The path to games or entertainment is adjacent

One way to get into the entertainment industry is by knowing what other angles or lanes to take to get in 🚘

When I worked at Dolby, I only saw it as an audio technology company. Especially starting there as an intern, I thought “okay, this feels techie. It’s a software company” and left it at that 🤷🏻‍♀️

However, I learned that I should make the most of my experience in the company regardless of what they did, so I forced myself out of my comfort zone and networked inside the company. I met and learned from people across different departments and learned to connect the dots. I did more research about what Dolby did, their history, and their impact on the software industry.

I realized that they were revolutionizing audio, visual, and voice technologies for movies, TV, music, and gaming. They were working on immersive sound 😳🔈

Now we know what Dolby is today and love to see the “Dolby Atmos” popup in the top right corner of our Netflix shows. But during my time, they were only just starting the work on it. If I didn’t take the time to understand the company, I would have totally missed it.

💥 Dolby was an entertainment adjacent company! 💥 While not considered an entertainment company like Disney, they were innovating in entertainment technology! Directly tying into the experiences in film, TV, music, and gaming and had partnerships with the Disney’s of the world.

🧩 So this is one of my pieces of advice: You don’t have to start on a linear path to entertainment or games. It’s possible to start at another angle; start at something adjacent. Build up the understanding and connect the dots to how those worlds intersect. Then make your skills and experience relevant.

Fun fact: It blew my mind when I found out that Dolby launched Dolby Atmos with the debut of Disney/Pixar’s Brave! 🤯 When I interviewed at Disney, I dropped this fact in my interviews, explaining my thoughts on this intersection of immersive entertainment.

I continue to bring up this experience, even in my most recent interviews because I’m able to make it relevant. Even if its not linear.