Audio engineering is music to my ears
WhEN you enjoy listening to music in your car, thank people like audio engineer Orla Murphy.
Orla says: ‘At school i liked science, but also music and creative subjects. i talked to a friend who was studying an electronics and music degree at the University of Glasgow.
‘i hadn’t thought before meeting her that engineering and music were easy subjects to combine into a career, but i ended up taking that degree.’
Looking for a graduate job, Orla researched companies working with sound. ‘Student friends went on to work for cool companies like Spotify and Dolby audio. the music element meant i could apply for more specialist jobs,’ she says.
She went on to work with Jaguar Land Rover as an audio engineer. ‘No two days are the same. Some days i have worked on software, others measuring the acoustics of vehicles, and others driving prototype cars on the test tracks to see how the acoustics change with different road noise.’
Orla says: ‘A degree in engineering and music is not essential for a job in audio engineering. Many engineering students with lots of music experience on the side land a job in audio engineering.
‘ Get as much work experience as you can to get a wide picture of the jobs available in the field.
‘You might like a studio job, developing the soundtrack for a movie, or you could be developing speakers for mobile phones. Get work experience in the area that suits you.’
Orla has now moved into Jaguar Land Rover’s product engineering quality team, but is keen to promote audio engineering as a career.
‘ i was part of the institution of Engineering and technology’s Sound of Engineering activity, giving children the opportunity to engineer the Christmas music video for the band New hope Club. You can see it on Blue Peter on December 20,’ she says.
FoR more on audio and sound engineering, see ccskills.org.uk, which gives details of non-degree ways into sound engineering for live and recorded performances, and theiet.org.