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How to Get What You Want

In the past week I’ve seen 3 different Tweets all with the same sort of message.  I’ll paraphrase as to spare the innocent:

“If you’re applying for sound designer or senior sound designer position and you list yourself as a composer or don’t include a reel, you’re making it real easy for me not to employ you.”

Wow.  That’s a bit surprising, right?

At least to me it was.

A little over a year ago I listened to this podcast featuring Mark Kilborn of Raven Software.  Mark makes Call of Duty for a living – not a small-time game.  During the podcast he makes a point I’ve heard reiterated countless times since coming into the industry (again, I’m paraphrasing):

“It’s really difficult to get in as a sound designer now.  There are so many applicants, and so many of them are extremely high quality – you really have to work to set yourself apart.”

So how do these two (entirely paraphrased) quotes mesh?  To me – it seems like they’re vastly different.

I think there’s two things to it:

  1. You need to know what you want
  2. You need to not suck

Continue reading How to Get What You Want


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