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"What's this John guys schtick?"

So I'm doing a sandwich course at University. For those that don't know, this means you take a placement during your third year - a placement being another name for a job, the only difference is that they give you the menial work and you don't get paid for it. Anyway, since I'm studying a music tech degree (yeah yeah, useless degree - tell me about it) I decide to e-mail some audio departments/studios to see if they'd consider taking me one for a year.

Firstly I e-mail a bunch of companies I'd want to work for.....to no avail - nobody replies to my letters or e-mails. So I move on and start e-mailing companies in areas of the country I'd like to work in. This is where John comes in. Y'see, I e-mailed this company called Reelsound, who operate in my home city, to ask if they'd be willing to take me on....and got this reply:


"Dear Michael,

Thanks for the email but I really can't give you any positive
advice about a career in music. The whole business is very difficult to
break into and is infact very poorly paid for the level of skill and
commitment that comitted engineer producers have. Of course the glamour
and aspiration is always there but eventually you have to grow up to the
reality.If I can advise you at all it would be to finish your course and enjoy your music as a great hobby. For money become a plumber.

John"


....which is slightly confusing to say the least. I mean, I ask this guy - in my most polite style of e-mail - if he could take me on and instead of a polite 'no' he sends this crap back at me? What's his gibe?! Fair enough if he can't offer me a placement, but I'd rather he just ignore the e-mail than send that pointless piece of trash to me - I asked if he could offer a job, not if he can make me the next Phil Spector.

I'm really tempted to send an e-mail back calling him a gawky-eyed numbnut who can keep his brain trash to himself, but I dunno....

What say you people?!

Also: "For money become a plumber." Haha, this John guy's got balls, I'll give him that much.

One of the reasons I'm not going back (and I will eventually, not just saying it, bung) to an audio tech degree is because there are no jobs. I remember in the first year of the course, we had a seminar with Paul Whitehead (editor of Sound on Sound magazine), and some other journalists, and he told us himself that there weren't any jobs except being a teaboy for peanuts.

Pretty crushing to hear that after only a few months on the course, eh?