Berklee Blogs catches up with Heather Rajcic, a Music Business /Management major and fall intern, as she reflects on her internship with Clearsongs, a full service music supervision company in Los Angeles. In today’s blog, Heather discusses the concept of having passion for your career. Can others misinterpret your passion? Is there such a thing as too much?

Internships are a funny thing. They are basically the bridge between “real life” and school: You feel grown up and yet you are just getting started. I have to sometimes remind myself that it is OK to not know everything. The entire reason I am interning right now is to gain enough experience so that when I do actually find a job, I will be ready and I WILL know everything.

Sometimes I think I take my career and school work too seriously. Nobody actually busts their butt for unpaid work do they? OK, well maybe us students are the exception. I was always taught to do my best and work hard at everything because when you take yourself seriously, others take you seriously. Sometimes it can be overwhelming to constantly seek perfection, especially if what you are doing means a lot to you.

This is something I have wondered during my time as an intern. It is good to be enthusiastic about what you love, but is there a point where you cross the line? Can your passion and excitement to do what you love actually hurt your chances of doing it?

Some might argue that you can never have too much passion. I completely agree. But it never occurred to me to think of it as a negative. Sometimes too much passion can lead to annoyance and can easily be mistaken for self-entitlement. I know this must sound crazy. Naturally, as a musician, I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve and I would never advise someone to live life without passion. It is just an interesting theory I came across while interning in the Music/Film Industry.

So many of us thrive off our passion. It is what keeps us going and believing in our own dreams. But is there a chance that someone will see this as a threat? Or even a flaw? I’m not sure. The reason I ask is because I had a fleeting feeling about this when speaking with my supervisor about applying for jobs. Later she assured me that passion and drive are always characteristics they look for when hiring (naturally), but for a second I wondered if it could be too much. I mean, people can be overly friendly, so why can’t they be overly passionate?

Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer. Not that it’s a very pressing or difficult question to answer. It was just one of the many random and new experiences I have come across this semester and I thought I’d ask! It is a tricky thing though. Sometimes I wonder if I hold the job of Music Supervisor too high. I am SO fascinated by this job and love the work they get to produce and be a part of that I end up acting like a little kid in a candy store. I don’t think they even know just how cool their job is. All I want is the chance to become like Season: To work on the coolest shows and blockbusters, to see my name up there on the big screen and on the television screen and to know that somewhere out there, someone is looking at my name saying, “I want to do what she does”.

 

 

Read Heather’s Other Posts:

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What I Expected

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Bio

Heather Rajcic is an 8th semester Music Business/Management major from Lubbock, Texas. She has played Clarinet in orchestras/ensembles such as the Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra, Berklee’s Musical Theatre Orchestra, and Berklee’s Woodwind Quintet, as well as playing on numerous scoring sessions for Film Scoring majors. Heather has also had the rare opportunity to study Clarinet in Athens, Greece through the Berklee Study Abroad Program. Originally going to school for Music Law, her passion and obsession for music and film have led her to Los Angeles to pursue a career in Music Supervision. She is currently interning at Clearsongs, Inc., a full service music supervision company in Los Angeles, which will complete her last semester at Berklee.

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