CMU School of Drama


Thursday, September 25, 2014

Career Calling: Are You Qualified To Be An Audio Engineer?

Pro Sound Web: Take this simple test. Carefully compiled from decades of experience and using the latest auto-psycho-algorithms, it will provide guidance in your career choice.

6 comments:

Tom Kelly said...

This article caught me off guard. I expected it to be a informative article about what majors would benefit a career in audio engineering and what are the pros and cons of the job. Instead I read a humorous script that asked the questions and gave the answers in order to inform the reader about the life of an audio engineer. This reminded me of the stories my dad told about his time as an audio engineer in the early 80s. Although it sounds interesting from what it sounds like in this article audio engineering would not be a job for me.

Unknown said...

The article was different than what I expected for a different reason than Tom. I thought it was going to be some sort of aural acuity test, not an article full of some good old fashioned tech-stereotype humor. All of the humor that goes along with the stereotypes of theatre PTM people seems to be discouraged here at CMU, and I kind of miss it sometimes. Those few cynical questions really did reemphasize that some of what we do sometimes is really miserable and we have to deal with it.

Unknown said...

This was unnecessarily cynical, had little to do with the job, and just generally came across as rude. But what stands out to me is the ever present pride in sleep deprivation. The honest answer to the question "Do you do your best work after 48 hours without sleep?" is no of course not there isn't a human being in the world for whom that is true. I just really wish that instead of everyone having a pissing contest about long they could go without sleep, people were proud of their health, of getting 8 hours a night, or just of being happy.

Mike Vultaggio said...

Similar to Chris and Tom this is not what I had expected when I clicked on this article and am slightly disappointed. I was hoping that this would justify my career choice through an article written by somebody I have never met before. Despite this disappointment I find this article to be very entertaining. The way he cynically talks about the life of a sound engineer is very funny but I was hoping for more. Although I expected this article to be more informative I should've known by the source that it would be satirical.

Unknown said...

So in summary. Don't be a jerk. Expect other people to be a jerk to you. Care about your work. Be flexible. Sounds (get it?) like good traits for a lot of jobs. I guess the sleep deprivation part does sort of steer the article towards the entertainment industry. Or perhaps CMU students.

Jokes aside, I feel that in general entertainment practitioners who carry on a cynical or "us vs. them" mentality do not help create a good working environment. Relishing in how little sleep one got should not be something that is celebrated. But at the end of the day, everybody appreciates a little bit of stereotypical tech humor.

Thomas Ford said...

I wasn't really expecting this quiz type format, and although it was funny that author has a pretty dick-like tone. He makes some good points, but I don't think that not wanting to stay at a motel 6 or not caring about too much makes you a better fit for the job. Also, I think if you we worried about the system and everyone not being able to hear everything clearly that would mean that you care about your job and that you want to do well at it. The fact that the author says that you should go be a surgeon is pretty crappy on his part. Maybe he should just care about his job more, or maybe practice saying the phrase "would you like fries with that?" The article was amusing, but I had hoped it would be more informative and the cynical undertones were bothersome.