The Work in Sports Podcast - Insider Advice for Sports Careers

Perception doesn't always line up with reality, and in the case of sports careers, the belief that to make it big you have to head to New York or Los Angeles is outdated thinking. Our Director of Content Brian Clapp explains the reality of sports careers for today's era in this short video: WIS do I need to relocate.MTS // Video Transcript for "Will I Need to Relocate to Have a Sports Career?" Brian Clapp, WorkinSports.com Director of Content:  One the most common question I get from people entering the sports industry is: "Will I need to relocate in order to really build my sports career?" The simple answer is "NO!"....maybe.....well, probably. Have I confused you yet? Because it is a little bit confusing. The simple fact is this, we did a study of all the jobs we posted last year on WorkinSports - 28,000 jobs in the sports industry and we covered every state on the map. Montana, Missisippi, Alaska, Hawaii, all of them were represented in our jobs posted last year. Now, were there more jobs posted in New York than Montana - well, yeah. But what the data tells me is that you can start a sports career anywhere, it's kind of what you want though. Do you want to gravitate toward the big city? Well, then you are probably going to relocate to one of the major markets and your career will grow at a faster rate. But if you want to stay small school or small community, that abiliy is afforded to you. I've spent most of my career working in sports broadcasting, and I've gravitated towards bigger cities, I wanted to work in a major market like Atlanta and Seattle -that is what I wanted, but if I wanted to go to South Dakota, there is a sports network there. There are online opportunities that have popped up in just about any state - there are high school sports networks that require coverage on a very local level. So even in my field of sports broadcasting - which people tend to think is relegated to Bristol, Connecticut, or Fox Sports in LA, or Turner Broadcasting in Atlanta - there are a lot more options than people realize. While this doesn't sound like an exact answer, it's so much going to depend on what you want - you can relocate to start your sports career or you can stay right where you are.

Our weekly Sports Jobs Q&A column has gone VIDEO! We thought it would be fun to mix things up a little, a least for this week. If you have a question you'd like us to conquer please add it to the comments below. WIS types of internships.MTS wistiaEmbed = Wistia.embed("22zilchiwt"); Video Transcript: "Sports Jobs Q&A: What Type of Sports Internships Should I Pursue?" Brian Clapp, WorkinSports.com Director of Content: Every week we write a sports jobs Q&A column where you the audience email in your questions or add them to the blog comments and we just respond - we try to get as deep as we can to give you the answer you need. t's one of our most enjoyable columns because it feels like our closest connection to you our audience. This week I decided to mix things up a bit and do it video style. Our question comes from John in Chicago who is about to enroll in college - he has read all of our articles on sports internships he understands the importance of his sports internships but he's not quite sure what his overall strategy and approach should be when it comes to selecting them. John let me make this simple for you and everyone else out there listening - I suggest you do a minimum of three internships while at school. Some of it will depend on the college credits you can get and the requirements of your school, but that should be the goal. But here's how I think it should layout: You should do at least one sports internship at a small business within your sports industry niche. So if you are working in sports broadcasting maybe it's a local TV station or smaller network, maybe a digital outlet. The reason is a smaller business will force you to do more things, they are going to give you more assignments and you are going to learn versatility. I also suggest you do a sports internship at a bigger business, because then you get to see how the big machine operates. Your tasks may not be as challenging or give you this great experience, but you need to absorb the large scale operation at a big business, because that's how you are going to learn how things should run. The final thing - no matter what your niche is you need to do at least one business related internship, especially something that involves sales- because most jobs in sports or in any other realm are going to require some sales experience. It's a great sports career starting point, and if you have something on your resume that screams sales experience, now you can get your foot in the door even if it's not exactly in your sports niche. Lets say you wanted to work in operations for a team, but the first job you could get was in the sales department, fine take it - you are qualified because of your internship experience! Get your foot in the door with a company and work you way up, rather than be too specific and narrow and never get your foot in the door. Getting one internship with sales focus is really realyl worth it. John that is your format for how you want you sports internships to look. If you have any question out there you want us to do a deep dive into - just add it to the comments below or send us an email!

When Mark Cuban speaks, people listen. Recently the Dallas Mavericks owner and co-host of Shark Tank, spoke negatively about getting a sports management degree. We listened, we thought about it, and we disagree with the majority of his premise. Watch this short video to see how we arrived at our conclusion: WIS Mark Cuban.MTS wistiaEmbed = Wistia.embed("p62756jvww"); Video Transcript: "Why Mark Cuban is Wrong About a Sports Management Degree" Brian Clapp, WorkinSports.com Director of Content: Mark Cuban has become one of the biggest names in sports, and I have to admit I'm a bit of a fan. I love people that are unabashed, that are unafraid to throw out their opinion, that challenge convention and make me think about my own perception of things - Mark Cuban does that. I often read his blog, which is aptly titled BlogMaverick. Cuban wrote and article recently about how he thought a sports management degree was a complete waste of time, and I'll link to the article here (editors note: the part on a sports management degree is near the bottom) and you can read it for yourself. His basic premise was that there are a limited amount of actual professional teams, and a limited amount of jobs that they have and if you do the math there are more people graduating with a sports management degree than there are jobs available at teams. He says, you should focus on getting experience in sales, a revenue generating job that will always have opportunities and an ability to get hired. I think he has some flaws in his premise and he also makes some strong points. The first major flaw is that he is isolating the sports industry to just revolving around teams, but the sports industry is so much more than that, and a sports management degree can teach you so much more about the intricacies of the sports industry. Think about broadcast media rights, agency relationships all the sort of things that are specific to sports. There are so many different avenues of the sports job marketplace - whether it is merchandising, publicity, agency, there is much more than just working for  a team and much more that a sports management degree can prepare you for. So there are more opportunities out there than Mr. Cuban is actually leading you to believe. BUT, his underlying point about getting experience in sales makes a lot of sense. Revenue generating jobs are easier to come by, if your role can show that it makes money it is much easier for a business to say "we need that role". If you talk to most executives across any facet of the sports industry, they will tell you the majority of their workforce is in sales. It's just a fact. So if you learn sales, you will have a much better chance at getting hired. But if you pursue a sports management degree, you are going to learn so many things specific to the sports industry, which is where you passion clearly lies that it is always going to line up with your values and who you want to be.

We're starting a new video series where we take a deep dive into entry level sports jobs that we believe have a high ceiling and could really put you on the sports career path of your dreams. This week we're discussing social media sports jobs, how they relate to the sports world, the skills needed to succeed and the different directions this career can take you. Take a listen and please share with your social network! WIS social media good.MTS // Search all of our Social Media Jobs on WorkinSports.com Video Transcript for "An Entry Level Sports Job That Could be Your Perfect Match" Brian Clapp, Director of Content WorkinSports.com: One of the most important parts of my job is staying up on the trends in the sports employment industry. I, in particular like to focus on entry level sports jobs because they are so rapidly changing. If you think about it, five years ago jobs in analytics and content creation and social media, didn't even really exist and yet now they actually comprise a pretty big percentage of our sports job board. It's fascinating for me to see how the requirements of jobs and what employers need is continually changing. So let's do a deep dive into social media coordinator type jobs and why they have started to grow to such a great level. Social media, the perceptions is that it's just the ability to communicate outward and engage with fans - but it is so much more than that, and it really depends on who you are working for. If you are working for a pro team, you are not going to be out there breaking news, talking about contracts or signings, guys like Adam Schefter will always beat you to the punch. And the reason is, because as a team you can't report on anything until a contract is signed, sealed and delivered, but the other media outlets can - so they will always beat you to the punch. So your job in social media when you work for a team, may be exploring all the things that happen behind-the-scenes with your pro team that nobody else does have access too. It may also be sales related where you are working on ticket sales promotions, or publicity related, for an foundation event that might be coming up. You need a wide range of skills to know what is important content that will attract people, what sales initiatives are on going and how to promote them, and how to publicize an event or engage in event promotion. Social media has a wide range of skills that go into it and that you need to ave to get hired. Now lets take it form the sports media side - USA Today used to get 80-90% of their revenue from their print newspaper -now it's 50% of their revenue. In another 5 years, they are predicting to derive just 10% of their revenue from their actual print advertising in their newspapers. So what have they done? In the last year they launched the website "For the Win" and I was talking with some of their editors - they get 14 million unique visitors per month on that site. Now, most of their revenue is coming from digital advertising, not print advertising. What is really amazing to me, I asked how do you get all of your traffic? 80% of the traffic to that site is from social media.

The question of bias comes up often in regards to the sports media - but is it an agenda that leads the sports media to East Coast cities and teams or is something else at work here? WorkinSports.com Director of Content Brian Clapp investigates in this short video: east coast bias.wmv // Video Transcript for "Is the Sports Media Biased, or is it Something Else?" Brian Clapp Director of Content, WorkinSports.com: Is there an east coast sports media bias? - I can already sense some of you in Portland Oregon screaming at your computer screen, "Of course there is! The Trailblazers never get any coverage and the Washington Wizards are always on TV and they are terrible'. OK, that was a really bad Portland accent, actually I think it was more of a southern lumberjack vibe - but the point remains, most people believe there is an obvious bias when it comes to the sports media. I think the problem for me is, when you use the term bias it gives a sense of impropriety, like there is an agenda at hand or something underhanded is happening. It's not about that, and I say that as someone who has worked in the sports media for a long time. It's a simple business choice. Did you realize that 80% of the U.S. population lives in either the Eastern or Central timezone? So now put yourself in the sports media decision-making mode, approaching media coverage decisions with a business sense. You are sitting in a conference room debating "Who do we want to speak to - where most of the people are, or where a small amount of the people are?" Pretty simple. Of course you go where the stories are, but if you have a decision to make you will go to where the biggest audience is and that tends to be the east coast. But lets be honest here - the power is in the stars. The sports media will always gravitate towards the big players. Look at a city like Green Bay, tiny little town but the Packers have a national following with star power - somebody like Tim Tebow, he rates, people want to see what he is doing so he'll always be on, Duke basketball people want to see it...so there is sports media decision making that is business based and there is star power driven decisions. Is there an east coast sports media bias? Yeah there is no doubt, but it's based on decision making in a business rooted sense than it is in some sort of an agenda to push the rest of the country out of the forefront. What do you think, do you believe in the sports media or are you tired of their over-coverage of Tim Tebow and under coverage of West Coast stories? Are you a frustrated fan or have you learned to accept the sports media for what it is? Tell us in the comments below!

We all search for inspiration, something to act as a beacon in our lives imploring us to follow or come closer. For over 15 years, working in the sports industry has provided me excitement, passion, pride and fulfillment. This video is my attempt to pay forward all that working in the sports industry has given me. I sincerely hope it acts as an inspiration for you on your path.  If you like the message, and support our passion, please share on social media! Why Work in Sports 2 wistiaEmbed = Wistia.embed("r423i4hvd5"); Video Transcript for: "Why Sports Jobs? It's Simple..." Brian Clapp, WorkinSports.com Director of Content: Hi I’m Brian from Work in Sports – before I get too deep into this discussion on why the sports industry is essentially recession proof and therefore always full of career opportunities and growth – I want to make one thing very clear. I am not an economist But that's OK, because  economists and other really smart people have already made the case for me: * Despite negative press after a lockout the NHL is still filling stadiums to 96.7% capacity * PricewaterhouseCooper expects 4.8% annual growth over the next 5 years, including a 7.7% growth per year in media rights fees and 6.6% annual growth in sponsorships, which may not sound like much, but the US economy is expected to grow at just 2.2% so that is saying something * According to sports economist Andrew Zimbalist, the secret sauce is the long-term media rights deals professional teams have signed, which provide consistent revenue through economic down-cycles helping sports remain resistant to recession * And the magazine The Economist, after tje last recession, said "Sports are, by and large, standing up to recession better than most industries" Through good times and bad, people pay to see their heroes in action. Always have, always will – because sports are an escape from the everyday - an outlet for human competitiveness and aggression that will always have an audience. The simple fact is, as long as fans continue to put their butts in the seats, buy t-shirts and hats, watch games on television and read sports blogs – * There will be a need for sports jobs in tickets sales – * At sports networks broadcasting and talking about the games * For sports marketers crafting new sponsorship deals, * Publicists improving the visibility of athletes * Agents passing dollars into their pockets * And

To stay on top of the sports job market we are constantly talking with hiring managers, professors, career centers and more to ensure we are ahead of the ever-changing landscape. After speaking with many influential sports hiring managers, our Director of Content, Brian Clapp, put together this short video to explain an emerging trend in sports jobs. If you have questions, submit them below in the comments - we will answer! And if you like this video and think it would be useful to your network, please share it on social media. On with the show.... content curation wis.wmv // Video Transcript for: "A Developing Trend in Sports Jobs" Brian Clapp, Director of Content WorkInSports.com: One of the most important things we do at WorkinSports.com is staying on top of the latest trends emerging in the sports jobs marketplace. We do that by talking to hiring mangers, talking to different career centers at various universities, talking to professors and finding out what skills their students are being exposed to during internships and really understanding how those skills translate into sports jobs skills. One of the trends we all agree upon is that sports jobs involving content curation are growing rapidly. Let’s take a look at it from a professional sports team perspective – sports teams would always have to get their message out by talking to the media. Then the message would be translated, whether that’s in newspapers, or magazines or sports networks or local TV stations, the message goes out and then the reporters in the media translate it into their own words. Now teams are asking: * Why don’t we control the message? * Why don’t we create our own blogs? * Why don’t we host our own podcast? * Why don’t we create our own magazine? So now the content is being developed and created outside of the traditional media, from the team side. But it isn't just professional teams - sports merchandisers like Nike, Adidas, Reebok – they are all creating their own blogs and various sources of content. Sports marketing companies are creating their own content, all sports businesses are finding they need content to stand out. So what does it mean for you? The sports jobs and opportunities are out there for people with a creative knack for finding and developing stories. If you really start working on your writing skills, social media skills and understanding all the emerging technologies to deliver a message - whether that be podcasting, snapchat or some other medium – you have a really good chance at finding a job in sports content curation, which is a really a growing field you want to be a part of.

Production assistant jobs in sports broadcasting are the starting point for a career in sports broadcasting - but how do you get them? what can you expect? what is the goal? WorkinSports.com Director of Content Brian Clapp, a 13-year veteran of sports broadcasting, explains a little more about what production assistant jobs are really like, and he should know...he was one, and he's hired many! Entry Level Sports Job PA wistiaEmbed = Wistia.embed("6hujtxfg9a"); Video Transcript "What Production Assistant Jobs Are Really Like" Brian Clapp, Director of Content, WorkinSports.com: I’m going to spend a little time today talking about an entry level sports job that has a very high ceiling and it comes from the world of sports broadcasting. If you have this dream of working for ESPN, Comcast SportsNet or a network like Fox Sports One chances are your career is going to start out as a production assistant (PA). Production assistant jobs require a wide variety of skills, there isn’t one set thing that you do every day there are a lot of various expectations, and it changes often. To get hired for production assistant jobs you need to: * Have done multiple internships, hopefully at a local TV station sports department and maybe a regional sports network so you get both types of experiences. * You need to know non-linear editing so you can jump into an edit bay and cut highlights, vo’s and soundbites * Helps if you know a little bit of camera work which will make you a much more versatile employee * And you also have to have a vast knowledge of sports Chances are if you are applying for production assistant jobs, before you get hired you will be put through a sports quiz. When I first got hired as a production assistant at CNN/Sports Illustrated I had to go through a sports quiz, I had to nail it to even get to the next phase of the interview. The sports quiz is kind of the gateway; if you can’t do well on that, you don’t even make it to the real interview. The cool thing about being a production assistant is that every day is a little bit different, one night you might be cutting the highlights for the lead story on that night’s program, the next day you might be researching to build a full screen graphic for a show, you also might be doing les glamorous tasks like running teleprompter. The point is, this is an entry level sports job, where you get your foot in the door, work you butt off and you prove that you’ve got what it takes. At this point you are really just proving to hiring managers and executives that you are willing to learn, you can take on challenges and you put your all into each task whether it is the most glamorous job or the least glamorous. From there you start moving your way up the chain. I was a production assistant for about 9 months to a year and was promoted to Associate Producer, then on to show/line producer, to coordinating producer to executive producer to news director…it’s really like the sky is the limit in the production world,

It's one of the most common questions for anyone who has a job in sports... what is it really like? There is no denying how great it is, but at the same time there is incredible pressure and urgency, so the image some people have of watching sports all day with your feet up, is far from truth. Sometimes people think, 'jobs in sports =casual work atmosphere', akin to a sports bar, but as WorkinSports.com Director of Content Brian Clapp explains, sports is big business and if you don't make the right first impression you'll have big problems. working in sports first impression wistiaEmbed = Wistia.embed("ytp48njhwe"); Click here to register for FREE job alerts customized to your personal criteria Video Transcript of "The Work Environment for Jobs in Sports" Brian Clapp, Director of Content, WorkinSports.com: People ask me all the time ‘what is it really like to have a job in sports’ - what I tell them is that it’s wonderfully brutal. It’s wonderful because you are doing something you love, you’re covering a team, you’re rubbing elbows with athletes, you’re going to events, you’re doing things you feel passionate about and you’re bringing that passion to the workplace. But a job in sports can also be brutal because it can be political, filled with judgmental people, extremely competitive with long hours. And I recognize that other jobs can be like that, but just think of the nature of sports, it’s competitive and so is having a job in sports. What’s really important to take away from that is making the right impression your first week on the job, which will make the work environment a better place for you. Here’s what I mean – I remember when I worked at CNN/Sports Illustrated, we hired this new employee I believe from UC-Berkley, great school incredible resume, shows up the first day of work… in jean shorts. There is never a good reason to wear jean shorts, especially to work. He got labeled at ‘jorts guy’ the rest of his career, it didn’t matter what he accomplished, he was always looked at as the guy who showed up in jean shorts. I know people that showed up in ties when it’s not really a tie envirnment, and they got labeled. I know people who acted like a know-it-all and they got labeled. I know interns who kind of slacked off and always were looked at as a slack-off intern. The impression you make in your first week on the job is ultra-important – be humble, listen, don’t act like you know anything because chances are you don’t, part of being on the job is being trained, so be open to learning. If you make the right impression in your first week you’re going to love your job in sports, but if you come in and act like someone you shouldn’t you’re always going to be labeled and your work environment isn’t going to be what it could.

Tips for Interviewing on Skype // Video Transcript for "Five tips to Prepare you for a Skype Interview" Brian Clapp, Director of Content, WorkinSports.com: More and more sports businesses are conducting job interviews on Skype. It makes a lot of sense if you think about it. You see, most sports businesses recruit nationally and internationally to find the best employees, but if every time they have a job opening they have to fly in 10 people, put them all up in hotels, feed them and then send them on a flight home...only to find out they weren't a match for the company, it’s not a very cost effective manner of going about the job interview process. But Skype is. Skype interviews cost nothing, all you need is an internet connection. The problem is most people Ive talked to that have had Skype interviews say they bombed, they went really poorly, and it was because of some really simple things that could be fixed easily…so let’s talk about those things and how you can be more prepared if someone ever says to you 'hey let’s do this job interview on Skype'. Tip #1: From a technical standpoint you don’t want to rely on your wireless network, you want to connect directly into your modem. The reason is, wireless networks can be inconsistent, the last thing you want is to have your Skype conversation dropping out while you are having a serious conversation. Tip #2 Close out everything on your computer - don’t have outlook open, don’t have the internet open, don’t have notepad open. Only have Skype open so that the processor in your computer can focus on running Skype to the best of its ability. Tip #3: You want to make sure you’re audio quality is really high, most of the microphones that are built into laptops are not good, so consider buying a USB microphone that plugs right into your laptop. It costs about $100 and it works really well, I’ve never had any complaints about my audio quality. And that is really important in a Skype interview, you want to make sure they can hear exactly what you are saying. Tip #4: Let’s think about the overall look of your Skype interview set. You don’t want to have an open window or a lot of light coming from behind you because it will make your face look very dark, like you are in witness protection – definitely don’t want that. Light should come from behind the webcam and coming straight to your face. Tip #5: Think about where you look, this is the hardest part, your tendency is to look down at the screen where you see the other person, it feels like eye contact but it isn’t. The problem is look at where I am looking now, you are seeing into my forehead, but if I make eye contact with the webcam, not the picture down below, then it appears we are having an interactive conversation, which is much more comfortable. Someone can tell if you are looking over here, to check yourself out, or looking down which looks like you are not connecting with the person you are interviewing with. That’s an important part of any interview, you want to build camaraderie where you feel like you are interacting well, but if you are looking all over the place and not making eye contact there won’t be a connection. Those are a few simple tips to make sure your Skype interview goes really well, and I’m sure you’ll stand out against the other interview subjects that didn’t listen to this video.