Questions employers ask
The stuff people want to know before they pick up the phone.
“Is he a teacher or a media professional?”
Both. I’ve been producing video, audio, and print content since 2002. I started teaching in 2020 because a program I helped build needed someone in the classroom. Five years later, I teach chorus, drama, journalism, and A/V production full-time while still directing a national TV show.
For what it’s worth, teaching DaVinci Resolve to 15-year-olds tightened my own editing workflow more than any seminar ever did.
“His degree is in music. How does that help?”
Composition training is about structure, pacing, and knowing when to cut. Same instincts I use editing an episode or running a rehearsal.
One of my professors also drilled into me that not every pot needs to be a Ming vase. Sometimes a technically sound solution that meets the spec is the right answer. That thinking stuck, and it applies to everything I do now, not just music.
“Can a teacher work in a corporate or agency setting?”
I ran a production company for 15 years before I taught my first class. Stouthouse Media produced coach’s shows for Georgia Southern on Fox Sports South, fundraising videos for university foundations, and a national TV series. I’ve managed client relationships, budgets, and deadlines since 2009.
The classroom is the newer part of my career, not the whole of it.
“What production gear does he use?”
Current traveling rig: Canon DSLRs, a Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera 6K G2, Panasonic professional camcorders, and Rode Wireless Pro mics. I edit in DaVinci Resolve. I also work in Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Audition, Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.
Audio and editing are my strongest areas. On one shoot, radio interference caused dropouts in a critical one-take scene. I built an AI voice clone from hours of the talent’s recorded audio and used it to patch the gaps. Nobody watching the episode would know.
“How does he use AI? For real.”
Every day, in both jobs.
In the classroom: Gemini CLI handles lesson planning logistics so I can focus on students. NotebookLM lets me build reference libraries on any subject a class is stuck on. I built a seating chart app for my fellow teachers using Claude and Codex because I hate making seating charts. They use it daily.
In production: AI voice cloning, as mentioned above. This website’s Job Fit Analyzer is another example. I built it to do something useful, not to prove I can use an API.
“What happened with Stouthouse Media?”
Before COVID, I had three major clients and thought that counted as diversified. One left over a contract dispute. Another ran out of money. The third collapsed from financial mismanagement. COVID hit on top of all that and the business went dormant for a while. I took the teaching job. Right now the only consistent client is the RFD-TV show.
What I took from it: three clients is concentration risk with extra steps. I don’t dodge this question.
“Remote, travel, relocation?”
Remote or hybrid is my preference. I love work-related travel. I’m established in the Statesboro, GA area and my kids are here, but relocation isn’t off the table if the fit and compensation make sense.
“What kind of roles is he after?”
Work that uses the combination, not just one piece of it. EdTech, educational media, training organizations, creative agencies, production companies. Consulting, training, and speaking alongside hands-on production. I want to scale up: bigger shows, larger teams, network-level work.
“What’s the AI thing on the front page?”
The Job Fit Analyzer runs on Claude, Anthropic’s AI. It has my verified resume, work history, skills, and background loaded into a knowledge base I built for this purpose. Paste a job description and it gives you an honest read on how I fit. It won’t make things up. If it doesn’t know something, it says so and points you to me.
I built it because I wanted employers to get real answers without scheduling a call first. It’s also a working demo.