Quote:
Originally Posted by
cletus
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Anyone ever been an intern at a studio and then after a couple of months working for free, realized that all the have been doing is scrubbing toilets, taking out trash, and ansewering phones? Well that seems to be the case here with me and I have heard that interns have a tendency to get taken advantage of. It would'nt be so bad if there was an equal amount a learning going on but so far the most I've done is set up a few mics and coiled some cables. I chose to do an internship instead of going to school for financial reasons. I heard that it could be just as valuable as school if you get into the right studio with the right people and apply yourself. I have acouple of options. I can continue to bust the engineers balls to teach me something or I can bail and find anotherr studio that is more proffesional with their interns. It would be nice to hear from some fellow gear slutz about this topic and suggestions are very welcome. Thanx!
There's a lot of great responses already, but who told you that getting an intership was a good thing?
That seems to be the recording school party line and in most cases, the people you'd like to emulate do not have jobs as engineers. Michael Brauer works as an engineer, but he probably hasn't been employed asn an engineer in 20+ years.
I think getting started as an apprentice at the right studio can be a great thing, but there can't be more than a dozen or two "right studios" in the country.
As far as interships, what's in it for the studio? What do they get out of letting you in there? Free labor for crap work and you get a resume credit. That's a reasonable trade.
Let's step it up a notch. They teach you a little something. What do they get out of that?
Now you're in the control room, and you a risk. You can open your mouth at the wrong time and cost them a long term relatioship. You can keep your mouth shut and the client asks your opinion becuase they're all insecure and need to hear good things. You could open your mouth and cost a long term relatioship. Or, you could keep your mouth shut and cost them a long term relatioship.
So now, you've learned something, and the studio has you in the control room and you're a risk. Good for you, bad for them.
Now, the issue is, do they have a need for engineers that they've trained and can trust. If so, then there's a reason for them to take that risk because they have to take it on someone evetually. But, most studios don't have salaried engineers. there are many big commercial places that have a coupel who will never leave or they're commerical and it's a real estate business where the cleint brings everything and every one. Or the do hip hop or pop where the producer is operating ProTools and reocrding one mic at a time max. Or it's an owner operated place and they're never going to hire you because the owner does the work.
If you wnat to do more than that first little trade of crap work ofr a resume credit, yo've got to figure out what's in it for the studio to teach you something. Once you figure that out, everything will click. Another way to look at it is, what can you do that by them giving you money for that, they'll make back more than they paid you.
It's going to be a very rare situation where the answer is be being a good engineer. I know plenty of phenominal engineers with great credits who need work. There are more good enigneers around than necessary. I know plenty of non-great engineers making decent money. There's no specific universal reason why they're as successful as they are, but the universal reason they're getting paid is that the studio owner makes money when they pay these individuals.
Step one is make yourself valuable.
Step two is make yourself more valuable.
The closer you can get to indespensble, the more leverage you'll have to ask for what you want.
They're giving you certain responsibilities. Maybe those are your opportunities to make yourself valuable or maybe you need to get creative to make yourself valuable. I can think of lots of different approaches, but it doesn't help you to give you ideas as the best answer will be based on you as an individual.
This business is changing at the moment and it's going to continue to change. If you can't figure out how to make yourself valuable in any context, you're really going to be screwed when the context changes around you and it most definitely will.