Hi everyone,

So I just got a mail from an indie company and they want to do a phone interview with me tomorrow to see if we can do something together. This is very important for me since sound design internships are not really the easiest thing to find.

I will obviously learn as much as I can about the company and basic stuff like this, but what can they ask me about sound design? I really have no clue. Will we talk about microphones? sound design techniques? etc...

Thank you for your answers.

Well they kinda develop for everything.

Their current project is on PC/Mac/Linux. They did a lot of Apps for the app store and android. They did Wii, back in the days they did web games, they also did PS3, XBOX360 etc...

So they don't really have one platform. That's because they actually do their own indie games and they develop for big companies at the same time.

But thank you for the info and I guess I'll just check the format for everything.

When it comes to interviews, I'm of the opinion that you either know the material or you don't.

If you want to prepare for it, spend some time with the common questions.

The first thing you will be asked at almost every interview is "Tell me about yourself". You don't need to memorize your reply, but work on a solid answer. They don't care where you were born, they do care that you have a compatible background and are enthusiastic about the field.

There are a few other common questions you should prepare for, "Why do you want to work here?", "Why did you leave your last job?", "What are your strengths/weaknesses?", "Tell me about the worst job/boss you ever had?". A bad answer to any of these will quickly disqualify you from the pool.

When it comes to the technical material, be honest and show that you are able to think and reason. When they ask a question, repeat back your interpretation of the question and then answer it. If you don't know, tell them you aren't certain but you think it is such-and-such. Or, if it is a trivia-style question, consider telling them you aren't immediately sure but you could find the answer on Google. If they want you to reason through a problem be sure you state your assumptions and state your thinking process.

If you have a friend you trust you can have them ask you interview-style questions so you can get comfortable answering them. Other than general practice at interview questions I don't see much point in cramming for a specific topic.

Ok ok, so I should focus more on the general stuff and I should not block if I don't really know something technical.

I assume they are going to ask me my experiences with teams of people and how I handle it too.

Then I have no problem explaining everything on my resume and on my demos so I should be fine on this side and it seems like this is their main goal anyways with this particular interview (if we trust the mail).

Thanks a lot to both of you. Obviously if someone has more tips I'd like to read them too.