About internships / apprentice

[Pedantic Sound]

Degrees, while helpful I guess, will likely not be a deal breaker on whether you get an internship or not. How you carry yourself, and your previous work experience are generally more important.

[Camera]

Make use of your BA and offer a studio/busy engineer your services to work up their website and maintain it. Optimize the site to bring in more work the them (AND YOU). The SAE thing is a joke as far as using it to impress anyone that has the potential of offering you an opportunity.

Make yourself invaluable and you will secure a job.

It's hard work, BUT SOMEONE HAS TO DO IT.

There are so many that do not want to work hard.

[NotchontheRocks]

You probably won't land an internship in a studio based on your formal education (not saying it isn't important). You'll get it through persistence, people skills, maybe an impressive demo CD of previous work, and most of all, luck.

[Osbar]

Ok. So if I understand a little...
I'll be better if I just keep teaching myself through video tutorials, books and practicing in my home studio rather than paying for some online courses?

Maybe investing in my own gear would be better and offering something that the studio needs in exchange would be helpful.
Yes?

[NotchontheRocks]

Originally Posted by Osbar

Ok. So if I understand a little...
I'll be better if I just keep teaching myself through video tutorials, books and practicing in my home studio rather than paying for some online courses?

Maybe investing in my own gear would be better and offering something that the studio needs in exchange would be helpful.
Yes?

Well, not necessarily. I was just saying that when it comes to finding an INTERNSHIP, formal education won't do much to help you. However, having a formal education can be a tremendous help. A professional teaching a class can offer you ideas and ways of thinking that you would be hard pressed to find in a YouTube tutorial. I almost decided not to pursue a formal education but chose to anyways, and I do not regret it a bit.

[Osbar]

Alright.. thank you all for your help.

Anyone else that would like to help me please?

[mattjew24]

My internship, as well as many here in Nashville, are landed through school. School's internship department got me an internship. I interviewed of course though. Many studios refuse non-education related interns for fear of being sued for labor.

Thankfully I now work with music and actually make money off it...interning sucks.

[mattjew24]

You need an "In" to a studio...be it your school getting you the internship or getting it through friends or yourself.

Once you're in, it's go time.

[Osbar]

Originally Posted by mattjew24

Once you're in, it's go time.

You stayed working with the same people after your internship?

[mattjew24]

Originally Posted by Osbar

You stayed working with the same people after your internship?

No but I get a good rate on booking the studio and made connections and learned a LOT by sitting in on every session.

[erichickman]

You could try this program: Recording Connection. I know your not really looking to go into school now, but I thought it was a neat program. Not really like school anyway. I'm getting ready to start within two weeks. Can give you more info on the program then!

Hope that helps! And good luck!

[Sir Chris]

When I interview interns for the company I work for, we do look at education but the deal breaker for us is your personality/likability factor, and how talented you are so if you can show previous work that'll help.

A lot of times we take kids that have no formal education but you can tell they really want to learn the job. Autodidact (depending how much you know) is even more impressive cause it shows initiative, tact, and work ethic to an extent. For an autodidact it's hard to gauge the extent of their knowledge so we usually want to see examples of previous work. Depending on the job and extent of their knowledge we'll take an autodidact over someone with formal education just cause we enjoy their company better and the fact that you took the time and did it on your own speaks volumes about your passion for the job.

[Thomas W. Bethe]

Unfortunately there are not a lot of studios looking for paid interns. A lot of the smaller and midsize studios are hanging on by their finger tips and don't have a staff except the owner/engineer and maybe a receptionist/book keeper/go for who is being paid just above minimum wage.

There are lots of studios that want unpaid interns but unfortunately they only want someone to clean the toilets, run for lunch or snacks and do other tasks that the owner or manager does not want to do. The days of sitting in on a session or being a tape operator and learning the ropes from the ground up are gone.

Best of luck but PLEASE go into this with your eyes wide open.

[Billly]

When you go to the interview, how should you present your demos? Purely by CD or should you go with multiple formats?

[Camera]

Originally Posted by Billly

When you go to the interview, how should you present your demos? Purely by CD or should you go with multiple formats?

Don't present your demos.

If you had something worth to present, it would not be to an internship/apprentice.

If they ask for one, MP3 via email will work just fine.

[Bill Way]

A few thoughts:

"Paid interns"? I thought that was an oxymoron.

Recording Connection: I did it as an amateur and liked it. Am still going in to help out a couple days a week (over 2 years doing it now) because I enjoy it, and I make my money doing other things. That said, I do know a couple guys who started with it and now have their own studios going - one part-time, one full-time. I't not impossible, but the odds are really long and you gotta really want it. Hooking up with a long-term boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse who can support the two of you for the initial years really helps, so make that part of your business plan.

One more thought: yes, I take out the trash, I do the dishes, set up and break down the live room, and sometimes clean the bathrooms. But I also get a fair amount of time with my fingers on the buttons, and have gotten to know a lot of pretty great performers. It depends on the relationship you establish with the studio owner.

WW

[Osbar]

Originally Posted by Thomas W. Bethe

There are lots of studios that want unpaid interns but unfortunately they only want someone to clean the toilets, run for lunch or snacks and do other tasks that the owner or manager does not want to do. The days of sitting in on a session or being a tape operator and learning the ropes from the ground up are gone.

Best of luck but PLEASE go into this with your eyes wide open.

Thank You.
Thanks for all you're advise. I am aware of all that. I'm positive that I can find someone who will let me clean and make coffe, but let me learn too, jeje..

.. What about post production studios? Are there any oportunities for an internship in this that you or anyone else might know?

[Osbar]

Originally Posted by Bill Way

A few thoughts:

"Hooking up with a long-term boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse who can support the two of you for the initial years really helps, so make that part of your business plan.

WW

jajaja... First on the business plan list then..