Interning At A Recording Studio - Part Two: Getting The Most Out Of Your Internship

Last time we covered some basics of getting an internship in part one of our "Interning At A Recording Studio" series. This week it's time to dig into the real nitty gritty.

Part Two: Getting the Most Out of Your Internship

So now you've got an internship. What's next? While every studio has different expectations for their interns, there are definitely a few tips that are good for every new intern to know.

First, we'll cover the things you should not do.

1. Do not hand out your demos. Ever. Period. Unless someone approached you, asked about your life story, and begged for a demo, it's safe to say that you should not be giving them out.
2. Do not tell the clients or staff how to do their job. It's always ok to ask if you can help, but it's not ok to inform the staff or clients how they should do things. Remembering that you are at the bottom of the food chain may not be a pleasant thought, but it will keep you from getting fired.
3. Do not neglect personal hygiene. I shouldn't have to tell you this, but shower. Please. I know we are in a creative business, but it is still a business.
4. Do not crash sessions. Unless you were personally invited by someone who is a part of the session and the staff excuses you from your intern duties, you should not be in someone else's session.

Following the rules above is easy, but it will not make you stand out from the throngs of other interns. Here's some things that you should do to be a good intern:

1. Do your job. This may not sound like a revolutionary tip, but from years of observing a constant revolving door of mediocre interns I can attest that simply doing your job is something that will set you apart. If your studio has a list of intern duties, make sure that you reference it every single day and complete every task without fail. If they don't have a list, ask what your duties should be and create your own.

But if you want to be a really outstanding intern...


1. Try to stay busy. There are going to be times when there is nothing to do. Times when you've completed the list of daily tasks and you're ready to settle into a three-hour long YouTube binge. But resist the temptation! There is always something to be done. If it is your job is to take out the trash, make sure there is never a piece of trash in any of the trash cans. Be vigilant in your work, no matter how menial. Most interns will follow this rule for the first week or two, but eventually slip into a Facebook coma. If you want to stand out, you have to stick to it throughout even the most boring, slow days. (Just a side note: listening to music or watching videos on your laptop while on duty gives a very bad impression.)

2. Go above and beyond. Forgive the cliche, but there's no other way to say it. Anyone but a crazed lunatic can be a good intern by avoiding the "don'ts" and doing what is asked of them, but good interns may receive little more than a pat on the back and a "good job" at the end of the day. You don't want that. You want to learn, to have people take notice and be willing to invest their time in helping you. That's what an internship is all about, right? And in order for that to happen, you have to do more than what is required of you. Get creative. Initiate your own projects. Find things that need improving and improve them. I've seen interns go above and beyond by doing everything from cleaning the outside windows (when we did not ask them to) to donating their web programming or graphic design skills.

3. Ask the right questions. For the most part, it's always ok to ask questions, but I've had interns who asked so many questions that I was convinced that they completely lacked the ability to think for themselves. When I tell you, "Go to the post office and mail this package with the most standard, no-frills shipping," I'm going to be really annoyed when you call me from the post office asking if I want to have it insured. The kinds of questions that will help set you apart from the crowd are questions that indicate that you want to learn. When you ask the staff a question like "how do you guys set up your headphone system?" they are going to take notice of the fact that you are actively trying to learn.

4. Develop relationships. This may sound like a classic, but there's a twist. Schools tell students that one of the most important things you can get out of an internship are relationships–and this is true, but one of the biggest mistakes interns make is misinterpreting this to mean making relationships with clients instead of making relationships with the staff.

If you focus on forging relationships with the clients in a recording studio, you may do yourself more harm than good. Chances are that when that big-time drummer you've always idolized is taking a break in the lounge watching TV between songs, he wants to be doing just that. This may sound really evil and harsh, but in most cases it is always best to be neither seen nor heard and let the clients approach you, rather than the other way around. And don't worry–it will happen. People are generally nice (especially in Nashville) and chances are that sooner or later clients will approach you and strike up friendly conversations. But when you try to intrude into people's sessions, or into a client's conversation in the lounge, you are only hurting yourself by alienating the clients and annoying the staff.

And this is the really important part...

The most important relationships are your relationships with the staff.

The recording studio staff are the people who will help you get the most out of your internship and may potentially help you get a job. These are the people you want to impress. When a staff engineer at OmniSound sees an intern who has gone above and beyond their assigned duties and has great relationships with the other interns and staff, it is very common for the staff engineer to "adopt an intern". This should be your goal. When a staff engineer takes you under their wing, you might learn anything from how to mic a drum kit or read the Nashville number system, to how to run a full-blown tracking session. At Omni, we have had promising interns engineer last minute vocal sessions, sit in on large sessions (when invited by the staff) and in one extreme case we even had an intern assist a large-scale Nashville tracking session with some of the town's biggest studio musicians. And none of this would have happened without them going above and beyond and cultivating healthy relationships with the staff.

So it's easy to see that while interning may be a boring job filled with menial tasks at the beginning, it is well worth doing a good job in order to open up to doors to greater opportunities. Currently all the staff at OmniSound Studios were hired after completing internships. We have also had interns from OmniSound hired at other large studios throughout town, as well as one who went on to head a record label and manage some of the biggest artists in the industry. The possibilities are endless, but you have to know that you are competing against literally thousands of other interns just like you.