Graduating from OIART is only the beginning. Thankfully, Robert Breen is there to get things started. His official title is “Career Development and Industry Relations,” but to OIART grads, he’s much more. He’s a coach, a personal agent, and a headhunter that’ll help track down good gigs in the industry. “I get to know all of the students on a personal level, get to see them in sessions, do fake job interviews with them, make them cold call me as if I were a potential employer, help them with resumes,” he says. “I teach them how to find work and network. Then I go hunting for job postings and employment opportunities. Because I know them personally, I know what they’re looking for and where they’ll fit in.”

For Dan Brodbeck, there’s nothing like the thrill of making a great album. Unless it’s the thrill of teaching someone else how to make a great album. “That’s what surprised me when I started teaching,” he says. “I got the same result and gratification from teaching as I did from making a record. I get the same feeling when I see students start applying what they learn using the techniques we’ve taught them. It’s pretty amazing.”

For some, making it means selling a million albums, or topping the charts for months at a time. For producer, engineer, mixer, studio owner, and OIART grad Siegfried Meier, making it means something else entirely. “People always ask me, ‘What are you going to do when you finally make it?’” he says. “I say I’ve already made it. I have my own studio, I make a living recording great music and working with fantastic musicians. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”