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VO Noob Jobs - 5:07
Hey guys, welcome to another edition of The Gift of Gab. Today I want to talk a little bit about the types of jobs that you can expect to book when you're just starting out and you're in the early stages of your voiceover career. You ready? Let's do it.
So if you're just getting started out in your voiceover career and you're trying to get an understanding of the types of things that you're going to book early on, well... one thing I can tell you for sure: they will not be sexy. No they won't. They just won't! They just won't. Early on in your voiceover career, the jobs that you book, they're sort of the opposite. They're very pedestrian. Don't get me wrong - they're worthwhile and they're certainly going to be meaningful to you because it's going to be your early work. But they're the types of jobs that you outgrow really, really quickly and so what are they?
For starters: telephony, right? Anything related to phone systems whether it's voicemails or prompt-based, you're gonna get hired to do a lot of small to mid-size voicemail and voicemail style messaging for companies. That's really, really common. In the first year or two of a voice acting career, I remember literally being so excited I would dial a company phone number and hand my mom the phone just so, you know, I could be like, "Hey that's me!" I think we all kind of do that, I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure most of us have done it.
In-house corporate and other types of non-broadcast jobs, those are pretty common. You've probably seen a lot of those on the casting sites as well. The intro and outro to your friend's podcast. Yeah, that's probably one you'll book really easily. It's a very readily available job. I can pretty much guarantee it, because everybody has a podcast. A video game that is really a pitch game, meaning that the game doesn't exist and the people who created it or developed it are trying to get it sold or trying to get funding, and these are usually going to be from students who are game developers that are still in college and those who are recent grads. Local radio ads. Yeah, there's a ton of those, and they're really cheap and they're really plentiful and they're the types of ones that are gonna cram way too much copy into a very limited time slot and have you say ridiculous things like "Conveniently located at insert strip mall here." Chances are you're going to encounter a bunch of authors who have self-funded their own audiobook and it's usually in the self-help category. You're going to see a bunch of those kinds of opportunities, and to be honest, those books probably won't ever get distribution, but that's okay! It's an early learning experience.
If you're really lucky, you're gonna book either a nightclub or a strip club ad for tv or radio. Now, on the surface, you would think, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, wouldn't those be sexy?" No, no, not at all, not even a little bit! Mostly they're just cringe-worthy. They're awful and you'll make fun of them and your friends will make fun of them. You'll get to really have a good laugh at your own expense.
Look, if you do manage to book a brand name commercial, promo, video game, audiobook project, animation project, consider yourself very, very lucky if you're in the first few years of your voiceover career, because that is rare. It is definitely not the norm. Just know and understand those early jobs? No, they're not going to be sexy. They're going to actually be kind of sucky, but they're extremely valuable. They give you loads of practical experience, they give you the opportunity to work with clientele and be directed and held to the same standards as pretty much any other voice over job, so there's a lot of value and a lot of benefit in that. And, of course, you're building a resume! You're gaining experience, you're growing, you're learning, you're doing all of that. It's great! Just not super sexy. Sorry. I hope this helped! If you want to know more things about the early years in a voice acting career and the kinds of things you can expect, you can check out this video here. Thanks guys!
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