How can you combine IT and music/artistic work?

Good day everyone,

A little "warning" in advance: Yes, the text is a bit long, so please take your time and read through everything. I had to provide some context to make my problem clear…

I need some people's opinions and advice here – it's about my future career choice and also a little bit about my studies. For context: I'm currently in high school and will probably graduate next spring of 2025.

My problem is that I've had a lot of different, very diverse interests for a long time. My main interests are IT/programming and music (I play several instruments and am also interested in music theory, etc.).

Since it's slowly becoming so important, I've already given some thought to what I want to do after school. For a long time, I wavered between studying something technical or something more musical, but recently I'd actually pretty firmly decided on something in the field of "applied computer science." Simply because that would give me fairly secure career prospects (I'd say), and studying music (whether purely theoretical or an instrument, whatever) would have been considerably more challenging.

I'm already pretty good, I have regular gigs, etc., but I also know through "connections" that the requirements and aptitude tests at music colleges are really quite demanding, so I probably should have prepared for them earlier and for longer.

So, the decision to study IT has actually been made, so I've been doing an internship at a software company for a few days now to get a feel for what the day-to-day work is like. And that's exactly where my uncertainty/question comes in:

While I enjoy my office job and the tasks involved, I'm almost certain that this work would become too monotonous and boring for me in the long run – I need more variety. Especially now, during school, when I still have some free time, I really enjoy having a lot of different interests, so I can do a lot of different things and it doesn't get boring.

Unfortunately, it's still the case that at some point you have to make a decision in your career. Most people choose a career and then work there full-time (especially in an office). And I think I would really enjoy IT work in the long run. What worries me more is the work atmosphere and the constant repetition of the environment you're exposed to.

And besides, I'd like to make my musical and artistic activities "just" a hobby, for which I might hardly have time alongside my nine-to-five job (for example, if I live in an apartment, I can't practice an instrument loudly everywhere late at night, etc.).

I've also been watching more films and TV series lately, and the film/media industry has caught my attention again (I did an internship as a sound engineer in 8th grade).

Even though I've never actually been there myself, the idea of ​​working on a film set really appealed to me… as something—even as an actor, although that's probably just a very unrealistic vision/dream, since I actually have no acting experience at all…

Ultimately, what matters to me is having a secure job in my life that I can live off of (hence my IT degree), but still having a certain amount of freedom and the ability to express my creativity. Of course, that's somewhat contradictory, and I'm aware of that.

Any suggestions as to whether and how these two different worlds can be combined? Are there any jobs you could pursue where you somehow have both?

I mean, theoretically, it's possible to work two jobs. The question, of course, is how well that actually works in practice, especially with project-based things. I'm thinking of scheduling conflicts. For example, when filming a movie, you might have to travel a long way; both employers should be okay with that. And ultimately, it has to be worthwhile or at least make sense. Unfortunately, due to a lack of experience, I have no idea how widespread or realistic something like that is.

So my question is: Are there any suggestions, ideas, recommendations, whatever, that I should take a closer look at?

Thanks for your answers!

PS: Finally, I don't think I would have a problem, of course, with working exclusively in an office for a few years after graduation to build a somewhat secure existence. I don't see myself there alone, but I hardly see myself doing it for the rest of my working life…