What I Learned During My Dolby Placement Year as a Sound Engineering Student

My Story

I’m an international student from India. I started my BSc(H) Sound Engineering and Music Production course at the university in 2021. Before my university, I did foundation and Diploma courses related to my studies, and when it came down to doing a degree, I wanted to do it in UK because of the media industry in the UK and variety of degree programs in sound and music that universities here provided. I applied for more than two universities in the UK, but in the end, I decided to go for University of Huddersfield primarily because of the course modules. The course modules for my degree program provided me exactly what I was looking for and with a tuition fees that I could afford for.

Scoring a Placement

Even before I joined the university, I had made my mind to opt for placement year thereby choosing the sandwich year for my course. I knew how valuable it will be to work a year in the industry, and how much that experience will help me to give me a head start when I graduate. My second year we had placement lectures, where the placement team shared insightful information on how to apply for placements jobs. These lectures where highly beneficial for me when it came to writing my CVs and drafting cover letters for the companies. In addition to the lectures, the placement team also offered online and face to face support with their student drop-in sessions. Utilising all of these, I applied for student placement role at Dolby Laboratories as Broadcast Intern at their London office. After applying I was asked to attend their interview in person at Dolby’s London office. The interview was fun and challenging. There were tasks and an interview with the engineers from the Dolby broadcast team. With my first and second year, my course has given me opportunity to learn a wide range of skills and provided me with resources where I could practice and improve those skills. These skills played a crucial role in my interview, landing me the broadcast intern role at Dolby.

About the placement role

Dolby Laboratories is one of the world leaders when it comes to audio and film industry. Their major revenue comes from their cutting-edge audio and video solutions they offer to the other major businesses in the media, film and technology industry like Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Disney etc. The broadcast team in Dolby are responsible for enabling and supporting these businesses with Dolby solutions for their live and Video on Demand (VOD) workflows.

As a part of the broadcast team, I worked closely with my manager and other engineers in the team assisting with their projects. I also had the opportunity to work with the latest technology, that helped me to stay up to date with industry trends. As a company which covers both creative and technical aspects of music, sound and picture I had the incredible opportunity to work and learn all that Dolby had to offer me, which was invaluable for me as a student.

Reflection on the placement year

The values and experience that I gained just from one year at Dolby was plethora. It really helped me to understand how the industry works and make good meaningful connections with industry professionals. One year taught me what it takes to be a professional in my industry and how I could work to achieve that. I am grateful for the opportunity thanks to the University of Huddersfield and Dolby.

Final year

Coming back to the university for my final year, I could see that my approach and mindset have changed, I’m more focused on the bigger picture now with my career and I’m working on a roadmap on how to get there. My exposure to the industry and connecting with people in my placement year played a crucial role for it.

In my final year I have launched a Podcast with the International Office, called International Studies and Stories where I speak to experts from the International Office and current students, check it out.