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New Years Resolutions to Keep

If you’re seeking a promotion at work or are looking to make a job change, taking the time to enhance your skills and your qualifications will make it much easier to take the next step up the career ladder.

Individuals who continually upgrade their skills to keep pace with developments in their field will have the best chance of doing well in their career, both with their current employer and when job searching. Here are 10 ways to keep your job skills current and resume up to date

Time to Update Your Resume and Social Media

Before applying for jobs or internships – take some time to clean up your resumes and social media

Tips for resumes and social media

Industry Directories – Get Yourself Listed

Internships

Intuit QuickBooks’ Complete Guide To Filing Self-employment Taxes

Identify In-Demand Skills for Your Occupation

The first step in keeping your skills current is to identify the talents which employers value the most in your field. Review job titles for positions in your career field. Also review the top skills required by employers, both general and job-specific.

Get the Scoop

Speak with human resources staff at your current employer to gain more insight into the most preferred skills for your profession. Analyze the background of standout performers at your employer or stars from your professional associations and identify any skills that have helped them to excel.

Follow Industry Leaders on Social Media

Many corporate CEOs and industry leaders now post regularly on social media sites like LinkedIn in order to establish themselves as “thought leaders” or “influencers.” By following them on social media, you’ll be better able to identify new directions in your profession, learn about the skills employers most often seek in your field, and decide upon which skills would be the most important for you to focus upon.

Make a Professional Development Plan

Once you have identified your target skills, make a professional development plan to chart your career trajectory and then strengthen or gain the most in-demand skills for your occupation.

Attend a Workshop

Technology workshops or online tutorials are often offered by software providers and third-party groups. For example, there are free or low-cost online programming classes available.

Go to School

In addition, check with local colleges and adult education programs since they will often offer courses or seminars to help employees upgrade their knowledge and skills. Check out certificate programs and online educational courses you can take to revamp your skill set quickly.

Attend Professional Networking Events

Professional networking conferences are a great way to both build your professional conference list and to compare your skills to those of others in your career field.

Read Professional Journals

Professional journals and trade magazines are one of your best resources to keep abreast of technology developments in your industry and to track changes in best practices. By reading these regularly, you’ll be able to keep a running list of the rising areas where you might improve your knowledge.

Volunteer

Volunteer to take on projects at work or volunteer at organizations where you can develop and apply the skills you’re working on. Your ultimate goal should be to be able to document your key skills when you want to land a new job, gain a promotion, or justify a pay raise. Your volunteer work can be included on your resume just like paid work experience.

Develop Both Hard and Soft Skills

While it’s vital that you remain current on the hard skills of your profession (the job-specific skills you learned in college or in a training or certificate program), there is always room for improvement in interpersonal soft skills as well. Take a hard look at how well you communicate with others, organize your workflow or office space, or manage your time. If there are areas where you find yourself lacking, it may be time for you to focus on strengthening these soft skills.

More Tips For Updating Your Skills

Here are a couple of more tips to keep your skills updated.

Highlight Your Applicable Skills When Applying for Jobs

Be sure to reference your most relevant skills in your cover letters and resumes. It’s important that what you include in your job application materials is as close a match to the job as possible the closer a match you are, the better your chances of getting the job.

Start Over

Once you have done some or all of the above, start over. Keeping your skills current is an ongoing process. Technology is constantly changing, and your skills need to keep pace in order for you to be as marketable as possible.

If you plan on spending some time engaging in professional development on a regular basis, you’ll be able to upgrade your skills without too much effort. It’s easier to plan ahead than it is to scramble when you’re job hunting and realize that you don’t have the qualifications employers are seeking.

Danielle Lewis – Be a Sponge

Danielle M. Lewis is a FOH and Monitor Engineer and also takes on the role of production manager. She works for AEG at The Keswick Theatre in Glenside, PA. Danielle has over 18 years of experience working in live events. She attended Drexel University and graduated with a BS in Communications and Applied Technology and an MS in Arts Administration.

Early Life

When did you discover audio as a career path? 

I discovered audio as a career path in the very late 90’s/early 2000s. I was unaware of it as a kid, young person, or young adult.

How did you get interested in audio? 

I became interested in audio because I sang on a recorded gospel choir, the director of the choir decided to return to school full-time so he disbanded the choir. I loved to sing and absolutely love music but “coincidentally” I developed allergies and asthma, so I asked myself “How can I stay connected to music?” I had a science and math background and always enjoyed physics. My thought was, “Hmmm, sound is a part of music, let me research and investigate the audio aspect of music!”

Did music and audio interest you while you were growing up?

Music DEFINITELY did. I have always been drawn to music ever since I could remember. Fond memories as a child of visiting my relatives in Washington DC, one of my Aunts had an extensive record collection. She bought me my first vinyl, The Jackson 5’s first album ABC!

Career Start

How did you get your start?

I started by volunteering with a small sound company in Delaware while working full-time at Verizon. I also joined the Multimedia Ministry at my church that happened to be a 3000-seat facility.

How did your early internships or jobs help build a foundation for where you are now?

My 12-year career at Verizon helped lay my foundation in customer service and leadership. My tenure at the church, where I “cut my teeth” helped prepare me for doing audio professionally. Oftentimes things were done off the cuff and unstructured at church so when I began taking gigs outside of the church and learned there was a plan, I was more at ease because I knew what to expect.

What did you learn interning or on your early gigs?

Be early, be a sponge and ask questions. Learn the craft!

Did you have a mentor or someone that really helped you?

I did not have an official mentor, but various individuals helped me by exposing me to different gigs and trusting me with challenging gigs necessary for growth.

Career Now

Production Manager at Keswick Theatre, Freelance PM/Audio engineer

What is a typical day like?

My “typical” day varies because it depends on if it is a show day (the type of show) or a non-show day. Non-show days are less hectic for obvious reasons. Those days are spent talking to tours, reserving equipment, scheduling labor…all things involving advancing a show.

On show days, I try to arrive 60 mins ahead of the tech’s/crew call time. This enables me to print day sheets, input lists, and stage plots for the show.

Once the crew arrives and the tour is onsite, the first thing I do is COVID-19 check everyone in. This involves verifying the vaccination card of the tour. We then proceed to load-in and set up the show. I sometimes participate but am often called away to handle other things or continue advancing future shows, approving invoices, etc.

Soundcheck happens after we are all set, then there is usually dinner, the doors of the theatre open an hour before showtime. Then during the show, I am either in my office advancing other shows or some other type of paperwork or I stay stage left in case there is a problem on stage.

Then the strike happens and then load-out. This is an abbreviated run down as you are constantly answering questions, putting out fires, and doing admin stuff as the day is going. Sound easier than it is

How do you stay organized and focused?

I try to stick to methods and procedures, when and where possible. It is challenging and often you can feel all over the place but it is organized chaos often, LOL.

What do you enjoy the most about your job?

The music, getting to meet and experience different people, and the satisfaction that I am a part of bringing the arts to people’s lives.

What do you like least?

The hours, it takes a toll on your personal life. You have to miss many important days and times in your loved ones’ lives etc.

If you tour what do you like best?

When I did tour I enjoyed seeing different places, but also having to do a show in different locations and settings, helps to keep you sharp. You are placed in different scenarios thus experiencing new and different problems to solve.

What do you like least?

The hours and potential lack of showers LOL

What is your favorite day off activity?

Sleep, spending time with family & friends,

What are your long-term goals?

Long term I would love to reach more women to expose them to our industry. Also, live sound to be recognized as a respected sector of the industry by NARAS.

What if any obstacles or barriers have you faced?

I have definitely faced obstacles due to gender biases, as well as race.

How have you dealt with them?

Strive to be the best I can be in multiple areas of production. Learn various aspects of the business so that you can wear many hats. When music gigs are scarce, I have been fortunate to work on corporate gigs. Not always as exciting but it was steady work with excellent compensation!

Advice you have for other women and young women who wish to enter the field?

If this is what you love to do, then show up believing you belong in the room! Make it a point to add value and try to leave the place better for you having been there.

Must have skills?

Effective communication and interpersonal skills

Favorite gear? 

My favorite piece of gear is the Midas Heritage 3000 console, yes, I am dating myself but it is a sweet smooth sounding board.

 

Volunteers Needed

Nothing gets done by one person alone, which means we have to band together to make the changes we want to see in the world. Volunteerism has indeed been the fuel to the fires of change both on international and local fronts. Volunteering your time, skills, and resources is one of the most powerful ways to make a difference, to help others, and as it turns out, to enhance your wellbeing.

SoundGirls is seeking volunteers to run and assist with these important programs

Webinars on Audio – Using Zoom
Scheduling Online Mentoring VIA Zoom
Working on Trade Shows (NAMM, AES, Music Expo)
Writing Feature Profiles
Organizing SoundGirls Chapters

If you are interested please fill out the volunteer application form

If you have questions about these volunteer positions please email us soundgirls@soundgirls.org

7 Benefits of Volunteering that Will Inspire You to Take Action

 

The SoundGirls Podcast and Living History Project is Seeking Volunteer Editors

 

The SoundGirls Podcast and Living History Project are volunteer-run and features interviews with audio professionals (from all walks of life) to learn how we can better support one another towards a more diversified industry. We are seeking podcast and living history editors to assist with post-production.

Editors will be responsible for:

Required skills:

Preferred skills:

If you are interested in volunteering you can apply here

The deadline is Feb. 1st

SoundGirls Podcast Producer and Host Volunteers

Want to learn how to produce and host a podcast? This opportunity might be for you

We are looking for some passionate, dynamic hosts and co-hosts volunteers that would be interested in taking the reins of the SoundGirls Podcast this coming May.

Our vision with the SoundGirls Podcast is to pass it on to inspire and empower young women and girls in our field. SoundGirls that have a desire to build the best SG podcasts possible.

Do you love to talk to people about their lives and our industry? Do you have creative ideas you would love to do with a podcast? Do you desire to interview others and find out more about them? Do you have a passion to build the SoundGirls network, through discussions about diversity, inclusion, and sharing the tools to help the next generation of women in audio? Do you have interviewing experience and abilities?

What is expected

You will be scheduling your guests (we have a growing list), interviewing guests, producing a graphic for social media, and uploading each episode (after it is edited) to our podbean account. You may possibly do some light editing of the podcast too.

Time Commitment

Each interview takes about an hour to record. Editing can take up to three hours per episode, scheduling, posting, and graphic content can take up to three hours a week. Your time commitment is approx. 10 hours a week.

Gear needed

A great audio interface like (Focusrite, M-audio air, or SSL2+), a great vocal microphone (Shure Sm7B, Rode NT1, or whatever makes your voice sound amazing), a quiet room, a good pair of headphones, a pop filter, and squadcast recording software (we use squadcast to separately multitrack record interviews and each other). A DAW (ProTools, Audacity, Audition) for editing.

What you can expect

We will help you: We have streamlined a process that has helped keep us on track. We have systems in place and won’t throw you to the wolves. An ongoing schedule of guests, a google drive account, an SG Pod email, and templates for graphics, as well as a squadcast account and a podbean account. We will train you on how to make all these things work for you.

Training dates: March 1st, 2022 through May 1st, 2023 via Zoom

Your Start date: May 1st, 2022

This is a volunteer position and you will be working with two or three other podcast hosts, under the supervision and guidance of Beckie Campbell and Susan Williams, Katie Pagacz, our current and former podcast hosts. This volunteer position is a year-long commitment and you will train 2022 volunteers. The application deadline is Feb. 1, 2022.

Apply here

You can listen to the SoundGirls Podcast here

 

 

The Soundgirls Podcast is Seeking New Bumper Music

The SoundGirls Podcast is looking for submissions

We are looking for a new music bed for the SoundGirls Podcast!
What we need: A 1:00min fully designed and produced music bed by one of our SoundGirls, for intro and outro music for the SoundGirls podcast.
Be creative!
What you receive: Your music played weekly on the Soundgirls podcast, a mention/shout out for your work on the SoundGirls podcast. A post on the SoundGirls Podcast and SoundGirls social media with links to your work/CV.
Please send all submissions to: soundgirlspod@gmail.com and put “Music Bed Submission” in the subject line. 

 

Sennheiser Latin America Providing Grants for Latin America SoundGirls

Gracias al generoso apoyo de Sennheiser Latin America podemos otorgar 20 becas para la Conferencia Virtual SoundGirls. Estas subvenciones están disponibles para SoundGirls que residen en América Latina.
Aplicar aquí
Si solo necesita asistencia financiera, solicite aquí. Esto asegurará que podamos proporcionar subvenciones y ayuda financiera a todos.
Aplicar aquí

Thanks to the generous support of Sennheiser Latin America we are able to provide 20 grants for The SoundGirls Virtual Conference. These grants are available to SoundGirls residing in Latin America.

We will be filling these on a first come first serve basis Apply here

If you only need financial assistance please apply here. This will make sure we can provide grants and financial aid to all.

Emily Magpie – Mastering Engineer

 

Emily Magpie is a Mastering Engineer and recently launched Emily Magpie Mastering. Emily has been working in audio for the last seven years and attended dBs The Sound & Music Institute where she was tutored by Josh Hills (mastering engineer for Sony, EMI). Based in Bristol, Emily works as a producer + musician and her work has been championed by  BBC 6’s Tom Robinson, The Line of Best Fit, Mahogany, Earmilk and amassed over 90,000 plays on Spotify. Emily is proud to be part of the growing 2% of women working as music producers and care deeply about supporting others in their journey.

Emily has always had an interest in music and audio “I’ve always loved music. I began writing, singing, and playing various instruments and could always hear a world around my songs in my head and wanted to explore creating that through production. I was always determined to keep learning, growing & exploring.” During her teenage years, Emily performed as a vocalist for a jazz orchestra. This experience gave Emily a foundation for arrangement, improvisation, and the joy of music. Emily has been performing and producing her own music experimenting with sounds in her bedroom and learned the music production process from other talented producers and engineers. This encouraged Emily to head back to school and formalize her experiences. She recently graduated from dBS The Sound + Music Institute, where she studied DJ + Electronic Music Production.

 

Career Start

What did you learn with internships and mentoring? 

Clarity + communication at the start saves so much time later!

Did you have a mentor or someone that really helped you? 

In the early days, a friend of mine Anuj Robin taught me so much about production. The support + kindness of others like that in the industry still makes me feel in awe.

Career Now

What is a typical day like?

Doing some yoga + having coffee, getting back to mastering inquiries + other bits of admin then diving into working on mastering for other artists + producers.

Some days I’ll work on production for my own music too and have band practice some evenings. Every day is different and full of music in all different forms!

How do you stay organized and focused?

I have a paper diary + many to-do lists in my notebook. I write everything down and decide when I’ll work on each job. As a mastering engineer, you can be working on a lot of different projects so organisation is key!

What do you enjoy the most about your job?  

I love hearing such a wide range of music and figuring out how to make it sound its best. It’s really fun hearing the artist + producers’ vision for their tracks and helping them achieve or exceed that. I get a lot of satisfaction from my clients being excited about their final masters.

What do you like least? 

It does mean a lot of time on a computer but I try to balance that with exercise and doing fun things outside when I’m not working!

If you tour, what do you like best? 

I have been lucky enough to play a couple of sold-out socially-distant gigs with my own music over lockdown which have felt really special. I just love connecting with an audience. It’s nice to get up on stage and perform as well as spending time absorbed in musical worlds when producing- I love the balance of spending time in internal + external worlds.

More on Emily

​​https://emilymagpiemastering.co.uk/

emilymakesmusic6@gmail.com

Instagram @emilymagpiemastering

Emily Magpie

Production Audio

 

Before Mean Girls was planning to hit the road again, I got the opportunity to work on the re-start of the Cats tour as the production audio. That was a job I had never considered myself remotely capable of pre-pandemic, but as the world started to open back up, I was itching for a chance to get back into a theatre and more than ready for what I now viewed as a challenge instead of an impossibility.

I’m sure more than a few people reading this have never heard of production audio before. It’s not a job that’s billed on the front of the playbill like the designer, and they’re only with the show to get it up and running, so you’re not going to see them in the theatre when you go to watch a show. So what do they actually do?

 

So. Very. Much. They’re responsible for the logistics of taking a show from theory to reality. Given paperwork from the designer, they interface with production, design, and the shop to get all the equipment needed and figure out how everything goes together. How will all the gear fit into racks? What cables do you need to connect everything? Do you need infrastructure for MIDI or timecode? Networked computers so you can operate amps, consoles, or programs remotely? Who in the crew will need com and/or video and how does it get to them? Which speakers will need rigging hardware and do you know where they’re going to go or should you bring multiple options?

It’s a parade of endless questions

Which requires an extremely organized person, a good communicator, and a lot of technical knowledge. My pre-COVID hesitation had always been the last part. I knew I was organized and could keep people in the loop, but I know the tech-heavy aspects of sound don’t hold my interest nearly as much as the more artistic side of things, and I’d always assumed that meant I would be a disaster in such a job.

Thankfully, with the tour re-mounting instead of being a brand new production, the system was already built and sitting in a warehouse. That removed the most complicated technical part of the job from my plate, plus I’d worked with the original designer and production team before, so I was familiar with how they built their shows. That was actually why I got the call for the job: I may never have done production before, but I knew how to tour and what I’d be working with.

With that part already taken care of, my job was mostly coordination and improving efficiency. On a new show, the crew has two or three weeks in the shop to get all the gear, rack it up, cable, and test everything. For the remount, we took the existing system back to the shop and we had two weeks to make the changes the designer and production manager had agreed on so the show could load in and out faster. (It was going to a schedule with shorter stops and more frequent moves.) I had a list of items that were getting cut (under-balcony speakers, remote com stations, etc) and substitutions that were being made (drums mics swapping out for an e-kit, the console changing over from an SD7 to an SD10), as well as evaluating anything we could tweak to make the touring crew’s life easier.

The shop crew consisted of me as the production audio, the A1, A2, and a few locals who are audio people that work on or around Broadway. I was in charge of hiring the local crew which was something completely new to me, but I was fortunate to have friends in the NYC area who were veterans of plenty of shop builds and were both available to work and willing to help me navigate a job I had never done before. Pro tip: hire people smarter than you and listen to them. A large portion of the success of the show can be directly attributed to my shop crew. They helped me work through technical questions, pointed out when I’d missed things or might have incorrect information, and offered advice when I needed help or they knew a better solution. With their help, I didn’t have to know all the technical answers and could lean on their expertise.

At the end of the two weeks, we packed everything on a truck, and the A1, A2, and I went to tech. Now I was back in familiar territory, just in a different role. Instead of loading in the show in my usual role as the A1, my job as production was to take care of setting up anything that the road crew shouldn’t have to touch on a normal load in or out: cameras that live in electrics truss, speakers that are mounted to set pieces, setting up for an orchestra rehearsal that would only happen in tech, etc. My goal was to always be one step ahead of everyone else, whether that was having tech tables set up before designers came in, making sure speakers had the correct hardware and were ready for the crew to set up, or ordering supplies to make sure we had everything we’d need.

I liked this part of the production process the best. After almost a decade on tour, I’d tried many ways to streamline shows and I knew what worked, what didn’t, and what could make a project less of a pain. So I rigged up speakers, spiked placement, color-coded cables, and did my level best to make the system as easy as possible to move.

All in all, I consider my first go at production a success. Did I do everything perfectly? Nope, definitely not. But the fact that I was willing to ask for help and advice meant that most of the problems I encountered were minor or the crew knew it was an honest mistake and were willing to give me some grace while I fixed it. Am I going to change my career trajectory now that I know I wouldn’t be an abject failure at production? Again, no. It was empowering to try something new and I truly enjoyed the work, but in the shop I still found myself wishing every once in a while that I was the one building the racks instead of answering endless emails and phone calls, printing labels, and fielding questions. In tech, I occasionally itched to push faders instead of sitting at my tech table placing yet another online order and looking over what seemed like endless lists of projects to do and fixes to make. On the other hand, I wouldn’t automatically turn down the opportunity as I had in the past. It was gratifying to see my to-do list slowly dwindle down as we went through tech and I loved the feeling of accomplishment when I knew I’d made some part of the tour just a little bit easier to load in. Since it was the A2’s first tour, I was also able to give him advice of pitfalls he should avoid and the best ways I’d found to speed up my workflow. Touring is a very odd combination of skills, and it was good to know I could pass on my accumulated knowledge to make someone else’s life easier.

This past 18 months of pandemic gave me a good opportunity to reevaluate my skills and realize that, not only was I capable of more than I thought, but I had a wonderful community around me who wanted to see me succeed and was willing to help make that happen. So, maybe, as the entertainment world comes back to life, try something new. You might find yourself pleasantly surprised!

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