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Hi, my name is George Grenfell and I am studying a masters degree in audio engineering. I have a passion for live sound and have always aspired to be a live sound engineer!

I am looking to learn about live sound and the lives of you pro sound engineers so i am writing a research report on career conventions, stereotypes and the hidden aspects of the job that the applications won't tell you! I would be extremely grateful if you could take the time to complete my anonymous multiple choice survey!*

All the data will be used to form conclusions on my future career path upon graduating and i would be happy to send any respondents the written report if they wish!

JUST CLICK THE LINK BELOW AND GET CRACKIN!
https://docs.google…

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Comments

paulears Tue, 04/10/2018 - 09:27

As an ex-academic, the standard of forum based research links is pretty low. This isn't the worst by any means, but the questions, reverse engineered, show a clear bias in terms of the options offered, and then "other" is very difficult to quantify from the huge range of responses, which distorts the results. You also sneaked in there word 'pro' in the small print at the top which many respondents might miss, inferring you ONLY want professional people, which removes ALL the expanding church engineers, but includes the very low skilled hire crew people sent out on corporates, who might be a poor choice of respondents. I have a hire company, have been doing sound for years, but now I manage sound, so my views are skewed perhaps - but I'm still qualified to comment. As a research collection method, your questions are clearly pointed to the results you expect to get. It also fails to consider the productions, events and shows that have a designer - where then responsibility question can generate the wrong answers. The No.1 operator, could be the king pin of an event, but the No.1 can drop to No.2 in hierarchy if the designer is present, or still involved. Some of the questions seem very strange. Where are the stereotyping questions? I expected some on the lines of:
Do you have trouble maintaining personal hygiene living on a tour bus?
How do you get clothing laundered,
Do you own any T-shirts that are not black.
Do you own any long trousers (pants)
Do you have damaged hearing
What are your interpersonal skills like

These are stereotyping.

In the past three weeks I have had multiple hire companies through who have grumpy, smelly, scruffy, short wearing, deaf sound people. For a few events last year I specified that the sound operator had to be smartly dressed, presentable and be able to communicate with the client and his staff on equal terms. The hire companies were gobsmacked! The guy who did the job wore proper trousers, a black ironed shirt, had a business haircut and spoke very well. I know two other sound guys who can dress up and look respectable - the list is not huge. Most are 100% stereotypical and bare calves, shorts and clearly not owning a shaver are very common. Sadly, some do indeed smell.