Why you shouldn’t wait to find game audio work

Jackass daredevils Steve-O and Chris Pontius once wanted to swim with great white sharks and film it for MTV. The television network agreed, but only if they hired this specific shark expert who they trusted, named Andre Hartman. So they reached out to him and a date was set. But leading up to the day Hartman canceled last minute on Steve-O and his team after receiving a much higher paying offer from another client.

Undeterred by this, Steve-O and Chris decided they were going to do it anyway, with or without a shark expert and MTV’s permission. So they want out that night for a drink in the local town and there they started loudly outlining their plan to jump in the water and swim around to the shark cage without telling anyone.

One of the locals sitting next to them at the bar overheard their new plan and advised against it, explaining that since sharks are attracted to our swimming they would quickly decide to take a bite out of them just out of curiousity. Instead, the stranger advised them that the safest way to do it would be to jump directly on top of a swimming shark (yeah, cos that sounds SO much safer).

Guess what? That random local was none other than Andre Hartman himself! The three of them ended up hanging out for the rest of the night and amazingly, Hartman totally flipped his decision and was like, “Alright, I’ll take you guys swimming with the big bad sharks.”

Even though he was gonna make less money, he figured he’d rather take Steve-O and Chris out based on this night of socialising. He literally LOST MONEY making this decision and still decided to do it anyway – how mad is that??!? And yeah, also thankfully no one got eaten by a shark.

This story holds a crucial lesson for our professional lives: clients often hire us just because they like us.

It may sound clichéd, but it’s true! As humans, we’re driven more by emotions than rationality. We prefer to make decisions that resonate with our emotions. So today I want to talk about why It’s not always about being the most skilled or having the most experience in order to find work. In fact, simply knowing someone can often be the decisive factor that gets you the job.

This, however, does not undermine the importance of game audio skills – I want to make that abundantly clear. Understanding the fundamentals of sound design, composition and audio middleware are essential nowadays. However, while you’re honing your skills, you can still find work that matches your current level. There’s no need to wait for years to start getting work.

The crux of the matter is that building genuine connections holds more importance than acquiring all the skills right away. It’s crucial to infuse genuineness in your online and in-person interactions.

Let’s explore this emotional decision-making process further. Picture yourself strolling around town in search of a coffee shop. Nowadays we’re spoilt for choice when it comes to finding fast-bean-juice™️™️™️. There are plenty of chain coffee shops; you can find a Starbucks on pretty much every corner of any major city. But when I personally want coffee, I don’t think, “Starbucks is very popular, so I guess I’ll go there!”

Not at all! Instead, I personally prefer to visit La Cherry Coffee here in Barcelona. It’s this quaint little place that barely holds 4 people at once. Lenin, one of the owners, boasts the most impressive hi-fi system I’ve ever seen in a cafe and we always end up discussing how great Thee Sacred Souls are while I order my oat milk latte. Last time I walked in there was Black Sabbath blasting out the speakers and it put the biggest smile on my face. Simply put, I have a much better time there than at any Starbucks. So, naturally, I’d rather go there! Sure, Starbucks is more successful as a brand, and both places sell coffee, but why would that matter if I don’t enjoy myself as much, right?

At the end of the day, the developers and clients that hire us are just like us. Making motional choices on how they want to spend their budgets and who they want to work alongside. To understand this, an effective exercise is to put ourselves in their shoes; if you needed to hire someone tomorrow to work on a project, who would you choose? And is this person someone you already know or a complete stranger?

Typically, we select people from our inner circle. Those closest or most known to us, like friends we make in the industry. The decision-making process usually follows these steps:

Know someone → Like them → Trust them (with responsibility and money)

First, we consider individuals we know; those with whom we’ve established connections.

Next, we focus on those we like; usually those who have made a genuine effort to be kind and get to know us instead of sending unsolicited messages saying “Hey! Need music???”

Finally, if the first two criteria are met, we consider those we trust; handing over the responsibility of a project and investing their money in our services.

So the ultimate goal of networking then is to get to this final stage of building trust.

 

So, how do we build trust?

Trust requires two things: time and effort.

Reflect on your current friendships; they have likely developed over years of shared experiences and interactions. For instance, maybe you went to school with them, in which case you spent years reinforcing your friendship each day hanging out between classes or after-school. Not a small thing right? Also notice how I said years. This is not something that happens overnight or in a couple of months.

Additionally, potential clients and collaborators need assurance of our commitment to our career path. They want to know we aren’t going to suddenly decide to quit being a composer next month and decide to become a shark diving expert instead (i know, it’s tempting).

We can demonstrate this commitment by engaging with the #gameaudio and #indiegame communities on social media on a regular basis. We can discuss our work and showcase our progress whether it be a student project or our first game jam.

We can also start attending regular meet-ups and conferences in our local area, city or country. If in-person events are out of your reach right now, then there are also plenty of online meet-ups across game dev Discord groups (try Game Dev London for a starting point!) which means we can network no matter where in the world we live.

Showing up really is half the battle. The more consistent we become, the more consistently we can reinforce new friendships and connections.

 

Why am I telling you this?

Whether you want to work in AAA or as a freelancer, I see too many students and beginners neglect their networking side of things at the beginning of their careers. Worried that they’re “not good enough to get hired yet” or think think “I’m not a professional yet”. Scared that no one will pick them for a job or an indie project because they’re still students. Whilst these are totally normal concerns to have as a newbie (i also had these), by waiting to start networking we’re only holding ourselves back.

Yes, skills are important. I’m not saying we shouldn’t learn all the fundamentals that we need to work on a project. Something that the www.gameaudiolearning.com website outlines very clearly btw! However, while we’re developing these skills, we can find projects that align with our current level.

If you think about it, we’ll never be done learning or improving. In fact we’ll spend the rest of our careers constantly improving and gaining new skills and knowledge.

So therefore we’re not waiting to reach a certain skill level to find work. Instead, we are continuously seeking projects that match our current abilities, meaning we could start immediately.

 

What can you do today?

Maybe you’ve been putting off finding work because you’re worried about not having enough experience yet. Maybe you think you don’t have all the skills yet so you need to wait. Maybe you want to finish your studies or degree before attending conferences and actively searching for work. These are all totally common concerns. Here are some things you can try to work through them!

Find the next meet-up in your city. Finding the next conference you want to attend and put it in your calendar. Figure out where you can show up in your local area once a month. All you have to do is regularly put yourself in a position to meet people.

Writing down a list of audio professionals you admire. Favourite composers, sound designers or anyone else. The people you would love to get to know. Keep this list handy and next time you feel a surge of confidence, message one of these people and simply thank them for their inspiring work and contribution to the realm of video games.

Share a work-in-progress on social media using appropriate hashtags. Put your name in front of game devs and other audio pros alike. BTW If you want to meet more audio pros then you should totally check out AirWiggles!

Message a dev and thank them for their work. Compliment them on what they’ve recently released or posted on social media. Start your new connections with a genuine message of appreciation rather than cold messaging them asking for a job.

You may feel like you’re not ready to do any of the above yet, that you need to acquire more skills before you can start getting work. But the truth is, you can start now! There’s always work that matches your current skill level. Instead of waiting for the perfect moment, seize the opportunities that are well within your reach now. This might not be paid work just yet; game jams and student projects are a great place to start.

In essence, don’t hold back because you think you’re not the best yet. Strive to be genuine, likeable, and confident. Build connections and foster relationships. This is often the key to unlocking opportunities and achieving professional success.

 

Summing up!

1. We make emotional choices about who we work with, so we should prioritise genuine interactions with new people.
2. Instead of waiting to be ready, we should seek opportunities that match our current skill level.
3. If you’re planning to swim with sharks make sure you get a guide! (here’s the video of Steve-o explaining the story himself)