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Hi everybody

I was selected by the Portuguese ministry of culture for a scholarship, to get an internship in a foreign country and the offer i got was for a research project at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain.

I went there a couple of days for an interview and got accepted, now the ball is on my court, i.e. to accept or not to accept. The internship would last 9 months

The project its a two-parter

  1. To study the psychological and physiological response of subjects to audio stimulations

  2. To design a software program that generates and/or processes audio according to the subjects' heart rate, brain waves and other parameters.

Now, the project sounds very very interesting, and the labs are amazing, but what I´m worrying about is, will it help me to get a job in the film or video game industry?

What would you think if you received an application with this sort of project?

Thanks in advance everybody!

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  • lol Andrew, that made my day!
    – Filipe Chagas
    Jun 27, 2010 at 11:27
  • @Filipe hehe, hope your decision works out for you!
    – Andrew Spitz
    Jun 27, 2010 at 11:38
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I'll play the cynic. It's not what you know. It's who you know. Take the scholarship. It will be amazing.

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  • Thanks everyone for the replies and words of encouragement. And yes, so far Barcelona is amazing!
    – Filipe Chagas
    Jun 25, 2010 at 21:14
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The first part probably won't help you get a job in the video game industry, but the second part totally will if you can apply it to procedurally generated audio.

Another thought... If you don't take this internship, will you regret it and the experiences it will bring?

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  • Do you mean if i regret what comes if i dont take this project? I don´t know what will come if i refuse it! I´m convinced i¨ll have a good time if i take it, but it might even be worst when i look for sound design work as it can make people look at me like an Academic with no real experience... And i dont think it will leave time and energy for freelance sound work.
    – Filipe Chagas
    Jun 25, 2010 at 18:39
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    I mean if you don't take it, and you regret not taking it. It's probably the uncultured American in me, but if I had the opportunity to to ANYTHING in Spain, and I didn't take it, I'd kick myself forever. I don't think taking this position will HURT you chance of finding work in sound design, if your reel is good. The only way I can see the time spent as a waste is on the off chance you could be doing the sound for a AAA title if you didn't go.
    – Dave Matney
    Jun 25, 2010 at 19:51
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That's a good response from Dave, although i'd like to add that what you learn about psychoacoustics and aural psychology will stay with you and help your creative process in the future. I'd love a chance to learn stuff about that!

I don't think anyone will perceive you as too academic if you play it down. It may delay your starting out as a freelancer, but i think it'll be a great tool once you get started.

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Take the scholarship!! If it helps any, I get a little sad when I see a job in audio that's very creative and speaks to the budding sound designer in me but requires programming knowledge. So, I think in the long run, this can only help you personally and professionally!

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  • A little programming knowledge can go a LOOONG way. Especially if you're designing for games -- it's nice to be able to see the implementation code, so you know when something is something you have to change, or if it's something that can be fixed within the code.
    – Dave Matney
    Jun 26, 2010 at 7:37

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