Why You Should Hire A Musician
Trading check boxes for boom boxes
“What would you say is your biggest accomplishment?” Asked the stern-faced hiring manager as he reclined slightly in his chair. He wore an untucked polo shirt that made me feel uncomfortably overdressed in my suit and tie. But, I knew I had the perfect answer to his question.
Awhile back, I sang in a band called King Niko. We recorded a song that was getting regular rotation on a number of radio stations in Salt Lake, LA, and Chicago. Within weeks of its release, we’d received a ton of great press and landed some big shows.
At one of those shows, I got to fill in for the lead singer of Panic! At The Disco, who’d been unexpectedly hospitalized the day before. Their bassist approached me strictly because he’d heard, and liked, our new song. In terms of big accomplishments, I knew that this one song was a better example of my capabilities than anything at my “day job”.
So, I told Stern-Faced Hiring Manager about all the work that went into that process — from writing and recording to publishing and publicity— laying out why it was my biggest accomplishment. He paused, as though waiting for the point of my response.
“Oh, I meant something from work,” he finally said, with a nervous chuckle. And, it hurt. All of the skills and behaviors this company said they were looking for were demonstrated in my story — creative problem solving, project management, improvisation, communication skills, attention to detail — but it wasn’t what he wanted to hear. I don’t think he was trying to be dismissive or patronizing, he was simply unable to contextualize my response. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t get the job.
These days I’m a Customer Success Manager for Teem, a Workplace Experience company, and I’m thriving. I knew from the first time I sat down with Zach Barney, who would go on to hire me, that Teem was different. Zach wanted to know more about how I wrote, how I rehearsed, how I planned and managed concerts. I would interview with a half dozen Teem employees before joining the company, and each time I felt like their goal was to get the full measure of the person — not to check off a list.
And it’s not just Teem, “transferable skills and behaviors” has been a buzz phrase in HR and PeopleOps for decades. So, what skills and behaviors can musicians offer your business?
When I think about it, many of my most successful and accomplished friends honed their skills not in a boardroom or a classroom, but in dive bars and recording studios. While I know a lucky few musicians who have been able to make a career from music, I wanted to take a closer look at the ones who’ve found success in tech, finance, and business.
What did Miki, our HR Manager at Teem, recognize in my skillset that Stern-Faced Hiring Manager from my story didn’t? What kind of advantage does that give musicians? Here’s why you should think like Miki, like Zach, and like Teem: hire a musician.
They Work Like Rockstars
Party like a rockstar? Maybe. Work like a rockstar? Absolutely.
Music is a hustle, it’s a grind. It’s a crowded space with a very high noise-to-signal ratio and you have to put in enormous amounts of work to differentiate yourself.
I asked my good friend and bandmate Ben Moffatt, CEO of Gantry Creative, what he learned from his decades in music. “Mostly, the ability to hustle,” he said. “I don’t expect anything to just come to me in a flash of brilliance.” Ben’s story is a familiar one to me, a rebellious youth for whom music is the one great constant that teaches the value of persistence. “I was a late bloomer, both professionally and academically. I graduated college at 32 and landed my first ‘real job’ at 33,” Ben recalls. “I’ve cleaned hotel rooms, waited tables, sold furniture, and loaded semi trucks. All of those jobs helped shape me into the man I am today.”
“I don’t expect anything to just come to me in a flash of brilliance.”
— Ben Moffat, CEO of Gantry Creative (Rocker)
Chris Jex, Senior Merchandising Manager for eBay’s Latin American operations, echoed Ben’s thoughts on hustle. “While playing and touring in the band incamera I was completing degrees in Economics and Political science at the University of Utah, and working a full time job in online marketing,” he told me. “Balancing way too many projects and responsibilities seems to be a common trait of a lot musicians I know and refutes the stereotype of the lazy, single-minded musician.”
Single-minded focus when needed, plus the ability to multitask and prioritize? Check.
They’re Entrepreneurs and Self-Starters
These days, a working musician has to wear every hat. They’re the creative team, sure, but they’re also marketing, sales, PR, accounting, etc. If a musician can’t figure out how to run their own business, then they’re pushed out of the market by someone who can — it’s as simple as that.
As a result, the successful musicians I know are also accomplished and well-rounded business managers and owners. Katia Racine, of Pixie and The Partygrass Boys, is also Program Manager at Sustainable Startups. Ben Moffat branched off from his job at Salt Lake Media company Verite to start Gantry Creative.
My BassMint Pros bandmate Maclain Lindquist runs daily operations for northern Utah’s largest funeral and cemetery company. “My first DJ gig was playing rap songs on two Fisher Price boomboxes for my fourth grade graduation party,” Maclaine told me. “I began a lucrative DJ career from 1998 to 2001 and I’ve been recording people of all types of music in my basement since 1997.” For Maclaine, music not only helped develop and hone business skills, but keeps him centered and on task at work. “Without music, I wouldn’t have the peace that I need to do my job to it’s fullest. I must be centered to best serve the families going through grief from the inevitable stages of mourning.”
“Without music, I wouldn’t have the peace that I need to do my job to it’s fullest. I must be centered to best serve the families going through grief from the inevitable stages of mourning.”
— Maclain Lindquist, Operations Manager.
In his best-seller “Love Is The Killer App,” author and former Yahoo CSO Tim Sanders described how his passion for engaging an audience compelled him to turn down a law school degree in favor of touring America in a van playing reggae music. The focus changed, but the passion, drive, and entrepreneurial spirit remained. That’s what makes him Tim Sanders: king of the love cats, tech industry giant, and New York Times best-seller. Could you spot a Tim Sanders if you saw their resume?
Adaptability, passion, and ownership? Check.
They Think Outside The Box? Heck, They Live Outside The Box
Randy Favero is the CEO of Satellite Broadband Holdings in Park City, Utah. He’s also an incredible singer. As VP of Worldwide Professional Services at Netscape from 1997 to 2001, Randy hired over 500 employees — mathematicians, engineers… and musicians.
“There’s a huge correlation between math and music,” Randy told me, “and often it was easier to take math majors and music majors with a creative mind, mold and shape them, versus using computer science guys who thought in a very structured way.”
Skyler Arbon is probably the best guitarist I know, and he’s also an R&D Research Associate at BioFire Diagnostics. “I’m constantly designing and executing experiments around our products for diagnosing infectious diseases,” Skyler explained. “There’s not a lot of room to be lazy in any sort of business field, and artists in general can be pigeon-holed into being portrayed that way, when really we have a lot of creative muscle we built through our artistic endeavors that we can exercise to excel in our fields.”
Musicians have a way of communicating complex ideas in a relatable way. During his 20 years at IBM, Randy saw musicians play a big role in helping the company “shift its focus from selling devices to a solutions-based environment.” Randy goes on to say that at Netscape, musicians helped develop modern web browsing as we know it.
Creative problem-solving? Check.
Artists Make Great Employees
The next time you’re screening candidates or putting together a job listing, think about your best employees. What do they have in common? They’re probably driven, enthusiastic, optimistic, have excellent attention to detail, are action-oriented and accountable. As it turns out, that description also perfectly applies to all of the best musicians I know.
And what about painters? Poets? Stand-up comedians? I guess the main point I want to make is to see beyond job history, education, degrees, and all of the standard checkboxes to which we’ve grown accustomed, and consider the hard work of creatives. You should absolutely hire poets and authors — and why not mimes and jugglers, too?
Anyone who can excel in a creative endeavor through practice, grit, and determination is worth interviewing and taking as seriously as the traditional candidate with the traditional resume. But, you know, mostly musicians.
Ransom Wydner is a Customer Success Manager at Teem, which provides client companies of all sizes with actionable workspace data and a suite of dynamic employee tools and solutions to optimize Workplace Experience. He’ll sing you pretty much any song you’d like to hear if you call him at work, preferably Disney themes. 415–951–3755.
Check out our Workplace Weekly Playlist on Spotify featuring two songs from Ransom Wydner and King Niko!
