Careers in Sports Management: 6 Steps to Get You There

hey everybody i'm brian clapp vp of

content and engaged learning at

workingsports.com and this

is the work in sports podcast

[Music]

let's get into today's question i'm

going to read this now

hi brian my name is joanna and i am a

college freshman

who was introduced to your podcast this

year by one of my professors

that's awesome joanna i love it i have

learned so much

funny story i swear my professor takes

your ideas

and talks about them in the classroom

like they are his

i think he forgets that he told us all

to subscribe and listen to your show

that is kind of funny joanna i enjoyed

that i do have a question though and i

hope you can get to it

as i mentioned i'm a freshman and since

i am paying for my college

i want to make sure i get the most out

of this experience if you were going to

set a strategy for a freshman in college

to make sure they get the most out of

their college experience and

really really really yes there were

three rallies in her email

make the most out of their four years

what would you advise

i focus on joanna this is a big question

but you're in luck because i love big

questions

i have five big concepts so let's get

into them number one

during your freshman year start to

narrow down your main focuses

and interests as i was starting to say

earlier just saying you want to work in

sports is not specific

enough and doesn't set you up for

success

you need to start right now

understanding what

real options are out there and the

demands of these roles

you need to educate yourself in a

specific and actionable way

the choices you make as an athletic

trainer versus a sports marketer will be

incredibly different

and if you don't know that yet you have

to start to figure that out

the earlier you can figure out what

interests you and what direction you

want to head

every decision you make afterwards will

start to make more sense and

fit in strategically i don't want you to

just go through the motions

without thinking bigger about where you

want to end up

if you go into college and just say

these are my required classes

i have to do these things i have to do

these things to graduate

i have to do internships to graduate and

then i'll be done

that's not going to be specific enough

for our industry you need to start

understanding

where your fit will be i did not turn

off my notifications you may have just

heard that and i wonder if that was adam

schefter

i wonder what the patriots have done now

i just finished learning that they

signed john w smith and they made me

happy

okay getting off track um so

i want you to start to think about what

you want so that you can make smart

choices

based on where you want to end up if you

and i know this sounds kind of cheesy

and i'm not big into cheesy sayings but

if you don't know what your goal is

you have no chance at hitting the target

like if you don't have a target you

can't hit it

so you have to have a target and say to

yourself okay i've put some work in

i've researched different jobs i've

looked at different types of

opportunities in the sports industry

and sports marketing just sounds so cool

to me awesome

that's progress now every decision you

start to make afterwards will

make more sense so start getting that

now what i would try to give you as a

timeline

is that ideally by the end of your

sophomore year you'll be able to say

okay i want to work in sports marketing

or sports operations or sports

technology or become a sports agent you

have something right you'll have

something more specific

by the end of your sophomore year so

right now your research mode you're

exploring

you're discovering you're checking

things out right

so right start researching understanding

was out there see what interests you by

the time you hit junior year

you want to be choosing internships that

match your goals

you want to be choosing specific classes

that fit the skill profile

for what is demanded of these roles and

who you want to be

you want to start being strategic about

what additional skills you learn

and what other optional courses you can

take electives that fit into that

profile of where you want to end up

so like you might see again i use

photoshop and example a lot because it's

easy but adobe premiere pro is one

oh there it goes again now it's ian

rappaport tweeting about significant

news

i have to shut off my phone before i

start recording um but now i'm gonna be

thinking about what that significant

news could be

darn it anyway okay i'm focused on you

uh so goal researching by in freshman

year

right really trying to understand things

clarity by the end of sophomore year

really trying to know

what feels right to you actions taken by

junior year okay so internship choices

and more

that start to fit in with that bigger

plan you have for yourself okay

number two make a plan for experience

what i mean is again this is contingent

upon knowing what you want to pursue

so you start there everything's building

upon itself but really joanna if you

look at your resume right now

it's probably pretty light you can't go

out and apply for jobs even if you

wanted to because you don't have any

real experience

i know my freshman year college my

resume would have said golf caddy

which means i'm qualified to be a golf

caddy and that's not going to help me

very much

so your goal is to gain experiences that

fill up that resume

and match the demands of your chosen

path you should have a mix of internship

experiences skills you have mastered

clubs you are part of volunteer

opportunities and more

have it in your mind that the activities

you choose to do are going to be

represented on your resume they are

going to have enough meat on the bone

and enough importance to who you want to

be that they're going to

fit with that profile they're going to

fill in some of those gaps

on your resume now that's not saying you

can't be on the club

ultimate frisbee team and have some fun

of course you need to do that kind of

thing

but the majority of your activities need

to be focused on your ultimate goal

which is turning your college experience

being an into being an awesome job

candidate by the time you graduate

right gaining that experience so have a

plan and go about that

number three network like a boss like

seriously

set a goal for yourself to connect with

people in your chosen industry

and i don't mean just the sports

industry i mean specifically to the

vertical that you've kind of chosen

sports sales sports marketing sports

operations whatever it is okay

notice everything i'm saying here builds

off of knowing who you want to be which

was that first tip

it doesn't make a ton of sense to spend

a lot of time and effort

networking with the athletic department

at your school's director of player

development

if that's not somewhere you're really

interested in going yes it may

help they may know people they may be

able to connect you it may be a good way

to learn things i'm not saying don't do

that kind of thing

but don't do it instead of networking

with people

in your lane so target the right people

find people doing entry-level versions

of the roles that interest you

you want to work in sports operations

reach out to people working as an

operations coordinator in the minor

leagues or in pro sports or in college

sports

start locally look at those teams around

you network with them

right start there start a dialogue ask

awful questions interact

find out how they got their first job

work at it networking is not just that

water

number four make educated

decisions about your activities

this is something i talk about all the

time and i'm not going to go into it in

great depth because

it's something i talk about so much but

i'm going to give you the highlight okay

you've determined in step one what kind

of interests you and that may change

that might pivot i get that

but what you need to do next after you

figure out what interests you and you

start building up your experience and

you start doing

uh building your network you need to

really identify those skills that are in

demand for the market you've chosen to

get into

again i hammer this all the time because

not enough people do it but if you look

at job descriptions they will literally

tell you exactly the skills they want if

somebody they're going to hire to do

this role

if you've determined you want to work in

sports marketing

go look at 10 different marketing

coordinator jobs across pro teams minor

league teams agencies

whatever advertising firms all of it

look at marketing coordinator roles

read through and understand what skills

that they're saying they want when we

hire this person we want them to have

these 10 skills

you put together a game plan of

acquiring those skills

those are the things you need to do

while you're in college learn those

skills

youtube videos take in classes whatever

you have to do in order to learn it and

be able to exemplify it during your

internships make strategic choices that

will let you learn some of these things

emphasize your intern coordinator if

there's an opportunity i'd really love

to learn how to use

microsoft dynamics because i saw this as

being an important part of the marketing

industry

whatever it is make sure you put the

effort into learning those skills that

match where you want to end up

being intentional about your choices

looking at every opportunity and every

choice as a building block

towards where you want to eventually end

up that will put you ahead of 95

of the people out there i am serious i'm

not even joking

number five you see that if you're on

the youtube channel you just saw me kind

of do a 45

number 45 okay five work on your soft

skills

and how to leverage them so many people

in hiring

say that they are looking for soft

skills even more than hard skills now

i don't fully think they're being 100

honest when they say that

i think from experience the only way you

get noticed for jobs is if you have

and meet the minimum requirements first

you have the skills

and then soft skills come into play in

the final hiring decisions like they're

judging you versus other person and i

think this person has more leadership

skills or whatever

but but i digress quick definition hard

skills

i know photoshop soft skills i have

great work ethic passion and i'm a

leader

see the difference right hard skills i

can do this thing soft skills is

more personality based okay so headline

after all of that digression

is that soft skills are important right

they can be a final deciding tool

so how do you develop them they work in

conjunction with experience

you only learn work ethic and passion

and leadership by being in a position to

experience those things

to learn from others to see how other

leaders act to incorporate some of those

things

so put yourself in those positions look

for leadership roles maybe you learn by

failing some that's okay too that is

actually a good thing you will learn by

failing

prove yourself on an internship by

putting an extra effort

just saying you work hard isn't going to

move the needle

having an example showing a time that

you worked hard is more effective

just saying you're good at problem

solving isn't as powerful as have an

example of a time

you're going to miss a deadline due to a

technical failure but figured out a

workaround under pressure

saying you are good at time management

is not as powerful as saying

being a student athlete and sharing how

you kept good grades despite

training and traveling and playing and

practice and schedules and

all that other good stuff experiences

lead to skilled soft skill development

and give you a story to tell

which makes you more powerful in number

six

practice interviewing practice

interviewing

you can do everything right you can gain

the right experience you can build a

great network you can have a great

resume

cover letter looks perfect your personal

brand is on point

you can have incredible soft skills but

if you get in front of people

video phone face to face and you can't

interview well

you will not get the job interviewing is

that final

threshold you have to be able to cross

over and the only way you get

good at it is by doing it often

practicing

or like just getting out there and being

out there um

practice phone call and video interviews

work on your eye contact like if you're

on a video interview

you're looking at the camera lens not at

your screen

you're looking at the camera lens not

yourself there is a difference there

you're making eye contact

you guys watching on our youtube channel

right now feel like i am looking at you

because i'm looking at my camera

not at my screen right doesn't it feel

like we're connecting hi

okay so work on eye contact research

commonly asked questions and press

yourself on how you would handle them

practice reciting some of your stories

and exampling

how your work ethic came through in your

various experiences

most of all and this is incredibly

important be authentic

don't try to be a second-rate version of

who you think the interviewer wants you

to be

be you you are the person

they want to know better not who you

think

they want you to be yeah i think i got

that out right

so those are six tips that if if joanna

if you're in college and you're a

freshman and you start to look at these

things we framed your mind around this

conversation to say these are the things

i need to focus on

if you do these things you will be in

incredible

incredible position so focus here

try to get those things moving in the

right direction and i think you'll be

in a really really good spot by the time

you get to the end of your journey