Winter Meetings Job Seeker Journal: Will Privette, December 6
By Will Privette, special to MiLB.com
Throughout this year’s Winter Meetings in Nashville, four attendees of the PBEO Job Fair have agreed to chronicle their employment-seeking experiences (meet them all HERE.). In this, his first installment, Will Privette gets the lay of the land.
Note: Will did not register for the PBEO Job Fair, and is seeking employment independently.
Hello Nashville!
Since graduating from NC State I have been a video intern for the Cleveland Indians (2014) and the Atlanta Braves (2015). So, you may ask, “What is a video intern? Do you control the video board?” No, that’s not me. A video intern for a MLB team uses software (usually BATS) to record and chart the entire game from four or five different angles around the ballpark. Once the game is over, you take all those angles that you captured and then sync them all together so a player can look at his at-bat from all of these angles at once. My angle here at the Winter Meetings? To further my baseball career.
This is my third time attending the Meetings, so I feel like a veteran of this four-day event. Last year in San Diego I heard stories of how large the Gaylord Opryland Hotel is, but I will tell you that never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined just how massive it is. I am glad I got here on Saturday, instead of the typical Sunday arrival, because I spent all of Saturday afternoon and evening trying to find my way around this nine-acre resort. Sunday was very low-key for me. I spent the beginning of the day looking at all the clothes I had brought to Nashville.
I always over-pack, it never fails.
I brought three suits, 10 button-downs and seven ties for three days of interviews. It may be excessive, but I couldn’t lock down exactly what I wanted to wear each day before I arrived. As of now I have Monday’s suit combination picked out, but the rest will be a game-time decision. Today, for the most part, I did one of my favorite things at the Winter Meetings: people watch. I observed so many young faces who looked exhausted, excited and maybe a little scared walk back and forth between the ballrooms, passing by the MLB Network set and down the escalators to get a quick bite to eat before having to head back the other way for another event.
In the evening I hung around the lobby area and spoke to three first-year Winter Meeting attendees. I asked which facets of baseball they were interested in, and if they had made any contacts with teams yet. They picked my brain and I offered advice based on my past experiences. I enjoyed it, having the “veteran” job seeker role. After that, I met the other four Job Seeker Journal Writers and we did some one-on-one video interviews and talked about our experiences and expectations thus far. One little tidbit that was easily the highlight of my day occurred on the way back from the one-on-ones. I happened to run into a very good friend of mine, David Bell. Bell is the current bench coach of the St. Louis Cardinals. I haven’t seen him in person in three years so it was very nice to catch up with him. He was here because his father, Buddy, was receiving an award Sunday night. It was a nice surprise to run into one of my baseball mentors and catch up; it capped off a great first day. Now I am heading to bed because two interviews are waiting for me on Monday, beginning at 9 a.m.! Let’s go!
~Thrill
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Will tomorrow’s events thrill Will the Thrill, or will they lack full-thrillment? Stay tuned.
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