The Brilliant “Get a Game Audio Job” Plan

It’s been a while since I came at you with a barn-burner post, kicking and screaming, breaking hearts and egos with words (kidding – kind of).

But here we are again.

If you’re in your early-mid 20’s, or you think “following your passion to get a job in game audio” is a good idea – buckle up. Read this, save it, return to it regularly.

Do Not Do This

Fairly often, I get this kind of email or message. I’m paraphrasing and seriously exaggerating in the quote below – but know that just yesterday I got two of these.

TWO.

“Hey Adam!

Thank you for everything! I really appreciate all the things you write, they’re super swell and packed with amazing knowledge and it’s super wonderful and I really appreciate you!”

(Again, exaggeration for comedy – I appreciate all of you too, a lot, more than you care about what I have to write, I promise)

“I am a sound designer and I have a steady job at <insert either regular audio job or non-audio day job here> and I REALLY want to move into game audio. I have a BRILLIANT plan to do this, and I’d love to get your feedback!

I’ve saved enough money to cover <usually anywhere from 3-6 months> of living expenses. I’ve moved to an area where the cost of living is drastically less as well <or, you live in a remote country with very few game development companies around>. I’m married too, and somehow got my wife to agree to be our sole income provider so that I can focus my full energy on getting the game audio job of my dreams!

So my plan is this – I’m going to quit my job in the next few months, and immediately buckle down to create my reel, website, send out lots of resumes, and drastically improve my middleware and engine skills. I’m also going to try and network a bunch – I’m not sure how that’s going to work out because I’m so remote, but I want to work remote as an indie dev… so I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

I plan to work hard enough to gain people’s attention and get interviews, and I hope to have a game audio job before my savings run dry or I have other life problems!

Also, I’m not opposed to getting another day job if I must…

I’d love to hear what you think!”

Okay, so now that I’ve made a good number of you extremely uncomfortable, let me again remind you that the above is exaggerated.

Many of you and your ideas resemble that message – but I use the emphasis and silliness above to get your attention, because I care about you. Let me make this super clear –

In my opinion – if you’re quitting your job in order to move into game audio, you’re making a potentially horrible mistake.

If you email or message me about it, I’m going to tell you exactly that. I’m not going to sugarcoat it.

You’re entirely free and welcome to disagree with me and do what you want – it’s your life. But in my opinion you’re incurring excess risk and potentially adversely affecting other people when you don’t need to.

The entire point of this post – the entire point of a large majority of my writing is that I’ve made mistakes like these, and because of me, you don’t need to!

“But Adam, how?!”

Okay, because I love you, I’ll tell you again.

Why This is an Awful Idea

I’m 100% sure that some of you can email me (don’t) and tell me how you quit your job, lived out of an alleyway off three day old Cheez-It’s, and you made it into audio or game audio. This is the internet, someone’s always got an example to disprove a point.

But you’re the outlier.

Also, I don’t want anyone to come up that way. Because it’s stupid.

I came up similarly. Here’s the highlights:

Blew a ton of money to move to Los Angeles to “make it” in the music industry just before the music industry was completely dead because of my generation #Napster
Lost multiple romantic relationships due to being heavily career-focused (I needed a job), but too dumb and stubborn to make enough money otherwise and be a useful human
Too stubborn to quit, so mooched off my family until I could get my first entertainment gigs (they weren’t even audio!)
Moved to a new city without a plan, luckily found a job, charged too little, paid my rent with a tax return check once
Damaged numerous familial and other relationships because of aforementioned money things, dreamy-career-mindset, being young, dumb, and thinking I knew it all

Friends, I didn’t just quit my job. I downright refused to get a “real” job.

Some of you think that’s what will cause you to “make it” – you’re both right and wrong.

You can do it that way, but you don’t have to. You really don’t. I also don’t think it’s the wisest way to go about it.

Now, I advocate that you keep your existing job (or get a job), and your regular side-job becomes the lateral move into games. Why?

I’ve done that too, it was way better – and I’m still married now and out of debt because of it!

I was freelancing in the entertainment industry for nearly 10 years before I got my first “real job”. That job was to design audiovisual systems for buildings – I was an architectural sub-consultant. I wore at least a collared shirt to work every day, nice shoes too. At one job I wore a tie every single day.

Some of you are cringing.

I would’ve stayed – monetarily speaking I should’ve stayed – but the stress was too much. I was waking up at 3am in a panic, wondering if I did my job right. My hair was already turning grey and I didn’t need it to go faster. I also missed entertainment, badly.

So I decided to make the move to games.

I didn’t know how long it would take. I didn’t know exactly how I would do it. I had no idea who would hire me or what my job would be.

But I was going to do it even if it took years. It did.

I kept my job the whole time. I brought income in to get my family out of debt. I pretty ruthlessly managed our finances. I went to meetups, I started lunch hangouts, I participated in online channels – I did a ton of stuff on the side.

A few years later, I got hired as a contractor at my first Microsoft gig. I’ve been full time in games ever since. I will continue to be in games until I decide I’d rather move into some non-game related programming thing (which, I’m sure will happen eventually).

Even now – I would much rather be working 100% for myself again. I’d like to create products for you all and have few, if any, day-to-day clients. Simply put – no matter what – the grass is always greener somewhere.

But quitting my job to follow any dream isn’t the answer.

I know, by this point, you’re begging me for a map of what you should do instead. I’ve given you a lot of “that’s a bad idea”, even a bit of why, but not much in the way of other things to try. Let’s get to that…

I Wrote the Book

This topic is one of many reasons why I wrote Quit Aspiring.

This is also one of many reasons why Akash Thakkar made The Game Industry Professional course.

Between the two of those things – a grand total of maybe $230 – you can have 100% all of the soft skills, roadmap, buddy-system, and coaching you need to get a job. Those are the only two resources I recommend for this sort of thing.

I don’t make any money on Akash’s course, just so we’re clear. I do make money if you buy my book, but not enough for me to quit my job.

Because of this, I’m not going to write another post about how you get a job in games. The material is here for free, also on Akash’s YouTube, and 100% guaranteed if you buy all of that material.

The only other resource I’d recommend to you about this specific idea is Sean McCabe’s book Overlap. It deals directly with “pursuing your dreams” while staying safe in the career you don’t want to be in forever.

If you live in the United States, Canada, or the UK (probably other European nations as well) – you can easily “make it” if you stick to those 3 resources and apply what you learn immediately. Don’t devour a book and wait until you’re done to apply it. Get a nugget you’re inspired by and immediately apply it.

If you live more remotely – maybe less than a handful of game developers in your whole country – you can still use those 3 resources. You just have an incredibly serious relationship-building handicap. Unfortunately there’s only so much “online networking” you can do. I’d encourage you to get creative, and make awesome things to get people’s attention, consistently. As well, give plenty of love to the people who inspire you.

Don’t Ruin Your Life

To me, this isn’t a joke. It’s not really even a suggestion.

Those of you who see people you admire online with a lot of success because they quit their job to “follow their dreams” are often being fooled – it doesn’t work that way. If you’re even seeing actual success – you’re seeing the very end of an extremely long journey.

Often, it’s actually just a bunch of marketing bullshit.

That’s why I tell you I’m not a multimillionaire game audio “guru”. That’s why I always tell you that I’m decidedly average. I am – and I don’t want you to have crazy, unrealistic expectations.

To me – if you’re quitting your job to pursue a dream career, you’re potentially putting your life, other’s lives, and your future at risk. I’m talking spouses, significant other’s, families, kids, or future kids – the entire first chapter of Quit Aspiring covers this, in detail.

When I was there – I didn’t even know what I could be losing, simply because I was ignorant of what was possible if I were making more intelligent decisions.

So, if you want my advice – don’t take the risk. Get a job, keep your job, and buckle down to get exactly what you want.

You know it’s going to take work, so get to it, and remember – you don’t do amazing things by doing what every other person normally does.