(March 15) The job market rarely moves as quickly as job seekers would prefer. Every once in a blue moon, though, there are exceptions and Justin Shackil found one. An STAA client, Shackil is joining the Tennessee Smokies s their No.2 play-by-play broadcaster.
The Smokies are the Class-AA affiliate of the Chicago Cubs.
From start to finish, Shackil’s hire took less than one week. STAA emailed the job description to clients on Monday, February 14th. By Saturday the 19th, Shackil had submitted the link to his STAA Talent Page, interviewed with veteran Smokies broadcaster Mick Gillispie via Skype, and been offered and accepted the job.
“We had two very, very long and good talks throughout that week, about the job and coming down to work in the Southern League, and also about my current position,” Shackil says. “Mick was able to give me advice. It was good to get ideas from someone new.”
Shackil, a 2009 STAA All-American who spent last season with the AA Trenton Thunder, conferred with several people before accepting the Smokies position.
“All this happened within four or five days. It moved really quickly. I enjoyed that part of it because I have been part of some really draining processes over the past few months so this was really refreshing.”
“We had agreed with the Smokies that we would post the job publicly on Monday, February 21st,” says STAA CEO Jon Chelesnik. “Before the end of the weekend, though, their Director of Broadcasting Mick Gillispie told me there was no need. They had found their guy.”