Interning At A Recording Studio - Part One: Getting An Internship

So you want to be a Grammy-winning audio engineer? Ok. For a moment let's brush aside the obvious challenges (hundreds of kids graduating from audio engineering schools each month to a mere handful of jobs, an industry that is currently in one of the roughest patches it has ever seen, depressingly high divorce rates, no health insurance or benefits to be seen for miles around, 80-100 hour work weeks...you get the idea) and focus on one of the only things that is proven to help you: an internship.

It's hard to avoid. If you are pursuing a career as an audio engineer, sooner or later you will probably be required by your school to complete an internship. If you are not required to do this, then your school is doing you no favors. Go get an internship anyway.

Part One: Getting an internship

I receive dozens of emails and phone calls each week from people inquiring about internships at OmniSound Studios. And in every email and phone call I say the same things:


1. We can only accept interns who are receiving school credit for their internship with us. You can beg to scrub the floors and make coffee for free just for the chance to learn, but we can not help you. I admire the passion, the willingness to work hard–I really, sincerely do–but there is literally nothing we can do for you. If you are working for free (also known as "interning"), then it counts as slave labor unless you can prove you are doing it in exchange for educational training and experience. (If you don't believe me, just read the federal law regulating criteria for internships here.) For a commercial studio, it's a legal disaster waiting to happen if we don't have a paper trail from an accredited institution proving your internship is for school credit.

The next question I get is "But I've already completed my degree! How do I get an internship now?" Each school handles this differently. Many colleges and trade schools that offer degrees in audio engineering have internship coordinators or placement directors that can help students who have already graduated get internships. Call your school. Use your brain. Figure it out. If your school can't help you get an internship, you can go through an accredited apprenticeship program like Recording Connection. Believe me when I say that no commercial studio is going to help you get an internship. Studios have dozens of people begging for internships every single day. They don't have time to do your research for you.

2. It is not going to be glamorous. Most internships at commercial studios will primarily consist of making coffee, answering the phone, cleaning, and making runs for clients and staff. You are not going to be engineering a tracking session any time soon. Be ready to work hard doing menial tasks for a long time. If you want an internship that plays out like a scene from a rockumentary–look elsewhere.

3. Be 18 or older for goodness sake. This is a recording studio we are talking about. It's not a brothel, but it's also not a place for anyone under the age of 18. If you are a 16-year-old girl looking for a cool summer internship, please, please do not try to get an internship at a recording studio. Your parents will thank me. One day you will thank me too.

Once you are sure you meet all the criteria and you are ready to bust your tush for a chance to learn from the pros, the next step is getting the internship. Each studio handles things a little bit differently, but at OmniSound we choose our interns through an interview process.

• Email ahead of time to see if there are any internship positions currently available (or any positions that will be opening up soon) and attach your resume. If the studio has any internships coming up and thinks you would be a good fit, then they will schedule an interview.
• Don't show up late for the interview, but don't show up early either. If you need to wait in the car for a few minutes, that's ok. Chances are the person who is interviewing you is busy doing their job and scheduled your interview for a specific time for a reason.

Other studios may approach how they choose their interns differently, but at Omni, we tend to select the people we think have the right attitude and personality rather than the people who have the most technical knowledge. We can train anyone to be a great intern (and eventually a great assistant engineer), but we can not train people to have the right personality or attitude. If we sense that you are going to be passing out your demos to clients in the lounge or telling our staff engineers your opinion on how you think they should do things, we will not be giving you a call back.

If you get the internship, then you're already doing something right. But don't pat yourself on the back just yet. You still have to worry about getting the most out of your internship. And it's not as easy as you might think.

Check out part two: Getting the Most Out of Your Internship.