Career as Sound Engineer - MAINZ any good?

[quadrant6]

I'm 26 and have been a graphic designer for 5 years now. Basically I lost any interest I had in it a long time ago and it became simply a pay check.

Don't get me wrong, I consider myself lucky to have a consistent paycheck but I've been thinking about changing career for a long time to something I might actually enjoy or at least partly enjoy

So I love music more than anything else but I'm not a musician and don't want to be stuck behind a computer 24/7. I was thinking about sound engineering and specially live sound?

Any general insights or tips (perhaps reality check from those here working?) would be appreciated but my first question was – is MAINZ any good for training? ...because here in ChCh, it looks like the only option.

My distant cousin did a 2yr diploma at RMIT in Melbourne and said it was great. He then did a number of odd jobs (on location recording, toured with band, worked in studio) and is now in New York.

I've tried searching around on the net to get a feel for the situation but it seems these jobs aren't advertised that much. I'm guessing it's hard to get work in the field? especially in NZ?

[Speakon]

hi there. i completed the diploma in audio engineering @ MAINZ in 2004(the first year it was run in chch)

It was excellent then. It must be pretty good now. The course is structured well and the equipment is awesome.