Sound Design Job Interview Questions
/Hi, there. After going through the process of doing a bunch of interviews for sound designer positions, I thought it could be useful to compile the most usual questions I encountered.
Take them as a guide to know what to expect. I personally like to have a rough idea of how I want to answer each of these, but I mostly leave it to improvisation in terms of what to actually say. I prefer the conversation to flow naturally as much as possible.
I left out a bunch of generic HR questions because they are just everywhere, although I left some in just to give some comments on them. Also, you will probably have at least 2-3 different interviews with different people and these questions are just taken from different interview layers.
About you / Personal
Tell me a bit about yourself. // Classic opener. Preare a summary in your mind, to the point. Quality before quantity.
What do you do on your spare time apart from video games? // You are maybe temtped to say “record audio libraries” here and that’s fine but I would prefer to show a different side of myself that complements the professional side.
What are you playing right now?
Favourite game ever?
Favourite game ever for sound? // This and the above questions are a nice chance to show your taste a bit more. You can taylor the answer to the interviewer or company a bit but I would pretty much answer honestly.
Who is your Hero? // Interesting one, think of something cool.
Career / HR
What is your dream job? // Could be a tricky one but nice to show ambition here.
Where do you see yourself in five years // Similar to the previous one but maybe if you get this one after the previous one you can talk more about your place in life in a more personal way.
What is your greatest achievement?
What is your greatest failure?
What is your best stregth?
What is your worst weakness? // HR bread and butter. Prepare reasonable answers and move on to the interesting stuff.
What hard or tricky problem have you found and solved? // A chance to show you are resilient.
Do you have experience working under pressure? // Use a real example here.
What has been the biggest disappointment in your career to date?
Why do you wish to leave your current position? // I prefer an answer here that points towards career growth if possible.
Describe a personal project you have worked on lately. // Good to show you are creative and have initiative which is probably the case since you want a sound designer job.
Questions for the interviewer? // This one does usually come up, at every level interview. I like to ask about the company culture and vibe, I usually ask them if they like working there. You can then ask more specific questions about the position itself and finally about the selection process.
Position Specific
What 3 things you think you need to thrive in your position? // I got this one and didn’t have anything prepared.. Your answer should show a nice range of things here. One of my mine was: “People around who know much more than me”, which was the first thing I thought.
Team player? // There is usually a “team” oriented question. I feel stupid just saying “of course, I love working with my collegues!” so what I usually do is prepare a real example of teamwork epicness on my previous jobs. In general, is always good to prepare an example for each thing that you claim. The more tangible the example is, the better.
Do you have experience working with clients? // Good to keep in mind an answer for this. As said above, prepare an example.
What interested you about our company? // Another classic, you should try to focus on positives about the games the company creates, if you know them or play them, much better.
Salary expectations? // There are many strategies out there for this one but my advice is that you try to get a range from them first but this doesn’t always happen. In my case, I like to do some research online about the company and area/city so I can have a reasonable range in my mind. Be confident.
How much notice do you need to give your current employer?
Willing to re-locate?
Audio Specific
DAW, Middleware, Game Engine, Plugins, Audio Library Software // You will get generic questions about whichever piece of software the company uses. Prepare answers that show how much you know them and try to give as many examples as possible. Don’t stretch the truth here.
Do you have experience using Middleware? Which one? // Even if you don’t have experience with the middleware the company uses is still good to talk about your experience with others.
Which DAW do you know how to use? Which one you like the best? // I usually give my honest opinion here but I like to stress that all modern DAWs nowadays are pretty good and capable.
Do you have experience using any audio library software like Soundly or Soundminer?
Your favourite audio library or your most used one?
What is your favourite sound generation tool or synth that you use?
What did you use to do (insert project name)? // Give as much info and details here as possible, this is a great question to get.
How do you balance quality and deadlines? // Like this, of course.
What is your favourite tool, technique, process or software? // Cool one to have prepared with that tool or plugin you can’t live without. It is ideal to describe what you do with it and then give examples from real world projects where you apply it.
What is an understimated area of audio?
Describe your process of creating an SFX from the idea to implementation. // Give a general idea of your pipeline (with examples) but is also good to show hints of flexibility to work with other pieces of software.
Which SFXs have you created recently that you are very satisfied with?
Do you have experience doing field recordings?
Do you keep notes during recording sessions? How do you do this?
Do you have experience creating audio libraries?
Which game engine have you used professionaly?
Do you know how to code? Which langaugaes do you know? // You have to be careful with this one as programming is a deep subject, try to give an accurate idea of what you are capable of.
What audio system have you coded that you are proud of?
Have you used Git or SVN?
Do you have experience recording/composing/producing/mixing/mastering music? // It all depends on the position offered. I only went for pure sound design jobs and still got asked about this so you will need to preapre answers on music.
What is the area within audio that you are less confortable with?
What gear do you use? What are your 3 must haves? // Be specific here, talk about pieces of equipment you like.
What motivates you as a sound designer? What realy excites you about your job?