My name is Frank. A little bit about myself... needless to say, I am a huge video game fan, and a bigger fan of game audio. It truly is my passion, and I just can't think of anything else I want to do with my life. I have a degree in audio engineering, and have been working in the game audio industry professionally for around 2.5 years now. I have been blessed to have the opportunity to have fairly consistent work during this time as a freelance contractor at a few game studios in game audio design roles, including quite some big projects (still looking for that full-time job though.
)I wanted to post this today because my ultimate goal is to achieve a high level position in game audio in the director/managerial type of role. (director, producer, lead, etc) Game audio has impacted my life so much emotionally, all I dream about is being able to give people those same experience. Leading a team towards making stellar and amazing audio experiences (and great games!) Now don't get ahead of me and think I'm looking for "I'm early in my career and want to be a director!!!", no, I want to earn that spot. I want to pay my dues and work my way up to that position and truly say I deserve to be there. Can't stop me from dreaming big though.
All and all, I've always felt I had the potential to be a great leader, and quite frankly, I feel I have strength in production and team leading. I've always been a very organized and detail oreinted person, and I've been known to seize leadership opportunities (like at school, old high school jobs) and do well at them. That being said, I've been very interested in audio production roles and associate producer roles at different studios that I see pop up now and then again, but despite applying for them all the time, I have not had any success with even scoring an interview. Not once, but twice, I had companies initially call me up saying they originally wanted to interview me for a production role, but BOTH companies followed up with me later to say that after reviewing my resume and portofolio more, that I was much better suited for an audio designer role, and that they would not hesitate to contact me when an audio design position opened. I was upset, but I guess I should have taken that as a compliment since they loved my portfolio.
I'm sorry that this is starting to go on longer than I anticipated, but I'm looking for advice on how someone like me with all his professional experience being design experience, can break into the production role. I feel like I get constantly written off as a more creative individual and a very capable designer, but am disregarded as having the ability to do production because of that very reason. I know though that I am capable of leading teams, slick production skills, and strong leadership. The interesting thing is too that I have taken on production responsibilities in many of my design roles, and have had a few adminstrative and leadership jobs in my past, and my resume details this. Most jobs I applied for also only required 1 year of experience (surprisingly) in the game industry, which I got in my bag.
Some people have said to me, you need to make up your mind, do you like design or do you like production. One is creative, one is business. I don't believe that though. I just love games, and that's what I want to do. If I was a strong programmer or artist, I would love to do either of those roles as much as I would love to work in audio or production. I love audio design, but in the big picture, it's about my love for games. Composer, sound designer, producer, technical implementer, director, it's kinda all the same to me. Different roles, but I'm still making games, and doing what I love. I don't want to limit myself to just one area when I have more to give. I want to keep myself open to all opportunities that I'm confident I can do.
Does any one have advice on the best way to convince studios that I have what it takes to be a strong leader /producer despite all my experience in the game industry being design?
