Hello !

First of all I am french and I have been working in the industry for 4.5 years as a technical sound designer (technical because I do all of the integration with wwise or c#/blueprint in unity/ue4 at my current job).

Sadly my company which I really like had a bad time and I almost got fired for economic reasons, this didn't happen yet and the company is doing better but I decided to start to look elsewhere.

The search started actually very well as I got to the test with Riot Games, which sadly I didn't get but I went to the "round 2" of it, as in they liked it but gave me feedback to improve it, they then felt some of their feedbacks weren't improved enough. So this was pretty cool, I learned quite a bit and it motivated me.

But since then I am getting rejected on application alone, which sucks since obviously they don't tell me what's wrong at this stage, I apply mostly to very big places right now since I don't have a big hurry for a job, but I got rejected for a junior position at Blizzard on resume alone which did kinda hurt my feelings to be honest, also got rejected from another company who had actually contacted me 4 years ago but then it didn't work out because they figured I was not from the US and the paperwork would be too much work for a junior, now I applied and didn't even get pass the resume. And I was definitly way worse 4 years ago.

I have one or two still ongoing applications who are in the EU this time so we'll see but I am starting to think something might be wrong on my applications. I don't even know if actual audio people look at my demos and think they suck or if it's just an HR person who doesn't like my resume/cover letter.

I feel like my demos are pretty good, I have 2 linear ones which are trailer remakes and one that is a reel of the main projects I did at work which are interactive. I am appliying for AAA games but mostly for junior or normal sound design position, nothing senior.

I feel maybe my interactive demo is too weak so I am working on some side projects by myself right now.

So all of this is to say I would really appreciate some feedback on all of this situation and on my demos, they are on my website here :

http://couchardthomas.com

Thank you for your time !

I wouldn't get too worked out over not landing jobs at Riot, Blizzard or similarly sized companies. As you probably already know, tons of people apply for these jobs and these companies get to be super picky. Also it's very common for companies to already have a few top picks selected before a job position even gets listed. 

I watched some of your interactive demo and I agree, it's a bit too weak. There's not really a magic bullet on networking and job hunting. Instead it comes down to the long game, getting your name out there, always tweaking your promo materials and demo, building true relationships with others, going to where the devs are, etc. 

I wish you the very best of luck on this hunt! 

Hello !

Thank you for the answer. I understand for the Blizzard/etc.. I think I got a bit too happy with myself for getting past resume level with Riot so that made the others feel worse.

Yes I figured for the demo, I am currently working on something that I hope will be nice.

My biggest weakness actually might be the networking part, I don't even own twitter or anything like that, I never really post on social media, even tho I follow many sound groups on facebook for example. I know people from my current job that came and went to other projects and I always had nice relations with these people but that's it. Gonna try to force myself to post stuff on social media.

I have a question that maybe you can answer if you don't mind ? I think my test for Riot was pretty good and they themselves told me I was very close to be selected and it was only a small details, is it good if I fix those details to post the test on my website ? The test doesn't show anything that's not already in their game.

I don't know how people feel about showing tests from other companies especially since at the end of the day it's a failure.

On 8/30/2019 at 1:41 AM, Valoon said:

I have a question that maybe you can answer if you don't mind ? I think my test for Riot was pretty good and they themselves told me I was very close to be selected and it was only a small details, is it good if I fix those details to post the test on my website ? The test doesn't show anything that's not already in their game.

I don't know how people feel about showing tests from other companies especially since at the end of the day it's a failure.

That's tricky. I don't know what paperwork you signed to see their test materials. I wouldn't do this but instead make it VERY general. After all... you've already named what company this was from. So just to really protect yourself (to the point of being overly cautious) I wouldn't be very specific at all. 

To be honest if I mentioned them and I am not really worried about the "legal" part of it, it's because I've seen it on a bunch of websites from sound designers already, not hidden at all. There is even someone on youtube who made kind of a tutorial on how you could design for it. And I signed no papers.

My doubts were more about how it could be perceived by other companies, but I think I'll try it.

Thanks for the replies !

You are missing the shiny wow effect.

Thats what missing in a laptop only.

Use analog gear.