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In the past month, we’ve had a lot of e-mails from you asking for tips on how to describe your voice to an employer. With your UK Voices online profile, you’re given a bio and section to describe your voice, so that employers can search for specific voices; for example if they want to find someone who has a deep voice, they’ll search for ‘deep voice’ and all the profiles with that listed will come up’. You obviously want to put yourself in the position where you’ll be as accessible as
possible, and the best way to do this, is by accurately describing your voice.
It can be hard to know where to start when trying to describe your voice. In your head it always sounds different to what it sounds like in reality. The first step to getting an accurate description is to record yourself speaking normally. Once you have the recording, try playing it back to yourself through headphones, and through general speakers, that way, you can listen for any subtleties in your voice. Write down everything you can hear about your voice. The tone, the pitch, any hints of a regional accent, and then walk away from it for a day. The next day, come back and re-listen to your voice, and re-read what you’ve written down the day before. If you are agree with what you’ve written the day before then that’s great, if you disagree, right down what you’ve heard today, and then come back to it the next day.
If you don’t trust yourself to objectively describe your voice, call up a friend. They’ll hear your voice through their ears, just as the employer will, so most likely will be able to describe it to you. It’s always smart to do this with a couple of friends so that you can hear differing opinions. If they both agree then that’s brilliant, however if they differ, try incorporating both of their descriptions in your vocal description, as different people can hear things differently.
Make sure that you note down any accents that you can do, however when describing your voice, describe your natural voice as that’s what employers may be searching for, plus you can always note accents down separately.
The key to describing your voice accurately is objectivity. It’s easy if you have that. Make sure you have a recording device to hand and maybe a couple of friends and you’ll be good to go from there. Make sure you don’t rush it and make a hash of it, as it very well could be the thing that separates you from getting discovered by an employer to being passed over for the next person. It really is in your hands!
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