Hunter Thompson

Major: Retailing & Consumer Behavior

Certificate: Digital Studies

Graduation Date: May 2018

How has Digital Studies influenced your career path?

Digital Studies has not influenced my career path directly, but more indirectly. It has enabled and inspired me to be an expert in the digital aspects of my Sales Manager role. I use my digital studies background to help my fellow employees understand our Power BI and Salesforce systems better, sell digital programs to our customers, and provide UI/UX feedback to our systems managers.

Digital Studies has had a direct impact on my side hustle doing voice-over work. I always had an interest in doing voice-over but didn’t know how to get into it until I took Life Sciences Communication 360: Information Radio with Larry Meiller. That class gave me the technical and soft skills necessary to do voice-over professionally. Larry taught us everything from how to use Adobe Audition to how to write and deliver a proper radio ad. I use the skills from LSC 360 all the time to make money on the side doing voice-over jobs on Upwork and Voices.com.

How did you end up working at Altria and also doing freelance voiceover work?

I had a successful sales internship with Nordstrom going into my senior year at UW-Madison. I attended an Altria recruiting event at Madison during my senior year and leveraged my sales experience from Nordstrom into obtaining a full time position with Altria as a Sales Manager.

Shortly after starting my career at Altria I still had the itch for voice-over. I purchased a Blue Yeticaster microphone for my desk and an Adobe Audition subscription. It was only a few hundred dollars for both and that’s really all I needed to get started. Then I created a profile on Upwork that highlighted my skills in voiceover, including a portfolio with some projects I made in LSC 360. Within days I was applying for and bidding on jobs on Upwork, and within the first month I was getting paid for voice-over jobs. I was doing anything within my skill set, from narrating audiobooks for schools, to writing and narrating instructional videos for companies. The skills, advice, and assignments from LSC 360 were invaluable in me getting started. I recommended organizing and saving as much material as you can from your classes at UW.

What does a typical day in the office at Altria look like for you?

I oversee our brands sales, merchandising, and contracts at over 100 retail locations. An average day involves consulting with owners and managers to maximize our brands success in their stores.

Tell us more about what it’s like to do voice-over work.

Looking for freelance voice-over work is relatively easy online. I have found my favorite platforms to be Upwork and Voices.com. After you create a profile and bid on jobs that are within your skillset, the client will usually ask you for a voice sample of either something in your portfolio, or have you read and edit a sample that they provide. If they like what they hear and you are able to meet the clients specifications for amount of work, time of completion, and formatting preferences, you can then decide whether to move forward with the job. Most jobs explain the pay, skill set, and time commitment before you even place your bid.

I never started doing voice-over for the money, but rather because I truly had a passion for it. You always hear people talking about finding flow, and for me I find it in creating and editing voice-over projects. I probably spend 10-20 hours a month doing voice-over work of some kind. I never started doing it for the money. Don’t expect to make much at first, you’ll find even simple projects will take much longer than anticipated as you hone your skills and become more comfortable with audio software like Adobe Audition.

Do you have any advice for current students?

Take classes and pursue a certificate outside of your main focus. You may be surprised what skills and interests you pick up that can lead you to a new hobby or even a new career someday! Don’t be afraid to run with your passion and search for opportunities to practice it either. There are so many opportunities at Madison to create projects for local businesses, governments, and organizations where you can practice and showcase your skills.