Advice for someone trying to work on game audio?
My friend has an audio engineer degree. He's put together a portfolio of indie game sound design, some light game audio implementation, foley & sfx capture, scoring game trailers, etc. His work is OK, but he really needs some on the job experience. He’s flying blind right now. This guy is desperate to crack into the gaming world, but from my outsider perspective, it seems nearly impossible. There are just way more butts than seats. How many audio people can a studio really need? IDK it isn’t my industry. His jobs so far have essentially been working at music stores. Any tips for this guy? How can I get him an interview somewhere?
Add a comment
Freelance, self marketing, and most importantly networking. What events has he attended ? Who in the industry has he reached out to? Is he on LinkedIn? How is anyone supposed to know he exists? Of course there are fewer jobs than people as far as full time at a studio, the majority of people start out as a contractors, hopping from project to project, few get lucky and land a full time role mostly due to connections they made by contracting at various places over the years. I always tell kids I mentor, reach out to those you admire. Ask them about their path and learnings along the way. Most people in the industry are highly approachable especially with social media. Hell I had to guess emails back in the day before LinkedIn and social media was a thing and I still got a concept artist at Blizzard to call me via landline to answer questions before I broke in. Gaming/Entertainment is all hustle, all the time especially the creative side. You need to be aware of who you are competing with, the current market, and what makes you stand out from others.