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Will Learning Middleware & Implementation Get You a Job

“I feel like if I just buckle down and learn (or get better at) Wwise and FMOD… I’ll probably be able to get a job.”

If you’ve ever said that to yourself – I’ll go out on a limb and speak in absolutes here (which is bound to upset someone) – you’re wrong.

Learning middleware, and “audio implementation” is not something that will put you in the front of the line for a job.

How to Get to the Front of the Line

There’s two things you need to do to jump right to the front of the hiring line.  They have almost nothing to do with your technical abilities.

  1. Improve your people skills
  2. Bring an extremely unique ability to the table

If you’re a normal, average human – you’re bound to groan at those things.

“But Adam, I’m an introvert.  I NATURALLY hate interacting with people!  How does this HELP me?!”

“Adam I’m good at audio – there’s NOTHING unique and new in audio.  Everybody’s good at all the sound design already, I don’t know what else to do.  Maybe I could blog about footsteps…”

I agree – as long as you think like that – you’re screwed.  But, from where I’m standing, you’re wrong about both of those things.

First, if you’re an introvert, you have a few massive advantages.  I say this as a newly realized extrovert – you think the grass is greener over here but you’re wrong because the grass is very green over there where you are in introvert-land.

Everyone (not literally, obviously) in game development is an introvert.  You all hate going out and meeting people.  You all hate networking.  You all hate interacting with other humans in average social situations.  You’re all cool with interacting with other humans if you’re on the same playing field, like… playing a game together and not talking a bunch and only starting at the screen.

(Part of that was a joke)

If I want to be your best friend and come get to know you, ask you about yourself or whatever – you get cagey and freaked out because you don’t like talking about yourself and I have too much energy.

Since you’re all the same, when you figure that out then interacting with other game development humans is a lot easier!  Most people here are just like you!

Because you’re an introvert, you also have superhuman empathetic abilities.

My wife and I had a good laugh this weekend – because I don’t have those, and she does.  She – like the rest of you introverts – can just feel the moods, emotions, and trustworthiness of other people.  She’s an insanely good judge of character.  My other introverted friends also have feelings and love deeply caring about other people.

I don’t have that.

I don’t have any of that.

I write twice a week to remind myself to be a better human, and you all read these things and think

“Oh god, Adam’s right, I suck so much!  But also I can get better!  That’s so helpful!”

I’m really pleased that happens.  Seriously.  But I never sit down and think to myself “how can I make people’s lives better with words?”

Instead, I write about my mistakes (past and present), or things other people think are true that I think are stupid.

Plus the occasional “tutorial”.

Empathy for my fellow humans – for me – is a learned skill.  It’s not natural.  I really appreciate my wife sticking with me, as I am a sledgehammer or a bull in a china shop.

I say all this – not out of envy – but to make a point.

You introverts all already have the people skills you need.  You just don’t use them – and it drives me insane.

“Really?!”

Yes, really.

Let’s assume you’re getting a shot at an interview.  You’re freaked out because you feel like you have to “sell” someone on how good you are.  You anticipate being asked a bunch of technical questions.  You’re sweating before you ever walk in because you feel like “you’re not good enough”.

Except an interview is a two-way sales process.  I know I just lost some of you at the word “sales” – but dig in and stay with me.

During an interview, an employer is literally making a buying decision.  Should they buy your services?

At the same time, you’re making a buying decision – just with time.  Are these people worth you spending your valuable time with?

99% of you literally don’t even think about the second question because you’re so desperate.

So you’re focused on how to force the employer to answer “yes” to their question.

You know how to do that?

With your magical introvert empathy.

When you go buy a TV – you want the right TV.

You want that sucker as flat as possible, huge (but so it fits on your wall), 4K at least, and definitely 60FPS.  But every freaking TV manufacturer makes one of those.

So you decide by some sort of warm fuzzy.  Either you love everything Sony does, Samsung has a neat apps feature and integration with Amazon and that’s cool, or there’s one with a super low price you can take home right now.

It has almost nothing to do with specs.

Let’s turn that scenario to our interview situation.

An employer is looking to buy a sound designer’s services.

They want a fast sound designer, a good sound designer, one who knows how to use FMOD and Wwise and Unreal and Unity (or whatever software package they’re working with).  The sound designer should know about microphones and interactive audio and whatever.

But every freaking sound designer that’s worth it hits all of that.

So it’s all about the magic that you bring – in those two ways I mentioned before.

  1. The people skills
  2. The uniqueness

Here’s the ultimate answer to #1 – do you care about your employer’s problems?

The employer isn’t hiring you just to make sounds.  They have a problem.  They have a lot of work and need hands.  But they need capable hands.

So how do you inform them that your hands are capable?

You need to know the details of their problem.  Then, when they’re talking about their problem, your magical introvert empathy (TM) will kick in – you’ll feel their pain, speak it back to them, cry in the corner together (joke), and then rub their back and promise it’ll all be okay and you can help out (also joke – kind of).

That’s vastly different than –

“HEY CHECK OUT MY <NSFW> SIZE!  I KNOW ALL THIS SOFTWARE SHIT EASY!  DID YOU KNOW YOU’RE DOING YOUR ENTIRE GAME WRONG BECAUSE MY INSTRUCTOR TOLD ME YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY DO IT DIFFERENT?!”

Which is exaggerated – yes – but not far off what normal interview tactics are.

But what about your specific uniqueness?  What do I mean by that?

Well first, your magical introvert empathy (TM) while not unique per individual – can be used in a unique way.  Most of you would never think to be empathetic during an interview or a “networking” situation – but the moment you do, doors will open like magic.

And it’s freaking natural to all of you.

(Have I expressed my jealousy over your empathetic abilities enough, yet?)

Otherwise – it’s mildly more technical.

What are you the best at?

The easiest way to figure this out is through something called “skill stacking”.

I’m not the best at implementation, sound design, or programming.  By a long shot.  But I combine all three in a very unique way.  Employers hire me, not because I’m great at any one, but because the way I use all three vastly improves their teams.

I’m very good at speaking with engineers and translating to audio teams.  I can build tools for audio teams.  I know Wwise pretty well.  I can sound design myself just enough out of a cardboard box that I’m useful.

What about you?

It’s not as often useful to employers, but I’m working at becoming a pretty good teacher as well.  I’ve worked hard to improve my writing, I occasionally teach for a school, and I teach here as well.

You may have heard me talk about my new course, C# Implementation with Wwise and Unity.

If you’re looking to build a very unique skill that you can add to your tool kit, this is the absolute best I can give you at the moment.

As time goes on, sound designers seem to be heading in a more and more technical route.  Professionals are learning to make their own Reaper scripts, they’re working with developers on their team to make WAAPI-based tools, and a lot of you just want to know how to make the handshake between middleware and a game engine in code.

If you’re looking to make your way towards a “total package” jack of all trades – the course will help make that transformation happen.

Between that, your other skill stack, and your magical introvert empathy (TM) – I expect to be hearing about your kick ass gig in no time.

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