This week we had the professional symposium. The symposium was a great event and prepared me with networking and professional interview experience as well as a lot of great information.
Networking
To start off the event, we participated in a networking event where we were free to discuss with professionals. This was really helpful as an experience because it can be pretty daunting and overwhelming, so it was a good environment to learn. It was really difficult though, with my ISM topic, because I had a hard time connecting with professionals through my topic. This was still helpful even with that barrier because it will be an issue I face in the future, so it was good to be able to identify it now.
Interviews
As part of the day, we had to go through two 15 minute interviews where professionals saw our resumes and tried to learn more about us. My first interview was not only extremely beneficial, but wildly lucky. Of all people, I was able to find a sound designer who not only had meaningful feedback for my field, but also great advice on skills that would help to support my focus. He had a strong focus on understanding the planning of the music and the recording of music in different parts as very distinct parts of the process. He gave really helpful insight on how the emotion in music should be present in the planning and the recording should be able to deliver it effectively on its own as well in a way that supplements the music itself. For my second interview, I got an educational coordinator who didn't have as much feedback due to his lack of connection to my field. I still had a very interesting interview and conversation with him though, and it certainly provided interesting insights into how music and musical arrangement is thought of by people who are not directly involved in it.
Informational Sessions
For the informational sessions, I learned a lot. I got some great insight on how the class functions between organization, workload and mentoring. The former and current students were able to reassure us newer students of how manageable the class is, with multiple examples of previously done projects that really helped to brainstorm how I can use my research in this class. With the new information and skills I got from all of this, I feel great moving into the next phase of this class where I move into application of research and professional communication.