Jobs at Universities

[Arnold]

Ever since I got out of piano tuning school (I attended the Piano Hospital
and Training Center, in Vancouver, Washington) I have said that my
eventual goal is to get one of these university jobs.  My favorite kind of
customers really are musicians and other "picky types", and I also would
like to have a job where I am an employee of a university or school system
and have my tuning-in-homes business be supplementary.  But recently, I
have begun to get opinions that working for a university really isn't as
wonderful as I seem to think it might be.  These opinions seem to be that
the technician can "never really please" a lot of the clients and there is
all that "unnecessary stress" that goes along with that fact, the
technician is "always on call", one can't make nearly the money at a
university that can be made in business for oneself if that person is good
at business and selling, etc. It seems that a signifigant number of people
don't stay with these jobs very long and end up going back into business
for themselves.  What do those of you who work for universities really
think of it.  If you had known then what you know now, would you make the
same decision?  If the answer, for you, is yes, what extra preparation
would you advise me to get before applying for one of these jobs; I'm sure
that being an rpt is wonderful, but that alone wouldn't be nearly enough
of a qualification to be considered.  I'm sure the answers to this
question vary as much as those answering it, but I wonder if that grass
only appears greener to me. Ah, yes.  I guess that if you are going to
send a message saying, "I hate this "so- and-so" job!", perhaps you should
answer anonymously, or send me
private e-mail.