Within the audio industry i feel that there are many clear delineation’s of what it takes to make a change, not only for yourself but in the industry in general. In exploring this you would need to touch on many different topics.
Primarily the most important one in my opinion is entrepreneurship.
The key to success in any environment is the will to succeed, and this follows on from my previous post about the desire to finish projects and perfectionism. without the spirit to stand by your product or services and push them out into the public view you can never achieve any lasting ‘success’ or recognition for what makes you unique.
in that sense being an entrepreneur about all you do is vital to what you do. be willing to take a chance and make ideas a reality.
Following on from this and something which is indeed of great consideration to anyone entering the industry is the nature of the work. Just as you wouldn’t prepare to move house without securing a place to move too, so too shouldn’t someone aim to enter the industry without realising the intermittent nature of the work.
you may or may not have work form time to time and this is something which people indeed struggle with. you are your own boss and manager quite often.
with that in mind taking on jobs which you may not agree with creatively may have to occur. this in itself is neither a setback nor an issue however as you as an individual decided to enter the industry. in other words, any opportunity to shine is an opportunity nonetheless; provided it doesn’t conflict with your set of values. (‘don’t play for free’).
With this in mind the topic of pay is central. and something which will be apparent to anyone in the industry would be the disparaging levels of pay between people. the only key difference is how willing you are to get through that. As many people begin by working for almost nothing and slowly work their way upwards, it isn’t without risk in its initial stages.
However, with enough passion and dedication and a desire to not see yourself be undervalued one can easily bridge this gap. however time is an important factor. one does not simply go from $50 jobs to $1000 jobs over night. (or you can, but its rare).
Another key thing to take into account would be how many hours you will work. most people expect to work long hours and this can definately be expected, however dont believe that it will be hours working a mundane job. you entered the industry to do something you love and as such you should be focused on the output rather than how long it takes. try to be excellent and the time will breeze by.
Finally something important to any profession is to stay updated. personally i enjoy keeping a routine of websites i visit to keep up to date on topics. this aids with learning but also with being able to identify trends and helps you to stay somewhat ahead of the curve. You never stop learning as an individual.
This being all well and good you need to work out where you want to work. some people are drawn to studios, some live sound rigs. but for every facet of the industry you have somewhere different to work and that need only be exciting. after all you can only really do what you love.
Mittens 