Most of the emails we get here at FTTS are about how to get a job in the music industry and we have replied that perseverance and determination are vital.Keep asking and nagging and one day you will get the right person at the right moment and they will say yes.

However there are strategies that can be adopted to make oneself more attractive to an employer and more importantly able to work more effectively. You don’t want to be sweeping up the warehouse and coiling cables forever do you?

I was prompted to write this by an article in Pro-Sound News written by Karl Winkler, it’s referring specifically to the audio industry but is applicable across the whole production field.  Get yourself a list of effecive work habits, please excuse any managerial speak, that’s all Karl’s!  This list isn’t exhaustive but they’re all goodies!

1 Organization;

Be organized, that is not just have a list of tasks and priorities in your head but learn how to use the tools to implement them. Basically keep a diary and a contact book, use it and update it and don’t get too bogged down with needing the latest IPhone. Get a routine and stick to it.

2 Continuous learning;

Production equipment is being constantly updated and if you want to work as say a sound person you will need to be on top of the current technology and as Karl says this means that “the  barriers to entry are even higher” Y ou not only need to be conversant with current technology but with that which has been adopted by the industry. Not always the same thing.

3 Good Attitude;

I know it sounds like “specialist subject; the bleedin’ obvious” but it’s still true.  Even if you are by nature a surly miserable git if you want to get on then you’ll have to pretend (-:

For example, volunteer to fix cables, make the tea, put paper in the photocopier any dirty job that no-one else wants to do.

Also if you mess up then fess up and offer to “put it right”

You want to get a reputation as a “can do” not sorry! Person.

Do this and you’ll soon find yourself indispensible.

4 Mentoring;

Ask an established person in the industry to mentor you, this will give you an insight into how the industry operates and also to check on how you are progressing either in your job or your search for one.

5 People skills;

Obvious again but it’s true to say that personal skills always trump technical knowledge. If you can deal with clients and bands and the public in a diplomatic way you’ll find that you get what you want more easily than by being stroppy.

If you get a reputation for being good to deal with and be around it will mean that you are likely to be chosen over someone who may have ostensibly better qualifications.

6 Technical skills;

Despite the above technical skills are still important, live music is a technical industry after all.

As  in 2 above, learning technical skills is a continuous process and it’s surprising how often what I’m learning at the moment is directly applicable to whatever task I’m doing.

Learn how to use a multimeter for instance and you’ll rapidly find loads of voltages and impedances that need testing and wonder how you ever managed before.

However the industry is full of anecdotal information and repeated myth, see all the nonsense written about line arrays, but “real knowledge is often more rare that anyone is willing to admit.

Go back to basics, remember what they taught you in school physics about Ohm’s law etc.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that you must have the latest, expensive, editions of technical books. The laws of physics haven’t changed. I recently got a copy of “Sound Reinforcement handbook”  written for Yamaha in the late 80s from Amazon for under a tenner.

7 Listening;

This applies not just to sound people; it is live music we’re talking about.

So much re-produced and amplified music goes through so many distorting and degrading processes that it’s all too easy to forget what the original sound was like. Listen to unamplified singers and acoustic instruments and compare them to the amplified/recorded version.

Of course many sounds only exist in a processed form but it’s very easy with modern technology to get away from the sound as originally conceived.

So always compare and check, build up a library in your head of what things sound like.

I won’t guarantee that applying all the above will get you your dream job, but I will guarantee that it will improve your chances and your chances of progress when you do get it.

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