Jobs in music/music production

lover_of_life

Hi everyone,

I need your opinions and advise. Ive been looking for a job in the music industry since september. And Im getting nowhere. Possibly I am looking in the wrong places so your help would be greatly appriciated. I have a degree in music and a masters in music technology. I just need a foot in the door anywhere. If anyone has any advise please let me know. Im stuck it a rutt

:-(

xxxxx

PaulBrewer

Sorry to hear your predicament Lover.

I'd guess regarding the Music Recording side an unpaid Internship may be your only hope.

Get on the phone and call the studios and talk to the lads - I'd say mid morning might be best time. Post waking up and pre session

Most studio owners I know are very personable guys.

From my experience - the CV with the 'worked in Tesco from 03 to 05' type info may get filed in the 'Drawer that never gets opened' ....

Helping a band is a great way to get in a studio - not necessarily engineering but just having an excuse to be in the room!

You get in the loop by being around and being likeable .
No one expects or requires you to be brilliant without experience, just to fit in ...

dav nagle

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Sorry to hear your predicament Lover.

I'd guess regarding the Music Recording side an unpaid Internship may be your only hope.

Get on the phone and call the studios and talk to the lads - I'd say mid morning might be best time. Post waking up and pre session

Most studio owners I know are very personable guys.

From my experience - the CV with the 'worked in Tesco from 03 to 05' type info may get filed in the 'Drawer that never gets opened' ....

Helping a band is a great way to get in a studio - not necessarily engineering but just having an excuse to be in the room!

You get in the loop by being around and being likeable .
No one expects or requires you to be brilliant without experience, just to fit in ...

Some bang on the head advice!

Niall - Dahlia

Have you got a demo CD of bands you have recorded? You really should have a kind of portfolio CD with your CV.

Don't just e-mail. E-mails can be deleted from existence with one click! Send a good old fashioned letter with your CV. Even better hand it in personally.

Follow up your letter with a call.

If you're local to a studio that can be a big help. Even if it's just a small studio, the fact you're near by and on hand to help can swing it for you, so find out your nearest studio.

JaymzN

Just giving this a bump since I'm in the same boat.

I have an A.S degree in Recording Arts and 3+ years experience as a lead audio artist for an independent PC game. My visa for the US expired and I'm now back in Dublin and unable to find any positions.

For reference, here's my C.V and demo reel....


C.V (public version with contact/referee info removed) : http://realitymodfiles.com/jaymz/Demo/James_D_Nolan_C.V.2009_public.doc


Demo Package : http://realitymodfiles.com/jaymz/Demo/James_Nolan_Demo_Package.rar (requires Winrar & Quicktime)

Neurojazz

JaymzN wrote: »

Just giving this a bump since I'm in the same boat.

I have an A.S degree in Recording Arts and 3+ years experience as a lead audio artist for an independent PC game. My visa for the US expired and I'm now back in Dublin and unable to find any positions.

For reference, here's my C.V and demo reel....


C.V (public version with contact/referee info removed) : http://realitymodfiles.com/jaymz/Demo/James_D_Nolan_C.V.2009_public.doc


Demo Package : http://realitymodfiles.com/jaymz/Demo/James_Nolan_Demo_Package.rar (requires Winrar & Quicktime)

Just out of curiosity - i did a quick google on your IT game projects and the companies URL was dead - it looked like a mod and not a game (unless i'm looking at the wrong game!) - and makes it look like a major glossing over of facts. I'd be wary what you put on CVs as people can take seconds to hit the net and see otherwise.

I think (as Dav pointed out above) that Pauls post is 100% bang on.

JaymzN

http://www.realitymod.com/

I don't know how you came across a dead url? We have over 34,000 members on our site and almost a million posts!

EDIT : Ah...I assume you meant black sand studios? Yeah, they're doing maintenance on that site.

However, yes it's a mod but it's three years work out of my life that I take very seriously. We won moddb.com's "Mod of The Year 2008 Player's choice" award (a competition where 115,000 people voted) as well as their "Mod of The Year 2008 Editors choice" award. A few years back we also won GameFlood's "Best FPS Mod" and Total Gaming Network's "Best Modification of 2007 Award".

You think I should specifically mention that it's a mod? I guess if you saw it as me putting a shroud on things some employers might (and I don't want to give that impression!).

Neurojazz

Yeah, i'm only pointing it out as a game dev would be looking for technical knowledge that wouldn't be covered in mod type development. I think Dav might have more insight, and my knowledge is pretty ropey - but i seem to remember that there's an awful lot of stuff attached to game audio development at a deeper level, i remember seeing a spec for a larger dev a while back and it was pretty intense.

I can understand your passion about the mod, I've made maps for CSS, Quake3 etc... just for fun for years, got right into all of it apart from modelling (until the later stages) - but looking at it from a reality perspective and from the angle of a games dev - a mod has all the SDK ready to go and the audio part is a high level operation (a polite IT way of saying 'easy mode').

It's not a bad thing that it's a mod - just smacks of 'unpaid work' (not meaning low quality!) - if you wanted to break into game sound i'd tart up the CV totally around your jobs within that mod on a technical level and start other projects like that post haste and hit companies like CLIMAX etc... showing that you can tick most the boxes and get into the hardcore gaming companies to get that paid experience maybe...

Or ignore what i say and just blag it - who knows

JaymzN

Advice taken

http://realitymodfiles.com/jaymz/Demo/James_D_Nolan_C.V.2009_public.doc

dav nagle

When I worked in Activision I asked the boss about audio production and the answer was 'audio gets done in the States'. They have everything they need in the States. The cost is just too much to start doing it over here.

In saying that an animator from Windmill lane aproached me at a karoake competition of all things and asked me to put together a showreel, from my understanding he worked for EA Canada here in Ireland in Windmill Lane, I could be wrong. Games such as Need for speed shift, Dead Space, Fight night and the new RPG were chosen for the presentation.

So there you go, if I ever get any work in the game department I might just need you and will of course be in touch. Trust me we all have our fingers crossed.

The crew in Windmill were some of the most friendliest and professional people one could meet.

JaymzN

dav nagle wrote: »

When I worked in Activision I asked the boss about audio production and the answer was 'audio gets done in the States'. They have everything they need in the States. The cost is just too much to start doing it over here.

In saying that an animator from Windmill lane aproached me at a karoake competition of all things and asked me to put together a showreel, from my understanding he worked for EA Canada here in Ireland in Windmill Lane, I could be wrong. Games such as Need for speed shift, Dead Space, Fight night and the new RPG were chosen for the presentation.

So there you go, if I ever get any work in the game department I might just need you and will of course be in touch. Trust me we all have our fingers crossed.

The crew in Windmill were some of the most friendliest and professional people one could meet.

PM sent.