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Thursday, February 25, 2010

Climbing The Sound Mountain: Part 2, The Job Interview

Our fictionalized - but instructional - series on making it in the sound reinforcement business continues

Go here to read the entire Sound Mountain Series.

Ben Davis knew this was it, and he was ready. He had secured an interview with Frank of Frank’s Sound Company and Show Rentals, and he was right on time.

Frank let Ben walk into the office behind him, and then shut the door and motioned for Ben to sit down in one of the leather couches at the corner of the room. “You can relax, Ben,” said Frank with a warm smile. “This will be nice and casual.”

Ben sat down and felt the cool luxury of the leather, which did nothing to diminish his excitement. He handed his resume to Frank, who set it down on the stylish coffee table between them without looking at it.

Frank started out by asking Ben: “So, tell me: why do you want to work here?” This question threw Ben momentarily because he simply hadn’t thought of that in so many words.

He stammered just a touch, “Well, uh, that’s a good question. I think it comes down to my desire to work in the audio field and you guys are the big company in town. Your reputation is excellent, as both a place to work and as a service provider. Mainly, I want the opportunity to work in a place that will give me opportunities to grow, both personally and professionally, and to use the skills I’ve learned in a positive way.”

Frank had heard this kind of thing plenty of times, and he recognized some of the typical job placement coaching that students typically received before they left school.

At the same time, nothing about Ben had offended Frank yet so he asked another question: “So, tell me about these skills. Which ones you think are the most important in terms of working here?” Ben was ready for this one, so he jumped right in. “Well, for starters, I have a pretty good handle on basic electricity like Ohms Law and I understand fundamental acoustic issues like the Inverse Square Law.”

Frank nodded, so Ben continued: “I have a pretty good amount of experience mixing, and I’ve helped set up a number of sound systems at my college, for events like Spring Fling and all that. I’ve tuned a system with Smaart before, and I’ve even mixed monitors.”

Frank was still smiling and Ben thought he was doing well – but he was waiting to have Frank take him out back and let him mix, or to maybe at least talk about audio.

Frank continued: “So, what was the worst problem with a sound system you’ve ever encountered, and how did you solve it?” This stumped Ben, because he had never really had to dig himself out of a hole on the job yet.

But he remembered one thing: “Yeah, there was this one time when the bass player’s channel was humming real badly at the festival. We had his amp miked, and then the preamp out into a direct box for the PA as well. We tried the ground switch on his Fender amp, and also on the DI box, but it didn’t get much better. So we used a ground lifter on the AC power for the amp. Problem solved!”

Frank inwardly cringed, but didn’t show it. “Just a couple more questions. How are your soldering skills?”

Ben thought this was kind of weird, but went ahead and answered: “I guess I can solder OK. I helped our teacher fix an amplifier once that had some cold solder joints. Didn’t seem too hard.”

Frank had expected as much. Then he said “Final question. Tell me about how you work in a team situation and whether or not you’ve been a team leader.”

Ben replied, “Sure, I’ve been in plenty of teams, both audio and otherwise. I played soccer in college and was even team captain for a semester. At Spring Fling, I was on the blue team first year, and red team leader second year. I think I do well in teams and can follow instructions and all that.”

“OK, Ben” said Frank. “I think we can use a guy like you here at FSC. When can you start?” Ben had to blink and let the words register. Was he just offered a job? It took him a couple of seconds to respond: “Great – wow. OK, yes – that would be great! Um, I can start on Monday if that’s OK with you!”

Frank nodded, and then added, “Well then, we’ll see you Monday. Just stop at the front desk and ask Sonya for copies of our job application form and tax forms. Just fill those out and bring them in on Monday. See you at 9 a.m. sharp!”

Ben was flabbergasted, both by being offered a job, and also because there really was no discussion of audio or any kind of audition. But it hadn’t yet dawned on him that he wouldn’t be doing audio – at least not for a while.

Just as he was about to head out the door, Frank called to him “Ben, just one thing – and please remember this – don’t EVER use a ground lifter on a guitar amp. Unless you want someone to end up dead.”

As Ben drove home, he was thinking about the interview and how it went. Overall, he was pleased although some things puzzled him.

But mainly, he was concerned about what Frank had meant about the guitar amp grounding. “Someone could end up dead,” he muttered to himself. “I guess I need to learn about what’s going on there.”

Ben resolved to get up to speed on that subject because obviously he had missed something in his classes. As he pulled up to his building, he started thinking about how he was going to spend the next few days before Monday.

After entering his apartment and dropping his keys, CD, greenie and sharpie on the table by the door, Ben sat down at his computer, determined to be ready on Monday with new knowledge about grounding. He was up late into the night gathering information from forums, online articles and book excerpts. “Hmm – looks like this Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook is something I need to own.”

He placed an order on Amazon for a used copy, then finally went to bed trying to sleep despite the lingering thoughts from the day invading his mind.

Taylor Jensen is a freelance pro audio writer.

Go to Sound Mountain, Part 3: Starting at the Bottom

 

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