Posted: 4/30/2006 10:37:17 AM EDT
| Hey, any acoustical or audio engineers here? I'm doing a quick paper for my music class and need a ball park range of salary for acoustic engineers and if possible what the job outlook for the foreseeable future is. |
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Acoustic Engineering pays well, but it's a fairly small specialty occupation. Not a whole lot of people working in the field, and those who are paid professionals in this field rarely leave it, so it won't be easy to find work, at least at first. Audio Engineers are more "workers" than designers except at the highest levels, so there are a lot more of them. Pay varies quite a bit, depending on your name and experience. An AE working in a small local studio, or running the boards for local gigs isn't going to make much. The AE for a major studio, or the head guy for U2's tours, is going to make good money. Again, there isn't a whole lot of roll-over for house engineers, so most AEs have to constantly be looking for work until they're established (and even then, you're still dealing with a lot of short-term gigs, but you have people calling you instead of you calling them). It was the instability of the business, except for the lucky few who get the house gigs, that made me abandon the industry. When you start, everyone wants you to work for free or vastly underpay you, but you have to have experience and a reputation to justify your fee, so that's what you have to do. I couldn't afford to do that, so I found other work. -Troy |
| yeah, he's answered a few of my obscure questions. a man after my own heart. Whenever I put in my $.02 on my experiences with a subject, occasionally people think I'm making shit up cuz I've done such an unusually broad variety of things and am yet only a tender age of 29. |