Hello,

So I am currently doing an internship as a sound designer (I am into audio) and everything is going well, I made good contacts and all but I will have to find a new job soon because the company can't keep me right now even if they seem definitly keen on taking me back if they need me for some projects.

I will start to search as a sound designer but if it doesn't work here is the question :

A lot of sound designers start as QA from what I understand and I am definitly ok to do that. My question is, how do I turn my CV and everything to make them believe that I want to do "QA" and not "QA as a stepping stone".

Certainly if I put my degree about audio, my demo reel about sound design, my website and my projects all about audio they are going to assume I don't really want to be a QA (which is not really true, I don't mind being one but not as a complete career).

And if I just don't tell about my degree and stuff they will probably ask me what I've been doing all those years.

I don't really know how to deal with that.

I guess some of you had to deal with that since QA seems to be the entry level position people use to get into the industry for all kinds of jobs.

Thank you.

A lot of sound designers start as QA from what I understand

This really varies wildly from studio to studio. I would strongly advise against considering it a universal truth.

My question is, how do I turn my CV and everything to make them believe that I want to do "QA" and not "QA as a stepping stone".

Don't. That means you are lying on your resume and in your interview. The process of interviewing goes both ways - you are evaluating the studio and the available position as much as the members of the studio are evaluating you. If you mislead them during the interview into thinking all you want is a QA position, that's all you will get, and you will find the barrier to entry to transferring out of such a position that much higher. Especially if the studio is one that doesn't generally consider QA a "stepping stone" position.

Make your resume reflect your applicable skills, and apply for the job you want. If you must apply for a QA position make it very clear in the interview that you are looking to move out of QA into something else as soon as it is feasible or you may find yourself very unhappy if you land and take the job and there is no expectation on the company's part that you'll be moving.

(To be honest, I am very wary of places that treat QA as a transition role more than any other role, because good QA is hard to do and hard to find, and should be considered on equal footing with all other aspects of game development, not as a temporary "proving ground" to demonstrate -- what, exactly? That you can show up to work on time and communicate well? Often that's just about the only transferable skill.)

Apply for the job you want and be honest about it. The fact that QA can be seen as a "stepping stone" position is bad for everybody in the industry, and the sooner we disabuse everybody of it, the better off we'll be.

Ok fine I'll do that.

Hopefully it didn't come as offensive to QA testers, it's just that I read everywhere and on resume/CV that people used QA as a stepping stone. I don't know how it is in reality.

Thank you for your answers.

You can use QA as a stepping stone but I would advise against it, its more of a transitioning role into a producer or designer. If you do want to go this route find a smaller company as you can find more responsibility and you will know eveyone at the company. If you get hired at a large game studio you will be stuck in a room with qa testers and will rarely ever come in contact with any of the developers/designers/audio guys.

Also once your in qa for to long you might be asked why you are in qa and not audio. It might look like nobody wants you for sound design.

I do understand that. I feel like you understood that I want to do it as plan A, it's not really that. It's really if I don't find anything as a sound designer after searching for a while.

I'd much rather find my first job as a sound designer and then continue on this path.

All I have to say is, I have seen quite a few guys who entered QA as a "stepping stone", ONE of them managed to step from it (outside from QA).