Professional Development Plan

Professional Development Plan:

As an undergraduate student who will be looking for income after education, It’s important for me to have initial intentions on pursuing my desired career in the unpredictable music industry
If I want to effectively transition from life as a student to operating as a self-employed freelancer, it’s important that I set three goals that I can use to account for what’s needed for me to stay secure and sustainable as an active sole trader:

1. Make sustainable skills development programs.
2. Manifest consistent income prospects.
3. Establishing a sustainable and prosperous social network

Whilst at first sight these goals may seem straight forward and fully attainable within reason, it’s important that I factor the obstacles that inherently come with having autism spectrum disorder and ADHD. It’s estimated that a minority 22% of autistic people function highly enough to sustain employment in the United Kingdom (“National Autistic Society,” 2024)1,and with the additional aspects of inconsistent focus that comes with neurodiversity, it can be hard to stay on track when unaccompanied due to issues with self-discipline and with less than perfect short-term memory. Because of this conundrum, goals 1 and 2 are heavily dependent on the success of goal three, as autistic people tend to operate most effectively when they feel they can collaborate safely whether that be exclusively online or in person as well. It’s important therefore that I do what’s necessary to implement a sustainable support system through mutually benefiting relationships that can often be crucial for autistic people to prosper.

Goal 1. Make sustainable skills development programs.

In terms of dictating the approach to my freelance trajectory and keeping my productivity levels at a high level, I want to be routinely refreshing the relevant skills for the sectors I want to work in. Since I composed, produced, engineered, and performed music for my final year project, it would be most reasonable for me to continue creating more instrumentals, whilst also learning and trying new processes to do so. Ideally, I would like to be able to make 3 beats made per week, a target I would like to hit whilst also comfortable tending to my financial/business responsibilities. Getting into the rhythm of practical routines such as studying and practicing is essential to ensure that my professional practice stays up to the industry standard, which would be maintained to make sure my professional capabilities are in line with the context of the time we are living in.
The big strength of establishing routine for someone like me, is that consistency and familiarity are helpful for autistic individuals, and allocating time for career work and career practices accordingly and following that timetable repeatedly will get me into the habit of constantly revisiting and refreshing my skillset. Having ADHD as well however can cause some complications regarding the foundation of setting this routine, as staying focused when unsupervised can be especially challenging when living with an attention deficit.

Having a solid routine that allows me to create revenue through placement’s and create more content through future potential placements, will also mean that by taking time out to practice my beat making skills will inevitably create more opportunities to be paid for my work as my collection expands.

A potential threat that stems from this is anticipating which aspects of current professional skills within my desired sectors will still be relevant during the unprecedented rise of artificial intelligence. Whilst I will inevitably benefit from AI assistance being integrated into my own personal day-to-day workflow, the more capable AI becomes the less need there is for the working man. Part of premeditating a sustainable and prosperous career in an industry that is on an unpredictable trajectory, is being able to stay ahead of the curve on anticipating the impact of machine learning and how that will shape the manual labour landscape by its inevitable exclusion of the working man.

Whilst having a solid routine is crucial to success, I am also incentivised to keep informed on developments in music technology, there are plenty of online magazines available online that can do this for me, so it might be worth considering having an active subscription for one of these informative press releases dedicated to the music industry, such as SOS Magazine (Sound on sound). This would not only ensure that I had regular updates on the direction the industry is headed in but can also provide valuable information on current industry practices as well as help me determine which skills and services are worthy of me spending time on and expanding upon.

Goal 2. Manifest Consistent income prospects.

Whilst expanding on my repertoire of skills is imperative to keeping income opportunities open, this can’t be done without the support of stable and consistent financial income that allows one the luxury of having spare time to expand on their already established skillset.

Finding income prospects during this turbulent time will become increasingly challenging, with the rapid development of AI, some of the engineering processes I can offer to potential clients such as mastering tracks, can already be done by Artificial Intelligence. For example, the full fruity loops package comes with a plethora of AI extension tools. Whilst intricate features such as stem separation can’t be done reliably without the use of AI, the AI mastering feature provided by the DAW can be potentially harmful to the engineers who seek a career in mastering, especially since mix engineers will be more encouraged to have their production mastered without having to spend money for the process to be done manually.

Relying on loyalties from established and published work is also becoming less viable, with the vast saturation of the streaming industry reducing the inherent value of obtaining listeners, engineers and music makers are becoming more incentivised to make heavy one-time charges for mixing and mastering services since only a small amount of royalties are likely to be given back from the streaming service.

To tackle this, I am going to go into a joint business venture with fellow student Emeun Lewis. During my time with him as a student I have gained valuable insight into how I can operate more corporately within my line of business and as an autistic person, it can be hard to find and keep direction within an unpredictable industry, which further encourages me to invest in a reliable business partner. Not only has Emeun shown me that he provides that, but he has demonstrated his capabilities in using DAW’s such as Ableton, and his ability to use sampling tools that I am less confident with to a consistent standard. With capabilities of my own that Emeun lacks for himself, I have no doubt that we can create a high quality and sustainable business relationship, where we can both prosper both financially and as individuals.

Goal 3. Establishing a sustainable and prosperous social network

As an autistic individual, often the biggest challenges I face throughout day-to-day life is the social deficit aspect of my condition which makes befriending people and maintaining relationships especially difficult. Although that is a given part of a medically recognised condition and it ultimately doesn’t define me and what I can offer, it is an aspect of my life which will need to be addressed if I am to pursue career opportunities in freelance that often depend on effective networking a communication. Therefore, it’s important for me to recognise as I approach the end of my studying, that maintaining a sustainable network is a key part of success within an industry that more often than no depends on people making a collaborative effort.

Thankfully within the digital age, networking isn’t entirely dependent the need to show up and introduce people in person, which is encouraging for the many autistic people who often feel out of their depth when they’re called upon to so. There are many communities made by online creators that are established to offer safe and welcoming space to producers, musicians and engineers who are looking to connect with music creators and learn from them. Some of the active networking tools that engineers and freelancers use, can become crucial integrated parts of people’s careers.

The networking tools that I will aim to use in my professional practice and beyond are LinkedIn and Discord. LinkedIn is a must have tool for displaying details about one’s available services, with most professional practitioners being accessible and searched for on the LinkedIn network, it is expected that I keep my credentials on LinkedIn constantly updated since potential clients of all ages may search for the services that I can provide on there. With that in mind, the opportunities to be found within discord communities can’t afford to be understated or overlooked, for many youths within the industry use discord as a hive for collaborative music creation.

An example of a currently thriving discord community is the ‘Busy work beats’ community server, named after the YouTube content creator. This online social media tutor has created a friendly feedback discord server, providing many tips, tutorials troubleshooting commentary whilst also keeping music producers informed of technological advancements in music as well as clinical music theories that are used to make successful placements in a digital era. Not only does he provide a space for a community of like-minded engineers of the millennial and Gen-z generations, but he also keeps them updated when charting artists are searching for placements (readymade instrumentals for them to perform over), as well as the contacts of which these placement submissions are to be sent at. Partaking in these communities made by freelancer’s is going to be a essential tool that I will be aiming to utilise in order to become more active in the music opportunities, as these highly populated discord communities tend to have a plentiful amount of potential placement opportunities which I will be looking for as I expand on my production abilities.

Professional Statement (Long)

I have developed a repertoire of transferable skills that can offer me a plethora of employment opportunities within a multitude of audio environments.

Homing in on my skills of producing, mixing and other engineering processes has helped me gain significant confidence in my ability to bring contributions of value to any audio workshop environment. During my time as an undergraduate student, I have picked up experiences and insight into my own capabilities as an engineer that I would have considered as at a deficit had I not developed my understanding of sound and engineering during my educational venture. These skills include but are not limited to:

Sound design & synthesis.
Sample selecting and modulation.
Operating from Digital to Analog and vice-versa.
Apply sound to picture appropriately, creatively, and seamlessly.
Experience operating large format hardware.
Expanding on my familiarity with DAW’s including Ableton, Logic and Pro Tools.
Experience in a broadcasting environment recording and streaming content live.
Post-production experience within both music and radio for the context of streaming.

I have demonstrated the ability to operate capably within the context of multiple industry sectors including music, broadcasting and sound and television. As I go aim to find employment opportunities that will eventually enable me to operate as a freelance engineer full-time, I have developed a sense of confidence and capability with regards to engaging with these industry sectors for my own financial gain as an audio engineer within a multitude of programs across the many contexts to which they’re needed in the working domain. I would consider myself a versatile individual with a capacity to operate in any technical environment regarding audio, with an eagerness to learn and gain experience within an industry occupation.

Professional Statement (Short)

As an undergraduate, Harry Isaacs has displayed an adaptable skillset which would be of value to any industry sectors that require a capable audio engineer to assist in running their operations. having been able to familiarise himself with a variety of working environments that he has been operated, sometimes unassisted solitude as well as collaborative by nature. Harry’s ability to settle into each role of which he has undertaken has strengthened my confidence as a potential candidate for audio engineering opportunities. Whether in live broadcasting, sound design or a post-production role, Harry has shown he can display the resolve to provide consistent output whilst operating in the audio industry within a variety of context.

Bibliography
• autism.org.uk. “New Shocking Data Highlights the Autism Employment Gap.” Medical, March 31, 2024. https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/news/new-data-on-the-autism-employment-gap.