A really smart guy (or SIM guy) told me once that you have to have both a formal education (BA, BS or anything beyond a 4 year degree) as well as real world touring experience. But that was after i explained to him what i wanted to do with my career. You really need to ask yourself what you want to do. Do you want to mix clubs the rest of your life? If so then by all means
drop out of school and do it. More
power to ya. If you want to mix live TV or the grammy's then you should probably get an internship at a TV studio or live sound company. If you want your own company you should probably get a business degree (because techs are only good with other people's money) as well as experience from people who are doing it themselves already. Personally i do alot of freelance work doing
one-off shows and events, i work at a church, a large theme
park and i am a full time student working towards a BS. I don't sleep much and i will tell you right now that i won't have by BS in the next 4 years... but this is what i want to do and is what i think will be the best for me. So basically figure out what your dream job would be. See if there is a degree for it or something remotely close... then find a company with people who do what you want to do (and do it well) and learn as much as you can from them. Two more quotes..thats it i promise. haha.
"50% of all decisions you make will be the wrong choice....its about how you go about life after the decisions."
Its not the end of the world if you don't go to college, and is often times unnecessary and extremely over priced.
"Our job as techs is 30% technical knowledge and 70% customer service."
You can be the smartest fastest at what you do, but if your an ass, no one will want to hire you. Learn how to deal with people.
Hope this all helps.
-Matt
In terms of short classes like seminars... Meyer Sound (meyersound.com) offers alot of free classes in
system design and mixing
etc, SIA Software (EAW.com) has
smaart school, Syn-aud-con has classes...but are WAY expensive for two days. um... look at some manufacturers of equipment you like and see if they offer any training. I know
yamaha does for their digital consoles.