SoundGirls.org: Beth O’Leary is a freelance monitor engineer and PA tech based in the U.K. She has been working in the industry for 11 years and is currently working as a stage and PA tech on the Whitney Houston Hologram Tour. She has toured as a system tech with Arcade Fire, J Cole, the Piano Guys, Paul Weller, a tour featuring Roy Orbison as a hologram. She recently filled in as the monitor engineer for Kylie Minogue and just finished a short run for an AV company in Dubai.
2 comments:
It is always so interesting to read about how people got into theatre and live sound. In this article, Beth O'Leary went to school for zoology and is now working as a free-lancer for live sound events. She got into live sound in college while studying for her master's degree in zoology and couldn't not get involved. I love how sound brings people together from all different backgrounds. I also find it amazing that she has stuck with an industry that isn't always forgiving. She freelanced for years until she was able to get a job on a tour group to develop skills that were needed for tour jobs. That amount of patience is amazing and such a high goal to have. Her stories and personal advice were really great for someone who wishes to navigate the sound industry as a woman, though I lean more towards sound in film. I do have to say I was a little disappointed in the article, as it did not really explain the title of the article. I really wanted to hear how she baked a cake on a moving tour bus! I guess maybe it wasn't a wild enough story to tell.
This article drew me in with the title, as I love hearing stories about technician’s lives while on tour, and while I was disappointed in the lack of elaboration about the cake, I thought O’Leary had some really interesting points about the industry and particularly hiring practices. The section about how ‘you are not a project employers want to work on’ was helpful because a lot of people phrase their elevator pitches as ‘I don’t have a lot of experience, but I’m willing to learn!’. Which is all well and good, but when that candidate is placed next to someone who frames themselves as ‘I have a solid foundation of skills and I’m interested in building more’, it’s more likely for the hiring manager to go with the second person. I also thought it was interesting how both the gig she was most proud of and the gig she was least proud of both revolved around communication with the clients, and that even when you’re busy doing things, it can be worth it to take a few minutes and explain what it is you’re actually doing to the non-technical people so they don’t just see a problem and nothing being done to fix it.
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