When I worked at XTRA Sports 690 in San Diego in the mid-90s, I felt like my career was in neutral. I felt stuck. Years later, I realized I wasn’t stuck. I just didn’t want to leave my hometown.
Is your sportscasting career really stuck?
Many sportscasters think they have been in the same place for longer than they want because they are the victims of circumstance.
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Years ago I played a night of pickup basketball with Danny Ainge. He was the best player on the floor even though he had been retired for decades.
Unfortunately, just because I once played ball with Danny Ainge doesn’t make me an NBA-caliber player.
Many sportscasters regularly make that same kind of inference on their resume. Here’s the problem:
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Last week, I wrote about the Number One Way to Blow a Telephone Job Interview. Today, I share more examples from employers about how NOT to nail the job interview.
When I was a kid, I used to receive a magazine called Highlights. If you are at least 30, you probably remember seeing it in the waiting room at your pediatrician’s office.
Highlights had a feature titled Goofus and Gallant. Goofus was always doing stuff the wrong way, Gallant was doing it the right way. Today’s “yes, this really happened” story is about Goofus and Gallant in the sports broadcasting job market. The examples come from another broadcasting executive.
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Often, the best advice I share on the STAA blog is straight from sports broadcasting employers. In this case, it is about the telephone job interview.
The number one way to blow a phone interview is to not be prepared.
The following comments are from a minor league baseball executive who vented to me about his recent experience in filling a broadcasting position.
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If change is worth making, it is worth making right away. There’s no reason to save it for a New Year’s resolution.
Here are 10 actionable tips to help you reach your career goals.
We all have people we lean on at important times in our lives. Think about who those people are in your life, then use them to help you with important career decisions. It’s likely that not all of your team members will be in the sports broadcasting industry. My team includes my wife, dad and sister, Melodie who is part of our team at STAA, and a couple of friends in broadcasting with whom I have grown close over the years. The people who know you best will keep you moving in the right direction.
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Wouldn’t it be awesome if you knew an employer watched your TV reel and for how long they watched it?
You will know these things if you host your reel on YouTube.
YouTube’s analytics provide two key pieces of info about your TV reel:
YouTube’s analytics tell you the states from which your reel has been watched and when it was watched. If you applied last week for a job in Dallas and see that someone in Texas watched your reel on Thursday, you can feel confident it was the employer to whom you applied.
Minor League Baseball teams can expect up to 200 applications for Director of Broadcasting and Media Relations positions. Setting yourself apart from such a large crowd can seem impossible. With a solid follow-up strategy, though, you can make yourself stand out.
The key is polite persistence.
Very few people get jobs without following up their applications, but the squeaky wheel really does get the grease. The trick is being persistent without being annoying, but where do you draw the line?
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Each time an STAA client gets a job, we post their success story on our homepage. The stories serve as motivation to others, and often provide keys for how you can win in the sportscasting job market. One of my all-time favorite success stories is that of Delaney Brey.
Delany went to work for The Media Gateway in Little Rock. What makes her story worth mentioning is that it is a typical story of job market frustration. What sets Delaney apart is that, instead of stubbornly doing the same thing, she made changes.
Here is her story in her words:
How do you think it would go over if you told your spouse or your significant other that you were starting to look for someone new? At the very least, it would likely put a strain on the relationship. Worst case, your significant other tells you to get lost.
It works the same in the job market.
The best time to tell your boss that you are looking elsewhere is when you have accepted a job offer.
There is one rare exception that I will get to in a moment. However, if you tell your current employer that you are looking at other opportunities, you run the risk of four things happening – none of them good.
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Uh oh…I’ve heard from another sports broadcasting employer who is frustrated by lack of attention to detail from job seekers.
I’ve written posts based on employer feedback before. This is the latest.
While I was disappointed to learn that many of the careless job seekers in this scenario were STAA members, I am glad to have received the comments. The best way to learn about how to apply for broadcasting jobs is to listen to the employers who are evaluating your application.
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