Promotions Aren't Like Birthdays...

Promotions at work aren't like birthdays...you don't get one every year. I've seen too many young people recently who think that they're entitled to a promotion after being in a job for only a year or two (and sometimes after an even shorter time). And they're pissing off their managers. Worse yet, when they do receive a promotion, then they expect one every year. It doesn't work that way in the real world. There are often situations where a candidate is on the border between title levels when he begins working at an organization. As part of the hiring negotiation, the company may agree to a review his performance after six or twelve months and agree to a promotion to the next level if his performance meets specific expectations. Even after that initial promotion, though, it may be 2-4 years before he receives another promotion.

Let's say the levels of an organization are as follows:

-Coordinator - Assistant Manager - Manager - Sr. Manager - Director - Vice President - President

With a promotion every year, an employee will have worked through the entire organization in six years, and anyone who thinks that the norm is to be president of a company in six years is seriously delusional. Anyone who thinks that being a director after six years is delusional! And in sports, it's even less likely. The simple rules of supply and demand apply for sports jobs more than most other jobs. Be realistic before you start a job. Otherwise, you're going to show just how naive you are and you're probably going to piss off your boss in the process.

Auxiliary Products and Services in Sports

Inc. is one of my two favorite magazines. (The other is Mental Floss.)  In the April 2008 issue on pages 30 & 31 there is a great picture and insets.   It's a section called "Behind the Scenes: Companies at the Heart of Everyday Life."  On it, it shows a photo from pre-game of a Pistons-Trail Blazers game. It highlights companies responsible for some of the things in the photo - the court, the courtside seats, the mascot uniform, the pre-game pyro.

These are great examples of parts of the sports industry that students don't often know or hear about.  They're also great areas to look at to break into the sports industry, not to mention the fact that there are some really interesting things out there besides the obvious areas of pro sports teams, college sports teams, and marketing companies.  Just looking at this picture I start to think about other areas that students could pursue that they may not know about because they're not so obvious.

I have a friend from grad school who works for Aacer selling basketball floors.   I know another person who was a rep for Spalding basketballs.  A guy I worked with at Disney's Animal Kingdom has a company that creates card stunts for stadiums.   The company that managed the concessions and catering for the Indy car race at Disney also managed concessions for the Kentucky Derby and a bunch of other major sports events.  A vendor/friend from New York Road Runners who is responsible for their major event signage also handles pieces of signage for the Super Bowl.  John Anthony's travel company (Anthony Travel) has grown immensely in the last 10 years and now handles major accounts such as Disney Sports, the Iron Man Triathlon, the ING New York City Marathon, and countless universities and other groups.

There are all sorts of auxiliary areas out there to consider.  There may even be an area that will pique your entrepreneurial interest enough to motivate you to create your own company.   The opportunities in sports are out there. It may just take a little more thought or resourcefulness to find out what they are.

10 Seems to Be the Magic Number

Where you are after ten years seems to be indicative of where you're headed. In the last two weeks, this idea has popped up in several conversations with various, and independent, people. The premise from each of them seems to be that the first ten years is about doing the work, paying your dues, taking on projects to get yourself noticed, learning new areas, and creating your network. After those first ten years is when you start to see the financial gains and the title changes that could eventually lead to a climb to the top of the mountain. The first ten years will establish your foundation and set the pace for where you go after that.

Competition vs. Cooperation

I've been searching on the Internet to find out who first said that youth is wasted on the young. According to thinkexist.com, it was George Bernard Shaw. I guessed Mark Twain. Seemed like something he would have said. It was 100% true with me and I'm seeing that it is still holding true.

I absolutely LOVE being around a college campus again and working with students. I definitely want to get my PhD and teach, even if I only teach part-time and pursue other options full-time. There are certain things about being around students, though, that are really tough for me. I now understand the frustration that my mentors went through with me.

With two or three exceptions, the students I've come across this year don't fully grasp that the people in their class are going to be their network for the rest of their professional lives and not their competitors. They could do themselves a huge favor by eliminating the internal competition and focusing on cooperation. It's not as if they don't like one another or don't get along, because they do. It's just that they're ultra competitive with one another. I've seen it firsthand, this weekend being the most recent example. One of the students was incredibly secretive and evasive when asked what internship she was applying for when another student was giving her an update on some reference information.

They're so worried about other students going head-to-head with them for opportunities. They don't want to tell others who are interested in the same line of work where they're applying. In contrast, if they helped one another through the process and made sure that at least someone in their network gets the internship if they don't, they'd be so much better off. They'd have someone they know in that area who could help them out in the future! It's not the easiest thing for competitive people to do, but by helping one another, by being happy when one person does well, by accepting competition for internships, and by being willing to let their merits go head-to-head against anyone, it would solidify their reputation within their class as someone who's willing to help others reach their goals. Yet, they're secretive and they hide information.

The greatest example I've come across of what people would ideally be like when working with those who are also competing with them was the description of Lincoln in Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Lincoln took the idea of cooperation to levels I can't even fathom. I think it's one of the things that made him such a great leader. He chose four men whom he beat out for the presidency for major positions in his cabinet, any/all of whom were expected to be elected over Lincoln. He was continually back-stabbed by people in his cabinet, yet he knew that they had the best talents for the jobs. And even though they treated him that way, he never reciprocated. He chose these men because although they were competitors, he wanted them around him because they had the best talents for the jobs.

Again, cooperating with people you view as competitors isn't easy. It's really damned hard, because that behavior may not be returned! I can scream about it until I'm blue in the face, but like almost everyone through time, there are life lessons that we only learn through our own experiences, and not from others trying to teach us. Just be open to the idea of cooperation instead of competition.

Do You Know What You Might Have To Do?

Last week, I was having a conversation with one of the graduate assistants who works for me. She was noting that she didn't think a lot of people understand what they may be asked to do in their early careers. She had a few years of work experience in professional sports before coming to grad school and has had the experience of doing some of the, to put it bluntly, crap work that we all have to do in sports, especially starting out. Just because you have an MBA and/or Master's in Sports, it doesn't make you immune to it. You're going to be asked to make copies, man a check-in table for an event, take tickets at a turnstile, or even pick-up trash. If you kvetch and complain about it, or do it half-way, you're not going to do your career any great service. I've seen interns and entry level employees get written off by my colleagues, and I've written off people myself, because they thought that such menial tasks were beneath them.

Right, wrong, or indifferent, this is often part of paying dues in the sports industry. There's always someone else out there who will be willing to do the work. If you're not willing to step up and go the extra mile, you won't survive long.

Job Search Techniques

I've gotten a couple of email messages from students recently asking about how to get started working in the industry and how to find jobs if they haven't yet developed their network of people who can refer them to others for jobs and/or if they want to get some work experience before going to graduate school.

One fo the easiest ways to find entry level positions that are open is to use one of the online services. One of the free ones is www.teamworkonline.com. It's a pretty good site as far as entry level job postings, but I HATE the part, or I should say parts, of their site where a person actually posts for a job. It's absurd! Another organization that is a sports executive search firm is Turnkey Sports and Entertainment out of New Jersey. Most of the positions they fill are well above entry level, but it's a site to look and and pay attention to for your future, and who's to say they won't start filling entry level positions in the future. One of my favorite sites overall is www.workinsports.com. This one is a subscription service, but one I like if you're willing to pay.

If you have trouble breaking into an entry level job and can financially swing an internship, that's always a possibility, too. It's not a fun option to think about, but it's an option if that's what you have to do to reach your goal. One of my classmates from grad school worked three lengthy internship before he found a permanent job. I think his internships totaled almost two years. He knew he wanted to work for an NFL team in a specific area and that's what he had to do to reach his goal. He's now the Assistant GM of the New York Giants.

When I speak to people, this next one seems to be the most overlooked search technique. For sports leagues/sports organizations/teams and for companies that sponsor sports (e.g., Visa, Sprint, HomeDepot, etc.), you can go to the job section of their websites. If you look at the bottom of the page, it usually has a link something similar to "Careers" or "Jobs" or it may be in the "About Us" section. In the keyword search, type in words like "sports" or "events" or "sponsorship" or "sports marketing" and you may get some hits in their sports and/or events departments. Also, on those specific league sites, they will often have the same jobs, and sometimes more, posted as www.teamworkonline.com does. Sometimes the link for posting will take you to the posting system for www.teamworkonline.com and other times it is the league/team/company's own job posting site.

Again, these are recommendations for entry level positions if you don't yet have your network developed. The best option is always your network. Often, job opportunities aren't presented by someone directly in your network, but from someone who knows someone in your network and is then referred to you. Think six degrees of separation, which seems like it's reduced to about three degrees of separation in the sports industry.