Your Sports Internship Final Checklist and a Special Announcement

Hi everybody I’m Brian Clapp, Director of Content for WorkinSports.com and this is the Work in Sports podcast…

Before we get into today’s question – I am so fired up about our Sports Career Accelerator event coming up in September.

If you are an avid listener to the podcast or a member of our private facebook group, you know that the team at WorkinSports.com along with our friends at Tremont Global Education are working together to create Sports Career Accelerator events …and our first one is in Atlanta, September 13^th and 14^th!

So what is this event?

First a little background – we’ve all been to career fairs, whether sports related or not, and the event doesn’t usually live up to the hype and excitement. You go into it and think – this could be my moment! Then you get there and realize there aren’t any real opportunities, the teams represented aren’t engaged,  or there are so many people you just don’t get any time to talk with anyone in a meaningful way.

Well, we set out to do something different – very different.

Our 2-day event will be intense and immersive – you will go inside the operations of the Atlanta Hawks, Falcons, Braves, United, Mercedes Benz stadium, Phillips arena, the college football hall of fame and more.

You will meet and speak with high ranking officials within the teams, hiring staff, mid-level managers, and the important decision makers.

We will submit a professional portfolio book, including your resume and detailed information to all executive speakers and guest hosts…

Many of the team leaders will conduct micro interviews on the spot

And here’s the big one – we are capping the event to the first 40 people who register. We want this to be the most impactful 2-days of your sports life and we can’t do that with hundreds of people – we want you to get one on one meaning impact with pro team executives, while learning and networking with them.

Alright you probably have questions – here’s what I would ask:

• How much is it – I don’t have a final price yet, but I can tell you it’s much cheaper than I would have guessed originally. I should know later this week an exact number – and I will post it on our private facebook group.
• How do I register? – We are opening registration to the public on August 1^st. BUT, listeners of this podcast who go to workinsports.com/atlanta and submit their email address will get advance access to pre-register before the public on July 31^st.
• What about hotels? – The cost of a hotel or airfare will not be included in your registration, but we will have suggestions for you on where to book – once you submit your email to the page I just mentioned, we will start sharing more and more info with you.
• What about food? – Yes, you will be fed. Specifics on that to come… but trust me you will eat.
• What about transportation between all of the facilities? That is all included! I’ll tell you this too – we will be running some contests during the event for some really cool prizes so again, this is something you are not going to want to miss
• I live on the West Coast – will you have any other events? Yes, we will. We’re mapping out our event calendar, and it will be exciting for all of you. BUT, if you can make this one… make it. I think every event will have similar structures, but with different teams and execs a totally different vibe. You may want to go to multiple events, but you have to start with your first!

So final reminder – go to WorkinSports.com/atlanta for more details and to put your name on our interest list for advance knowledge and early registration!

Alright now on to the meat of today’s program –

The question –

Hi Brian, I am John from North Carolina. This summer I’ve been honored to have an internship with a local minor league baseball team and it has been a blast. I’m entering the final month of my internship and I want to make sure I don’t miss any opportunities…can you give me a checklist of things I should do before saying goodbye for now?

Hey John – thanks for your question, and I’m happy to do that. Why? Because I’ve seen too many people treat internships like an assignment, where they check the box, completing their coursework or school requirement rather than seeing this as the lynch pin to your future.

I know that sounds a little dramatic – but it’s true – you will not learn what you specifically like about the industry in the classroom. You can have theories, but until you practice it you just don’t know. Same for networking and resume building – you need internships to make these things come to life.

So you are in the home stretch – here are a few things you need to do. And just so you know this applies to ANYONE no matter what time of year you are doing your internship. These are three must-do things on your list:

1: Right now – this is super important – I want you to write down all of the things you did for your team. Write them all down, big and small, in a separate notebook. Give as much detail to each task as you can. Write down and specific feedback you were given or any corrections on how to do something differently.

This will be your playbook.

Some of these things will be important enough to make your resume. You’ll use this knowledge to accentuate your experience.

And other parts will be for interviews.   

Interviews are better when you can share how you actually handled an experience, not theoretically how you would. So if an employer asks you about a time you made a mistake on the job and how you overcame it. That may not be something you wrote down on your resume, but there could be examples of that in your playbook if you wrote them down.

Now why do you write them down? #1 because you’ll forget. #2 because this gives you something to read the night before an interview. – You’ll read this and go ‘ oh yeah I forgot about that!” and it will assist you in an interview.

I can hear you all groaning right now like – I don’t want to do this. Fine, I guess you aren’t serious about getting job then – suit yourself. I like to nail interviews and get jobs, maybe you don’t.

2: Get contact information on people – this is obvious – you need to have the people you meet in your database of contacts.

A simple – hey I’m almost done with my internship but I’ve learned a lot from you this summer and would like to stay in touch, can I connect with you on LinkedIn and get your email?”

Easy peasy. But don’t just grab their info and forget it. Keep in touch, once a month or once every two months drop a note – hey I saw a cool promotion the team is running – was that your idea?! Awesome!

As you continue the relationship, and add value, when you get closer to graduation or another internship, that person can be a reference, or may know of opportunities. So ask. But only after you’ve stayed in touch.

And don’t be short sighted – get contact information on your fellow interns and entry level employees too, and stay in touch, you never know when some of these people may make it big and want people they can trust by their side. I know I always did.

3: Take a shot – You’ve been interning for a while now, you’ve built up some reputation for hard work and respect amongst co-workers. If there is something you’ve really wanted to do but haven’t had a chance yet, now is the time to approach your intern coordinator and ask. If you’ve been in guest relations all summer but would love to see how the press box operates for a game – ask! And do it humbly “Hey intern coordinator, my internship is coming to an end and before I go I wanted to know if it would be possible to observe a game from the broadcast booth. I really want to go into broadcasting and I think it would be very beneficial.”

If you want to shadow someone ask. This is the time to be forward but not demanding. The worst they will say is no I’m sorry that’s not an option… but I don’t see that happening very often.