Hello everyone, this is my first post here. I have recently been questioning what I want to do with my life career wise. I am currently a Masters student in piano performance and up until recently was planning to get a DMA with the hopes of teaching at a college. Lately however I have gotten very discouraged with my playing ability and think I have gotten worse this year due to a new school where I feel the teachers don't care about me. This has also helped me realized I am tired of being a student. I also worry a lot about not being able to find a job after getting a DMA while also accumulating a mountain of debt. After next year I should owe around $40,000, and I think it's unlikely I will get a good deal somewhere else in a DMA program.
So my question is do you think it's possible to get a descent salery including health benefits (or being able to afford my own insurance) at some type of communtity music school or even just teaching privately, advertising myself with an M.M degree? Would it also make a big difference if I go become an expert in some method like Suzuki for example? I have some teaching and pedagogy experience but think I need to become more knowledgeable still.
Advice and ideas from people would be highly appreciated.

In my humble opinion, getting Suzuki certified would help. There isn't an overabundance of Suzuki teachers around. (At least, around here.) I think that would be a big plus.

gosh..good luck on that one with today's competitive market in music career....there are too many people with high qualifications, it's kind of hard to stand out.

I doubt now there are many jobs that gives you the min. salary ($52,000) for a doctoral degree in music plus benifits. The only place that will have such offer are converstories and univeristies, and there will be lilke 300 people applying for one position.

Community colleges are even worse, since they have much less fundings than conservatories and universities, they are more likely to hire part-timers, which means no benifits at all....again, even that there will a lot of applicants.

I personally don't think Suzuki will bring you that far ahead of the crowd....because most of the schools in the Sates is non-Suzuki institution, so, you are going to be swimming in a small pool again.

Good luck with your serach....