Starting a career in Acoustic Consultancy
As a child, believing that you’ll become an acoustic consultant when you grow up is as common as dreaming that you’ll become a firefighter, a police officer, an astronaut or a top-flight sportsperson.
OK, I lied… Let’s be honest, most kids will never have heard of an acoustic consultant. It’s hardly an obvious job choice ingrained within the school curriculum. Even most adults will never have heard of an acoustic or noise consultant. Even myself, a director of a new acoustic consultancy company, didn’t know what an acoustic consultant was until I unwittingly applied to be one for a placement year during university. Even when I turned up for the interview, I was asked ‘do you know what we do?’. ‘No idea, sorry….’
That’s a really bad example. I clearly should have been far more prepared. Luckily for me, I was able to demonstrate enough knowledge, enough mathematics and physics skills, some programming expertise, some high grades…. Oh, and I offered to work for next to nothing. Just enough to get my foot in the door so I could see what an acoustic consultant does for a year.
Little did I know that I would carry on being an acoustic and noise consultant at that company for 8 years, do a part-time masters degree in sound and vibration studies, move on to another company for 18 months, before starting my own acoustic consultancy business. And whilst it’s clearly not what I dreamt of doing as a kid, it’s turned out to be a career that satisfies me.
What qualifications do I need to be an acoustic consultant?
An acoustic consultant for a start will usually be educated to degree level as a minimum. There aren’t too many specific acoustic degrees out there. The most respected ones (in the UK) which are best geared to becoming an acoustic consultant, are at Southampton University (the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research) and Salford University, who both do specific acoustics related degrees.
But there are plenty of acoustic consultants who have other degrees, i.e. music and audio technology degrees. Many other acoustic consultants that I know didn’t even study a sound/audio/acoustics related degree. They ranged from studying environmental engineering, mechanical engineer, architecture, geography, mathematics, physics, business studies, art history… Some did a short course to gain an Institute of Acoustics Diploma in Acoustics and Noise Control, some didn’t, including me.
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As long as you have a decent grasp of maths and physics, good written and spoken English, then you should be OK. If you’re good at explaining things simply to clients, whilst still being technical in your reports where necessary, then even better. If you don’t mind getting your hands dirty with some noise surveying and sound testing, then great.
How do I get my first acoustic consultancy job?
As with most career paths, starting off with some work experience is a great way to get your foot in the door. You could do a few weeks or a whole year on a university placement. Whatever it is, make sure you apply yourself, you’re attentive, you put in the hours, you work smartly, you impress. This was the way forward for me.
Working at a small independent consultancy allowed me to do a lot of different things and really have an influence on the business. But on the other hand, had I started at a bigger company, I may have to got to work on some bigger, more ‘glamorous’ projects.
What will day one as an acoustic consultant be like?
The chances are that in the early days you’ll be crunching through the basic calculations, doing plenty of reading on acoustic standards, and spending plenty of time out doing noise surveys, even overnight. You may get bored with the latter… but stick with it. When you’re a few years down the line you might be in the office a whole lot more, looking forward to the next time you hit the road for a noise survey and some fresh air again!
Some of the formulas and parameters you’ll encounter may confuse the hell out of you. What is an Rw and a DnT,w? What’s the difference between sound pressure and sound power? What’s a transmission loss and an insertion loss? Why are there SO many different British Standards in acoustic consultancy? It’ll take time, but don’t get too daunted, it’ll make sense eventually.
And luckily there are plenty of different areas of acoustics…. Environmental acoustics, building acoustics… maybe you want to avoid vibration altogether. Whether you’re super technical and mathematical, or more creative and visual, there is a place somewhere in the world of acoustic consultancy for you.
