The following article is a preview chapter of the upcoming Quit Aspiring, Vol.2

On March 23, 2016, a simple argument over the word “Kik” brought the entire internet to its knees.

Before that day, a free and open source software project named “Kik” was created and owned by Turkish software developer Azer Koçulu.  It just so happened that there also existed a Canadian chat/messaging company also named Kik, and they wanted to create their own free and open source software project.

Because brand recognition is important to companies, Kik the company reached out to Koçulu and asked him if he would rename his project.  Thus began a grand combination of soft skill failures in which Koçulu refused, Kik tried to force the issue, Koçulu still refused, and Kik threatened legal action.  Eventually, instead of using soft skills to work together to find a solution – Koçulu was forced to change the name of his “Kik” project.

While much blame lay with Kik the company, the lack of collaboration, frustration and bitterness Koçulu felt lead to his choice to remove all of his software projects from the internet.  One of those projects was “left-pad”, which was 11 lines of code that was used in major sites like Facebook, Netflix, Twitter, and Spotify.

 

 

11 lines of code that broke the internet
Credit: NPM

 

While you likely never experienced a failure due to technology called “caching” – Koçulu’s deletion of this code caused internal builds of all the aforementioned sites to immediately fail.  It was as if one independent person had managed to explode all of Silicon Valley simultaneously.

While we may wish that we were so skilled that everyone would notice if our work one day disappeared, this story is indicative of the fact that our soft skills are usually more important than technical expertise when it comes to problem solving.  And because getting hired is all about demonstrating you can solve a company’s most significant problem – let’s cover three reasons why it’s these soft skills you should probably spend some time with:

1. Having good audio skills is an assumption
2. Companies hire because they’re experiencing problems
3. All a company’s problems are solved via soft skills

No company will hire you if you don’t have the audio skills they’re seeking
While “audio expertise” is absolutely important, it’s also at the forefront of the mind of any audio department hiring manager.  If you don’t immediately and clearly display an appropriate audio skill set the company is looking to hire for, you’ll be weeded out quickly.  This is why companies look at demo reels and have folks do sound tests – the audio skills question is answered first and as quickly as possible.

The mistake most folks make is assuming that companies are looking to hire “a great sound designer” – and while they are, it’s usually not someone’s sound design skill that actually solves the problem that the company is experiencing.

Companies hire to solve problems, and the problem is never “audio skills”
There are a multitude of problems that AAA game companies hire to solve.  It could be that someone recently left the team, or that they have too much work to complete and need additional people, or that they don’t have enough time to accomplish all of their work, or that they need some cross-department communication help, or any number of other things.

From that perspective, you can begin to see how “selling yourself” regarding how good your audio skills are will rarely succeed at getting you hired.  You can’t ignore or neglect your skills, but quickly the question of your expertise will be answered and the company will have other concerns.

Your job during the interview process, then, is not to “sell the company” – but to listen, ask good questions, and figure out what the company’s true problems are.

A company’s problems are almost always solved via soft skills
During the interview process, hiring managers are often thinking about questions like “How quickly do I believe this person can get up to speed on our workflow?” and “How much hand holding will they require during onboarding?” or “Do I believe that this person will work well with non-audio disciplines and make our lives easier?”

Obviously, teamwork and collaboration ability is a very important question to answer too, as most all interview processes end with a larger series of interviews amongst the wider team/company.

As surprising as it may seem – it’s not all that difficult to build up your audio skills in a vacuum.  You can practice daily and get really really good at making sound effects and soliciting feedback from peers on the internet.  What’s always difficult is the process of working well with others, being self-lead, a problem solver, and great teammate even when working in non-ideal circumstances and situations.

Therefore, once a company starts bringing you into phone interviews and in-person interviews, you can begin to relax and trust that your audio know-how has been noticed.  While you’re still going to get questioned about your expertise, at the very least you’ve been judged worth people taking their time to get to know you further and to see if you’re the right fit.

It’s just that determining the right fit usually isn’t discovered by speed with a DAW, deep technical knowledge of Wwise, or how perfectly crafted your sounds are.  Instead, by listening for a company’s real problems – you can explain through examples that you’re trustworthy, a great communicator, and quick to get up to speed (or, whatever else the company may be looking for!)

“But Adam I don’t get it.  Are you saying all the time I’ve spent learning about audio has been a waste?  What if I’m an introvert, frightened, intimidated, and ugh I just hate all of this ‘people’ stuff?”
The vast majority of aspiring audio professionals (and actual audio professionals) do over-index on the audio skills, so you’re not at all alone.

And no, your learnings haven’t been wasted because the audio expertise you have and continue to gain is indeed extremely valuable.  However, for interviews, I’d just encourage you to split more time into thinking about a company’s needs, understanding and solving their unique problems, and becoming more useful than just doing whatever you personally dream of doing (which is why I also don’t suggest cover letters stating “I’ve always dreamed of working at company X”).

And, if you’re an introvert, that’s even better.  Being introverted means that you have a superpower to deeply connect on the most meaningful things to people – including hiring managers.  Introverts are often great listeners and prefer to listen more than speak, they’ll even ingest the energy of others they’re speaking with.  The trick to interviews for an introvert is simply turning interviews around by asking clarifying questions when you give your answers.  If a hiring manager asks you about Wwise knowledge, then asking yourself why they may be asking that question is usually a good lead to initiating good questions of your own.

I’m glad you’re starting to see this now – but for a quick refresher, here’s what we just covered:

1. Companies tend to assume you’re good at audio if they’re interviewing you
2. Solving problems is the reason a company is hiring – its your job to find the problem
3. All a company’s problems are solved via soft skills

Thankfully, you don’t need impeccable soft skills such that you can prevent the entire internet from crashing…
But you should definitely be focusing on those skills during the interview process by asking yourself questions like “Why is the company hiring?” and “What or who exactly are they looking for?” more than you’re brushing up on your Wwise and DAW skills – especially if you’ve got some audio experience already.

Before you move onto the next chapter…
Take a look at some job descriptions online and ask yourself those questions I just mentioned.  Though job descriptions can be vague, they often reveal what’s important to the company, too.  “Collaboration and organizational skills” are regularly listed, sometimes being “self lead” is too.  See if you can root through the job description and find details you’d normally gloss over.  It’s also entirely plausible that the description is all over the place and it’s unclear what they really want – that tells you something, too!