studio.
There are some excellent courses available — but not many — and most of the good ones are academically selective, and with very good reason. The Tonmeister course at Guildford is certainly one of the best in the country, as is LIPA, and the NFTS.
I’ve little detailed knowledge of SAE, but am aware that standards seem to vary considerably with the different colleges. I’ve also met and taught many graduates of recording schools including SAE, Gateway and others, and while some have been highly competent, many had very patchy and confused understanding of fundamental audio physics and engineering principles, and a very narrow range of practical experience. The latter can be forgiven, but not the former — especially after a two or three year course, in some cases!
I have to say, if I were seeking a career in professional audio today, I would start by going to a traditional university to study electronics and computing. Before the holidays I would write to radio and TV stations, recording studios, theatres, independent outside broadcast companies, dubbing houses, film studios, live sound companies, hire companies, mobile recording companies, freelance sound engineers in all disciplines and anyone else I could think of asking for the opportunity for *unpaid* work experience. During the holidays I would work my butt off to be a keen, reliable, useful, interested member of the staff, while learning as much as possible about every aspect of everyone’s job. The more places you have experience of, the better, and the more contacts you will make.
By the time you graduate your degree course, you will have a useful and recognised qualification which proves your intellect, your ability to learn, and your self-motivation. Your work experience will have provided you with a broad and useful background knowledge, realistic expectations of the industry, and a lot of contacts.
With luck, one of those contacts may well turn into a job offer, but if not, you will have a CV which will be taken far more seriously than most media or sound engineering course graduates.
Sad, but true, I’m afraid.
Finally, the audio industry is contracting at an alarming rate. Most of the big studios in London have either closed, or are up for sale. Most of the mid-range studios are struggling to survive, and those that are still afloat have only managed it by diversifying into other areas such as Audio for Video post-production, mastering, and DVD authoring, for example.
That means there are already more experienced people with proven track records looking for work than there are vacancies. So, other than being cheaper to employ (initially at least) novices (regardless of which audio course they have attended) will have a very difficult task in trying to find employment in the industry.
I don’t want to put anyone off trying, and it can be a great industry to work in, but approach it with realism. If you want to attend a sound engineering course, look at all aspects very carefully before deciding whether it really will offer anything useful in terms of starting you on a viable career path"
But if you can't get a job in the industry for the reasons mentioned above, then you're kinda stuck with a "useless" degree for any other job. Just my thoughts.