Most job-seekers possess some skill or expertise which can be utilized by Sports Industry Employers. The Sports Industry in not unique, in that it usually adopts the technology, ideas, design, etc… from companies within other industries to successfully market it’s product.

I recently attended a Sports Career conference where a few school teachers were present. They inquired as to “how” they can integrate the sports industry as an employee, with the initial thought that an Education major was a hindrance. My response to them was in applying to one of a number of ACADEMIC ADVISOR positions located on the NCAA Market Jobs site.

This is the job description for one of these positions:

The Academic Advisor will provide academic/developmental advisement and counseling for student-athletes on assigned teams; Coordinate and monitor study hall for assigned teams; Assist with continuing eligibility; Coordinate tutorial program for all teams and work with Senior Academic Coordinator and Associate AD on other duties as assigned.

Once in the position, you will have the ability to network with others within the Athletic Department (Coaches, Athletic Directors, etc…), establishing important relationships. Use these relationships to your advantage (REFERENCES), in the event you decide to move into other Sports Industry employment sectors.

NOTE: Education majors, consider joining the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics

Résunate, an employment software platform, provides helpful insight to candidates in how they need to structure and develop their employment documents in order to receive maximum exposure by employers.

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One of the main reasons searching for a new job can be frustrating is the “black hole” you might encounter during the application process. It’s possible you’ll feel as if all of your hard work on your resume is lost when it never makes it into the hands of the hiring manager — and, in fact, an estimated 72 percent of resumes are never seen by human eyes.

This often occurs because your resume is not optimized for an employer’s applicant tracking system. This is how they work:

● First, a parsing software extracts info from your resume and maps it to the employer’s database (the
applicant tracking system or ATS).
● Using that info, the system (such as this one) automatically assigns you a score based on how well you match
the job the employer is trying to fill.
● All candidates get ranked and sorted with only the top scoring candidate resumes getting viewed and called
for interviews.

In order to ensure your resume makes it through the ATS and ranks you as one of the top candidates for the job, do the following:

1. Optimize it for applicant tracking systems. You can easily do this with Resunate — it uses advanced semantic matching technology to assign your resume a score, very similar to the one most employers use. Use the one-click “Auto Focus” to automatically pick the parts of your resume that match the best against the job and arrange them into a resume that maximizes your interview chances. Add, edit, or remove information and see your score update in real-time.

2. Tailor your experience and skills to the job description. Don’t include jobs or skills that are irrelevant to the job you’re applying to. Do you think the employer cares that you worked in retail if you’re applying to be a coach? Probably not. Each line on your resume is precious real estate you need in order to sell yourself to the employer. Don’t waste it on things that don’t apply to the job at hand.

3. Don’t include images or unnecessary information. First of all, an image or photo of yourself will not help your resume stand out to employers. In fact, many employers do not want you to include a picture. This article on CareerBuilder.com explains why: “If they have a picture of you and choose not to hire you, it’s possible that you could come back with a discrimination lawsuit. In most cases, they’ll throw your résumé away without looking at it, to avoid the issue altogether.”

Other things to leave off your resume: References, interests/hobbies, an objective statement, spelling or grammatical errors, and false information.

What do you think? Have you tried any of the above tips? How did they work out for you?

A few weeks ago, we wrote an interesting story regarding statements made by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, in regards to candidates seeking Sports Industry employment opportunities. Cuban provided a some pessimistic viewpoints, but did state that the Sports Industry needs nothing more than “innovative” people.

A recent Sports Business Journal (SBJ) story provides some insight as to a new innovative sales technique being adopted by MLB (Major League Baseball) and its member clubs.

MLB FanPass is a new “paperless ticket” system being promoted by the commissioner’s office. This system replaces paper ticketing, where patrons now use their credit/debit cards to gain access to a game/ballpark [Per the Commissioner's Office, MLB FanPass is a top priority], with something as simple as a swipe. However, there is little information as to how this would affect the secondary ticket market (Ex. StubHub, etc…..).

Some TSR staff members feel that this adoption by MLB (and other professional leagues) may eliminate the need for human intervention in ticket sales, thereby making the “Ticket Sales” position obsolete. The entire ticket sales environment (Single-Game, Group Sales, etc….) may become completely digital in the near future. Your thoughts?

Article Below:

Major League Baseball is launching a new brand called MLB FanPass that will be used by all 30 clubs to promote paperless ticketing.

It’s the first big push to come out of the Commissioner’s Ticket Review Committee and reflects the fact that going paperless is now one of the league’s top priorities. While several other leagues and individual teams have also invested significant time and money into digital ticketing, MLB is believed to be the first major sports league to create a prominent, unified brand around the concept.

Levels of activation around the MLB FanPass brand will differ in each market. But the new moniker seeks to showcase more prominently features within paperless ticketing, such as electronic seat transfers and upgrades, and online inventory management.

“From an industry perspective, it’s now safe to say baseball is among the most aggressive of anybody in terms of promoting digital ticketing,” said Derek Schiller, Atlanta Braves executive vice president of
sales and marketing. Schiller is a member of the Commissioner’s Ticket Review Committee, and the Braves in 2012 will sell roughly a quarter of their projected Turner Field attendance through the localized Braves FanPass.

“We’re pushing this very heavily, and believe we’re now at the right time and right place for this,” Schiller said.
Clubs have begun to integrate FanPass to varying degrees into their ticket sales efforts, with FanPass delivery extending to full and partial-season sales, groups, and single-game tickets.

FanPass is being offered as a free option. Beyond that, though, several MLB teams are offering discounts, giveaways or other incentives to encourage ticket buyers to go paperless and boost adoption. And MLB FanPass will be integrated with MLB Advanced Media’s new At The Ballpark venue-oriented mobile application for seat upgrades and other amenities.

Like systems in other sports, purchasers of paperless baseball tickets will enter ballparks using their credit card, which is swiped at the gate. Fans upon arrival then get a locator stub, created using a portable printer, to help find their seats. For fans, the most immediate change will be the elimination of a stack of paper tickets that need to be stored, managed and distributed. And MLB FanPass has been integrated into the primary ticketing systems of outside vendors such as Ticketmaster and the MLBAM-owned Tickets.com.

“This is all a pretty drastic departure from how ticketing has traditionally been done,” said Vic Gregovits, Cleveland Indians senior vice president of sales and marketing.

The MLB FanPass effort likely will influence the sport’s future in secondary ticketing. MLB Advanced Media is in the final year of a five-year deal designating StubHub the sport’s official ticket reseller. MLBAM, the ticket review committee, and the sport at large are evaluating how they want to participate in a secondary market that is now far larger and more established than when the StubHub deal was first signed in 2007. And digital ticketing, featuring easy electronic transfer of ticket barcodes, factors significantly into that discussion.

Baseball, and nearly every other major sports property, is keenly interested in digital ticketing. In addition to helping eliminate fraud and waste and quicken fan entry into stadiums, paperless systems offer the potential of lower costs of delivery. But, most importantly, digital ticketing creates a wealth of data on consumer behavior and preferences. And for baseball, which sells more tickets than any other professional sport, the volume of potentially available data is immense.

“Baseball, the industry, is really going through a ticketing revolution right now,” said Tim Brosnan, MLB executive vice president for business, earlier this month at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. “And the piece that we’re really focused on is this bridge between who bought the ticket, who ended up with the ticket, and who entered the ballpark with the ticket. And once we bridge that gap, once we know who entered the ballpark with the ticket, then the activity that’s going to occur electronically between us and our customers is going to increase exponentially.”

For now, teams are not implementing user controls within the MLB FanPass program. Fans retain a wide degree of latitude to transfer or resell their unwanted paperless tickets. Some options, such as reselling through StubHub, are easier and come with a higher degree of integration than others. But there are currently no impediments or closed markets for resale within MLB FanPass.

Over time and once MLB FanPass is more established, it is possible baseball will exercise some control over how paperless tickets are redistributed, industry sources said.

The MLB FanPass brand is among the initial tangible products to arrive out of the ticket review committee, which has been operational for about 18 months. The effort is led by MLB Chief Marketing Officer Jacqueline Parkes, and involves senior executives from six clubs and several league departments.

Beyond MLB FanPass, the panel has been involved in a wide range of efforts, including best practices sharing among clubs, dynamic pricing (see related story), discussions around StubHub and secondary ticketing, and an ongoing research study of baseball’s ticket marketplace with the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

Current Dallas Mavericks owner and MAJOR LEAGUE ENTREPRENEUR Mark Cuban was a panelist at the 2012 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. During the conference, Cuban’s response to a question regarding working within the Sports Industry probably surprised many (See Video).

In summary, Cuban recommended that college graduates NOT seek employment within the Sports Industry. Some of the reasons given for this response included the following:

- LOW PAY (Although Cuban used some interesting language in his description).
- 1,000′s of applicants per position
- Degree in Sports Management/Administration is useless (Unless applicant’s bring other valued skill sets).

Cuban also stated that there is nothing truly “unique” about running a sports team that you will learn in school.

As far as pay and salary, I assume Cuban was addressing starting salaries for positions within professional sports franchises and not other entities such as TV networks and marketing companies (Ex. ESPN and IMG). I will agree with Cuban on this premise.

One of our writers was in attendance at a Career Fair last year hosted by an NBA franchise. A second NBA franchise in attendance had a booth located directly in front of The Sports Resume’s. This particular team was hiring for Account Managers/Ticket Sellers. The starting salary was $18,900 per year + a 2% bonus for reaching certain benchmarks, which is very low for any person working for an employer located in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S (Cost of Living).

The low starting salaries associated with pro-sports teams is no surprise. Look at the annual revenues of these organizations compared to other companies operating within the sports industry (Ex. NIKE, Under Armour, etc…). We always recommend our clients to broaden their search options when job hunting. There is a thrill and excitement that comes with being associated with a professional sports franchise. However, the seduction will probably evaporate quickly if you cannot meet the financial obligations of life necessities, which includes basic utilities.

Mark Cuban: His recent comments are sort of ironic, where when asked the same question years ago during the filming of MAJOR LEAGUE ENTREPRENEURS, Cuban stated that in order to secure employment within the industry, candidates should “start low.”

Watch MAJOR LEAGUE ENTREPRENEURS onDemand. Get 24 hour access for $0.99 – http://www.thesportsresume.com/mark-cuban-daniel-snyder-video/