Scott Aplin runs the entire musical operation behind The Voice Australia. He’s responsible for arranging, producing and directing music for one of the country’s biggest live television formats. He didn’t plan for any of it. What got him there is a set of habits any student can start practising now, not just a career story to admire from a distance.
Take the job that isn’t your dream job
Aplin’s ambition was to tour as a musician. In his twenties, a friend offered him a seemingly unrelated gig producing music for ABC Kids. He took it, and that started a sequence of events he could never foresee. “That actually opened up a lot of doors in production for me,” he says. Eight years of producing an album a month for children’s television built the exact production and arranging skills he’d later need to run the music on The Voice. The lesson: don’t filter opportunities by how closely they match the job you actually want. Instead, look at them through the lens of what they’ll teach you.
Get technically ready before you’re asked
“Invest in the best tech you can possibly have, the best hardware that you can afford,” Aplin says, “so that if the right job comes in, you are ready to go straight away and you’re not scrambling.” For a student, that means treating your setup, your software, your gear, as something to sort out well before an opportunity shows up, not once it lands in your inbox.
Be easy to work with. Every time.
Asked what actually gives people their next break, Aplin doesn’t point to talent. “Don’t be an idiot,” he says. “If you are easy to get along with and work with… you’re probably going to be invited to the next thing.” In the creative industries, work comes from word of mouth more than applications. That means how you show up on a student shoot or a placement now is already part of your track record, whether you’re thinking of it that way or not.
Broaden what counts as a good gig
“Every gig could lead somewhere very, very different to where you expect,” Aplin says. A career in the creative industries is one part luck, one part showing up with the right intent. For Scott, each and every role has build his set of skills that have made the next gig possible. Say yes more broadly than your five-year plan suggests you should.
None of this required Aplin to have a clear plan. It required him to show up prepared, expand and refine his skills, and be someone people wanted back in the room. And it’s sage advice for anyone starting out their career in the creative industries.
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