Although the voice over industry is an exciting and creative field to work in, it is definitely not a career that works well for everyone. A person with a good natural speaking voice may very well not have the right personality type that meshes well with the ups and downs that come with being a voice actor.
Realistically, there isn’t a job that is completely perfect all the time. Even someone’s dream job would get old after a while. Like other professions in the entertainment industry, voice acting takes a lot of time for not a lot of recognition.
If you are interested in working in the voice over industry, it is a good idea to ask yourself if you would also like the lifestyle that comes with voice acting.
1. Are you willing to put in irregular work hours? If you only want a 9am – 5pm job, you might not like the life of a professional voice actor! Some of the most talented and successful voice actors I know are disciplined about getting up early and certainly don’t mind putting in extra hours after dinner to get projects done. While you might find the middle of your day quite free, sometimes you’ll be flooded by jobs and other times you’ll spend your whole day searching for auditions.
2. Is your interest in voiceovers likely to be short-lived? While it’s hard to predict this one, maybe you can instead ask yourself how long you’ve wanted to get into voiceovers. Before you found out about voice acting, did you pay attention to commercials and radio talk shows? Did you like audiobooks for the good narrators, or did you ever work on impersonations? If you weren’t going to get paid to do voice-overs, would you still do them for fun because you enjoy the creative process?
3. Can you spend a lot of time alone? Voice actors spend a lot of time in solitude! Many people feed off the face-to-face interactions that come from working in an office, but most voice actors only communicate with clients through email or phone. The joke that voice actors are most comfortable in a padded cell holds truth! You should be comfortable working independently, and it certainly helps to be self-motivated.
4. Are you a risk-taker? Like any new career, getting into a voice over career takes an investment. An investment of time, investment of financial resources, and an investment in voice-over training. Just like an acting school would accept your money for acting classes without guaranteeing your success, there is no guarantee that you will succeed in the voiceover industry! That being said, the job market for voiceover artists is continuing to grow at a steady rate, and there is no reason to think that a well-trained, self-motivated voice actor can’t succeed. Remember to respect your budding voice over career and allow yourself time to learn and grow!
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