Miloco Work Experience
A good way for people to take their first steps into the music industry is by partaking in work
experience at a recording studio. Miloco offers work experience placements for between 2-4 weeks
long, where we will get you involved in some of the day-to-day activities concerned with running
a recording studio. This is also a good way for the company's management to assess your own
potential in the business.
We are afraid that our work experience positions are firstly unpaid, and secondly in high-demand, so if you are accepted for a placement you may find yourself on a long waiting list. However this should not discourage you from gaining precious experience and the opportunity to make contacts in a very competitive industry.
Here is the basis of our work experience program:
What you will not learn:
While we try to show you the mechanics of how a recording studio works it is very unlikely
you'll be working in the studio with clients. You will probably not work in the actual studios
unless there is a specific need to. However if the opportunity arises we may try to get you into
one of the rooms for a few hours. If you are looking to get daily hands-on experience in a recording studio you should not apply.
We will try to give you specific tasks to do while you are with us but we cannot promise that we will have time to teach you about equipment or recording methods. We hope your course will do this. There will probably be opportunities to ask our engineers or assistants questions.
What you will learn:
We intend to show you life in a busy recording studio. If chosen most of your time will be spent supporting our management staff and working between our various rooms. We are quite a unique recording studio in that we have a large number of studios throughout London. Two weeks is not really enough to grasp how recording studios operate but we hope it will give you good insight and may help to decide whether or not it is the career for you.
Typical tasks:
1. Tea, tea, tea - Forget your protools or logic if you can't make good cups of tea you will never make it as a good assistant. Offer teas frequently and often to office staff, clients visiting the studios and assistants looking after the sessions.
2. Cleanliness and Tidyness - We pride ourselves in making sure our studios are tidy and clean. This also includes the communal areas such as kitchens, toilets and rec rooms. Typical tasks will include:-
a) Cleaning up kitchens b) Emptying dishwashers c) Checking toilets have handwash, toilet rolls, clean towels d) Wiping down surfaces windows etc.
3. To'ing and Fro'ing - Due to the fact that our studios are located throughout London there is generally a trip to be made around the rooms distributing supplies, collecting drives and helping prepare sessions. Make sure you bring your travelcard !
4. Spring Cleans - We hope that our studios are working pretty much every day of the year but if they are not we want to spend the free days cleaning our rooms. Once again we pride ourselves on how the rooms should be presented. Typical spring cleans include:-
a) Cleaning the console
b) Cleaning the outboard equipment
c) Dusting and cleaning the racks and floors
d) Tidying up cables
e) Cleaning the patchbays.
f) Tidying up mic cupboards
g) Checking lightbulbs etc
h) Audio checking equipment
5. Lunches / Breakfasts - Often our clients ask for errands to shops. At lunchtime there may be runs to sandwich shops / Tescos. In the mornings we usually provide fruit for our clients so knowing your grapes from your bananas will help.
6. Office duties - During the day there will be various office duties that you may be asked to do. The most important are answering the door politely (without getting star struck) and the phones. We may also give you other tasks such as:-
a) Ordering bikes and cabs b) Ordering stationery / tapes c) Checking cab invoices d) Updating our intranet
7. At other times you may be lucky enough to join us when we are in the middle of a refurbishment or expansion project. During this period you may be asked to exclusively help on this project and will work directly under the project manager.
Working hours required will be 10am - 6pm Monday to Friday. We don't have scheduled coffee breaks / lunch breaks but there will be ample time for you to feed and drink. You may be able to work over the weekend if you wish. Dress attire is casual.
If we have not dampened your enthusiasm and you still would like to do a few weeks Work experience then please send us the form back via email to info@miloco.co.uk.
Download Work Experience Application Form.