Tagged: Nashville
Winter Meetings Job Seeker Journal: Jim Angell, December 7
By Jim Angell, 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 second installment, Jim Angell rides the emotional roller coaster and channels his process-improvement self.
Day Two: Optimism Gained, Lost and Bill James (?)
Awaking to a warm morning glow, I prepared to venture onto the field of contest to test my mettle against a driven competitor.
If you read my “Day One” recap, you’ll know I had my issues with navigation through the Opryland Resort. But not today! Undaunted, I established a bridgehead (a better parking spot) and laid a course highlighted with way points (find Fuse sports bar, exit you will have, young Jedi).
So, armed with day one optimism, I trekked into the room where the job offers were posted and started preparing my resumes for submission with job number, job title and team name. All necessary for accurate delivery into the appropriate team binder/container. With optimism, each resume was sent forth.
Making sure I didn’t miss any potential opportunity, I backtracked over the job postings confident in my strategic selections. Then the waiting began.
Since I’ve waited a long time to get this Job Fair opportunity, waiting a bit longer to see if I was going to get an interview didn’t worry me much. But, as the day wore on, the process of stalking the interview posting room waiting for the all-important “interview” sheets to be revealed every 30 minutes became a stifling endeavor.
Still, you didn’t dare miss a reveal, because it could mean you could miss an interview or, if left off of a targeted job, you could cross that job off your list and mentally move on.
After half a day of watching job seekers perform the ritual over and over again through the scattered “interview” sheets, my process-improvement-self kicked. So, here are some suggested process improvements (with favorable approvals from other job seekers):
- Make the job posting, resume submission, and interview notification process “electronic” and “smart.” Most people today carry smart phones and have laptops. So, why can’t there be an app for this process? Maybe tie it into the Winter Meeting app.
- An all-electronic process accessible on both phones and laptops would make the process handicap-friendly. Not to mention making the postings easier to read for everyone. It’s hard enough to read 10-point type from a distance but when you have to look up at it, it’s almost impossible. Plus, with close to 700 people seeking jobs, there’s never enough room in between the tack boards used to display the job postings and interview sheets.
- Instead of paper submissions by teams, make them fill out an “on-line” form. This way text size and style is consistent, job numbers are automatically applied and all parties don’t have to deal with trying to read someone’s hand writing.
- Since we’re going electronic, post a “scoreboard” (idea from another job seeker) in the new workroom indicating to all what electronic interview sheets are ready to be filled in by those so selected. Or, have an alert chime telling people that new “sheets” have been posted.
- Establish a “Lunch” period where no job postings or interview postings can be made. That way all of the job seekers can go get something to eat and see a bit of the Winter Meetings without the fear of missing something.
As each 30-minute ritual revealed only swings and misses, the pendulum swung away from optimism for this job seeker. But as the PBEO staff shut things down for the night, ah, hope arrived with the kickoff of the Winter Meetings Trade Fair.
What a WONDERFUL sight it was walking into the display hall devoted solely to baseball. Wall-to-wall wow. A cornucopia of bobble heads, soft-t-balls, team t-shirts, bats, balls, pitching machines, popcorn mixed with Cheetos, mascots, beer (have to have beer) and so much more! Forget the bed back in the hotel room, I’m sleeping on an inflatable!
When I wasn’t drooling over a video scoreboard that would make any man-cave the talk of five counties, I took the opportunity to sell myself to select “baseball-stuff” companies.
All were quite nice to talk to me about possible employment and I even got a few hits. Like breaking out of a long hitting slump, that first solid liner to fall in felt SOOOOO good and I could tell Mendoza to take a hike. And look what returned: my friend optimism.
One point before I close: Optimism is not “the force” when you’re walking and checking your messages on your phone at the same time. We’ve all done it at one time or another, but this time I almost took out the statistical sage of our time…Bill James! Yes, Bill James! The father of modern baseball analytics!
So, do baseball a favor, don’t walk and text. The sole you may save could be Bill James’.
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Will optimism remain with Jim, or will it remain a fickle friend? Stay tuned for tomorrow’s update.
benjamin.hill@mlb.com
twitter.com/bensbiz
instagram.com/thebensbiz
Winter Meetings Job Seeker Journal: Will Privette, December 7
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 second installment, Will Privette goes through the interview process and, eventually, orders off the kids menu.
What’s in an interview?
Day two of the 2015 Winter Meetings got off to a good, early start. I woke up at 8 a.m. and quickly got ready for my first interview with an American League team an hour later. Skipping breakfast, I made it over to the Opryland’s Magnolia lobby and met with the gentleman that was going to interview me. The interview lasted 20 or 30 minutes and was pretty standard. He asked me about my experience with my previous two internships and I gave the rundown of how the two internships were both “video,” but the two were very different regarding how each organization went about capturing the video for the players and coaching staff. My main focus in my interviews is to try and make that connection right off the bat. I feel communication is key and having a great rapport with a potential boss from the moment you meet will only help. I felt the interview went pretty well and I should be hearing back if I make it to the next “round” in the next week or so.
After my interview I went back to the hotel room and rested a tiny bit. You have to have a very high motor to endure the Winter Meetings, so after a quick break I got back at it. I hung out in the main lobby area and ran into a few people within baseball that I knew and caught up with them before my second interview with a National League team in the early afternoon. This interview was quite interesting as well, hearing how they run their video operation and what exactly the internship would entail. After my two interviews I spent the rest of the afternoon talking to more people in the lobby and checking in with all the trade and signing rumors that were going on throughout the day.
One bit of advice that I will give people reading this and have the aspiration to attend the Winter Meetings next year (in D.C.), is do not forget to eat. I know that sounds silly to say, but eating or drinking goes on the backburner when you’re in the heat of the moment trying to worry about all your interviews and networking. You get tunnel vision and say “oh, I’ll eat later” and then later comes and you keep putting it off. I did just that today. I ate a muffin after my first interview and that was it and developed a headache that I just couldn’t shake. Finally around six I ordered the kids chicken tenders with fries and it quickly alleviated my pain. (It was awesome, by the way.) So the moral of the story is stay hydrated and don’t forget to eat. That’s Will’s Words of Wisdom for today. Until tomorrow… ~Thrill
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Where’s there’s a Will, is there a way to get a job? Stay tuned tomorrow for the next installment.
benjamin.hill@mlb.com
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Winter Meetings Job Seeker Journals: David Lauterbach, December 6
By David Lauterbach, special to MiLB.com
Throughout this year’s Winter Meetings in Nashville, four attendees of the PBEO Job Fair have agreed to keep a journal chronicling their employment-seeking experiences (meet them all HERE.). In this, his first installment, David Lauterbach enters the scrum and prepares for more of the same.
I’d never been to the Music City before this week. Nashville is an incredible town and the Opryland hotel is amazing. The hotel is about 20 minutes away from downtown, but luckily there is so much to do outside and inside of the Winter Meetings events there really is no need to leave.
Speaking of the hotel, I have already gotten lost twice. One was on my way to meet the other job seekers, when I asked someone from the hotel for directions and they had no idea. The other was trying to get back to my room after we met, when I took about five wrong left turns and four wrong right turns. When people say this hotel is massive and it takes forever to get around, they aren’t lying. I tweeted yesterday that I may get lost seven times over the course of the Winter Meetings and Ben Hill responded with “Bet the over.” He’s probably right.
But, anyway, the point of this journal is to talk about the Job Fair, right? At least that’s what Ben told us. The first jobs to get posted yesterday didn’t appear until around 3:30, which left about an hour and a half for hundreds of job seekers to squeeze into a tiny room to look at them. The only advice I got before I walked into the small room was “Sharpen your elbows.” Truer words have never been spoken.
The job posting room is laid out with about 10-15 rows of poster boards. The jobs were posted on said boards and had numbers attached to them that job seekers have to note and write on their resumes when they drop them in the application bins. Due to the small amount of room between the poster boards and the clamoring of hundreds of job seekers and briefcases and backpacks and resumes flying everywhere, it was akin to when I was eight and trying to get Hideo Nomo’s autograph before a Dodger game. If you think about it, the Job Fair really is just that: A bunch of eager young men and women trying to get something that only a few can, and they all are trying to wiggle their way closer to the finish line. Only when we were eight it was an unreadable signature, and now it’s for a paycheck and a job. No pressure at all.
A couple hours after I visited the crazy job posting room, I went to the relaxing and incredible Winter Meetings Banquet. Growing up as a huge baseball fan, I’ve always admired the role of the Commissioner and have always had a desire to one day be in his shoes. So when Commissioner Manfred was introduced for a Q & A session, I freaked out. The majority of the questions and answers I had heard before in other interviews, ranging from expansion talks to rising young stars to youth participation. In the end, it was really cool to see the Commissioner in person for the first time. After that, various awards were handed out to individuals who have made a great impact on baseball. It was really cool to see those people recognized and hear their crazy stories from their time in the game. It really makes you appreciate how close this community is and how important it is to treasure every second you have in it.
From there, I got to meet Ben and the other job seekers. After Ben interviewed us and we got to know each other, we all split up and went our separate ways. We all knew the real madness was about to begin the next morning and that it was time to go back to our rooms, rest, and plan the quickest route to Hideo Nomo for the next day.
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There will be Nomo from David today, but there will be plenty mo’ from David tomorrow.
benjamin.hill@mlb.com
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Winter Meetings Job Seeker Journal: Tori Payne, December 6
By Tori Payne, 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, her first installment, Tori Payne makes new connections and survives a crustacean-related mishap.
A whirlwind. Today was a whirlwind.
Here is a little backstory as to how I got to attend the PBEO Job Fair: I am in college (a.k.a. “I am poor”), so my mom was going to surprise me by paying my way. Unfortunately, Google failed her and she bought me entry to a different job fair and the payment was nonrefundable. However, a couple of weeks later, I stumbled into the Diversity and Leadership Symposium held by Minor League Baseball at Tennessee State University. During lunch I turned in my resume and somehow won a trip to go to the PBEO Job Fair at the Winter Meetings. It’s funny how life works…
If describing how I felt when I walked into the Business of Baseball Workshop, “overwhelmed” would be an understatement. Hundreds of people of all ages were ready to go, looking snazzy in suits and resumes galore. The worst part: Everyone was NICE! Of course I’m kidding that that is a negative thing, but this is a really interesting environment to meet intelligent, experienced and kind people that, also, want to fight you for the same position. At school I stick out because I want to work in baseball; here, I’m just one of many. After finding a seat, I quickly made friends with a group of young men who allowed me to follow them around all day. We laughed, we ate and we learned a lot about the business of baseball from some of the funniest professionals I have ever met.
Before the doors to the Job Fair opened, I received a miracle: a ticket to the banquet from a connection I had made at the Diversity Symposium. This gave me the confidence and energy boost to make it through my first round of resume dropping. Even though my final senior portfolio for the semester is due tomorrow, I knew that the banquet wouldn’t disappoint. And I was right. I got to reconnect with great people from Minor League Baseball that I had met at the Diversity Symposium: Vince Pierson, Stefanie Loncarich and a few others. I think I even saw the notable Mike Veeck from a distance; I happened to recognize him from the book cover of Fun is Good (which I’d recommend to all baseball lovers). Basically, the entire industry was stuffed into one room, so when I decided to sit at a table comprised of girls “about my age,” I never would have guessed that I was sitting next to the general manager and assistant general manager of the Pulaski Yankees. My table also included the president of the Carolina League and the president of the Appalachian League. I was just hanging out with a bunch of people that I want to be one day. I even saved Carolina League president John Hopkins from eating the spiced apple (that looked like fried potatoes) along with his chicken. You may be wondering what the best part of my night was and I would say that it was when no one noticed – or at least no one acknowledged – when the tail of my shrimp catapulted into the middle of the table because I was trying to cut it with a knife. Classy.
I ended my night by meeting Ben Hill and the other Job Seeker Journal Writers. They are all so cool. When you watch my interview video, though, please do not judge me for my taste in music. Now that I have time to think about Ben’s question of “What is the greatest album of all time?”, I would rival my answer with Adele’s 21 or Taylor Swift’s 1989. I was under pressure. Keep that in mind.
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Stay tuned tomorrow for another installment of Tori’s job-seeking adventure.
benjamin.hill@mlb.com
twitter.com/bensbiz
instagram.com/thebensbiz
Winter Meetings Job Seeker Journal: Jim Angell, December 6
By Jim Angell, 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, Jim Angell finds inspiration and revels in the power of Winter Meetings happenstance.
Day One: A Good Start to a Great Experience
Martie Cordaro, the energetic president and general manager of the Omaha Storm Chasers, punctuated his 2015 PBEO Business of Baseball Workshop presentation by telling his job-seeking audience that without “committing to everything you do” for a team the resulting stark reality meant that “empty seats don’t eat hot dogs.”
The same commitment Cordaro spoke of can also be applied to finding a job in the business of baseball. Given that I’m a mid-career free agent, I can’t think of a better place to “go after it full speed” than here at the epicenter of the baseball world: the Baseball Winter Meetings and PBEO Job Fair!
It may have taken an unfortunate turn of events to get me here, but if it weren’t for the timing of my company deciding to downsize when it did, I would have missed this experience in Nashville. And day one was quite an experience.
It started on the drive to the Opryland Resort, when I stopped to pick up (who I thought was) a fellow job seeker walking to the event. As it turned out, I picked up Dr. Derek Papp, orthopedic surgeon for the Baltimore Orioles. Even the medical teams and trainers are at the Winter Meetings. How cool is that?
If you haven’t been to the Opryland, the place is impressive in its beauty and expanse – it even has a “river” which visitors can hitch a ride on. I did have to fall back on my land navigation skills to find the convention center, however. I admit that while I may have never got lost in the woods during my Army days, I did get lost three times in the hotel. (Yes, even with the help of the maps that are posted, it seems, every 20 feet.)
I won’t recap the entire day of workshop presentations, but the underlying theme I was that anyone can make it if they stay true to themselves and are honest about what they want to do and how they can make the fan experience the best it can be.
While there were moments of cold honesty about life in the business, the presenters and panelists were sowers of hope as well. Here are few of the seeds:
- “New and diverse perspectives are very valuable in baseball.” – Jennifer Zudonyi, manager of Major League Baseball (MLB) business communications.
- “Go after it full speed.” – Justine Siegal, Oakland Athletics coach.
- “Don’t discount what you did in the past.” – Giovanni Hernandez, MLB manager for international baseball operations.
- “Focus on how you can help the team.” – Robert Ford, radio broadcaster for the Houston Astros.
- “If you’re going to dream, dream big.” – Pat O’Conner, president and chief executive officer for Minor League Baseball.
Thank you, presenters, for a great first day. I learned a lot and I hope that others did as well.
As the workshop ended, my fellow job seekers and I posted for our first jobs. Hopefully, I’ll hear from someone on Monday for an interview. More jobs will be posted as well, so it is shaping up to be a busy day.
One final story before I sign off.
As I was trying to leave the resort for the night and checking another map (yes, lost again), a very nice woman asked if I was lost. While I was admitting that I was, I turned around to see none other than former Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster standing next to her. Well, as a serious Cubs fan, the encounter made my day (sorry PBEO). After a little chat about baseball, jobs and his new career with MLB, we went our separate ways. But what a great couple! They didn’t have to talk to me, but they did and it made my night. I still got lost after that, but I sure felt good.
I should mention this to all job seekers who come to the PBEO Job Fair. While you may see all sorts of baseball players, former players, coaches, media types etc., don’t go out of your way to talk to them. They have a job to do and also value their free time when they are not working. Running into the Dempsters was some strange twist of fate and not the norm for the Winter Meetings.
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Will Jim be able to find his way through the Winter Meetings maze on Monday? Stay tuned!
benjamin.hill@mlb.com
twitter.com/bensbiz
instagram.com/thebensbiz
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.
benjamin.hill@mlb.com
twitter.com/bensbiz
instagram.com/thebensbiz
Winter Meetings Job Seeker Journals: Julie Brady Recollects the Past
This year’s group of 2015 Winter Meetings Job Seekers will be introduced in a MiLB.com story on Friday. In the meantime, please enjoy this final update from 2014’s Job Seeking crew. Today we hear from Julie Brady, who has changed her Twitter handle to @destroybaseball. Let us hope that she is unsuccessful in this mission, as the destruction of baseball would necessitate me to undertake a job search of my own.
Julie Brady: 2014 Job Seeker Journals file photo
It was a dark and stormy night.
I drove down the Cajon Pass into San Bernardino late on December 30th, 2014. It was cold and it was snowing. There were palm trees, but I didn’t trust them. These must be decoy palm trees designed to lure in the innocent like me. The Midwest too winter-intensive for you? Here, come to Southern California. Look at these palm trees, how could it be cold here?
Baseball seemed very far away.
The next day was sunny and 55 degrees, which was the coldest it was for the next eleven months. The palm trees became more acceptable. My body immediately calibrated itself so that anything below 60 was the coldest temperature that I’d ever felt. Twenty below with windchill? Is that even possible anywhere in this world, even in the darkest recesses of memory? Surely not. Surely not.
Baseball seemed much closer.
I was beginning work for the Inland Empire 66ers — Class A Advanced affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels — as their Marketing Coordinator, after somehow snagging the job within the first ten minutes of the Winter Meetings Job Fair in 2014. If this had been an accident, my boss, Director of Marketing Matt Kowallis, was gracious enough to pretend like he did it on purpose. If so, he kept up the charade even after he had to show me how to use a fax machine (It was like reading the original Canterbury Tales: basically familiar but also totally incomprehensible).
I don’t know how else to convince you that Matt Kowallis is a madman other than this: He gave me the passwords to the 66ers’ social media accounts and traded off emceeing games with me every other day. Suddenly, I had access to a huge audience for my dumb highly sophisticated and well-thought-out puns. It was every former collegiate comedian’s dream, and I was rewarded on Twitter both with boos (the highest form of compliment for a pun) and praise (referred to as “the most humorous MiLB twitter,” a description that I will cling to for the rest of my life).
It was also a lot of fun doing social media experiments— perhaps that’s too lofty a term, but it was always interesting to see what types of posts got what reactions. I took over social media in June and quickly realized how underutilized a tool it is and how powerful it can be. It convinced me even more that teams need to be quick to change and keep up with technology and culture. I went from posting nothing but promo graphics on Instagram (CONFESSION: I had to Google “how to post a picture to Instagram” my first day at the helm) to posting dugout pics, sunsets and upcoming giveaways. The likes increased at least threefold and so did the followers.
Meanwhile, in real life, emceeing games was a weird marriage of improv, sketch comedy, and stand-up that I soon came to love. It wasn’t easy; there was a lot of interaction with people of all ages, and a lot of awkwardly waiting with them in the dugout while an inning before a promo game dragged on, so they became my guinea pigs for improving my social skills with strangers. It was not an entirely futile exercise: My small talk game has shot up, y’all. Marked improvement. I am definitely a human and definitely not an alien.
Oh, the humanity
Of course, I did more than just force my humor upon the world. When I wasn’t gracing cyberspace with gems like “Brandon Bayardi? More like Brandon Go-yard-i!” and an ignored attempt to get the Stockton Ports to rename themselves the Stockton Jorts, I was wearing the many proverbial hats that come with working in the minor leagues. Helping plan theme nights, making sales calls, transporting ballplayers, going to community appearances, and of course pulling tarp at least twice all were opportunities for me to learn new things, and learn I did. It was a good year for that.
Take my mic…please!
So, back to where it all started: Was going to the Winter Meetings last year worth it? Absolutely. I made valuable connections, started putting my name out there, and got a coveted Job. For real, if you’re on the fence about going and you are sure you want to work in baseball, go to the Meetings. You will meet so many people and odds are at least one of them will be able to help you in some way. I was also glad that I had written the Job Seeker Journals; it stood out on my resume, I could point people directly to it, and my family finally found out what my life is like. And of course, who could forget the invaluable mentorship of MiLB’s own Ben Hill, now an adoptive uncle of at least four.
Don’t worry, I know the question on the tips of your collective fingers. “But Julie,” you type, “what next? Is the reign of terror remaining on the West Coast?”
No. This horror show is going back on the road. After the season ended, I accepted a job as Promotions Assistant with my old team in Illinois, the Kane County Cougars, where I look forward to old friends, great ideas and some fine baseball (if less-than-desirable weather). Three people in California told me I have a Chicago accent after making me say “milk” ten times, which was news to me, so now I can be secure back among my own similarly-inflected people. I’ll be starting that position in January.
The Horror Show: Coming Soon to a Kane County Near You
So, there’s the deets, the haps, the scoop, the 411, the update, the lowdown. Thanks for reading (unless you skipped to the end, which, I don’t blame you), thanks to Ben for allowing this to keep happening for some reason, and thanks to everyone who has ever worked with or employed me. You’re the best.
I’ll leave you with a quote from Agent Dale Cooper of Twin Peaks:
“Harry, I have no idea where this will lead us, but I have a definite feeling it will be a place both wonderful and strange.”
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Thanks, Julie. 2015’s group of Job Seeker Journal writers will be introduced in a MiLB.com article on Friday, which leads me to an apropos Twin Peaks quote of my own:
benjamin.hill@mlb.com
twitter.com/bensbiz
instagram.com/thebensbiz
Job Seeker Journals: An Update from Katie Carlson
I am currently recruiting PBEO Job Fair attendees to write about their Winter Meetings job-seeking experience (but not for much longer!) With that in mind, throughout the week I’m running guest posts from last year’s crop of Job Seeker Journal writers. Today we hear from Katie Carlson, who is now on the East Coast after a stint on the West.
Katie Carlson: 2014 Winter Meetings Job Seeker file photo
What a year it has been! Memories come flooding back as I recall my first Winter Meetings experience; the friends I made, and the lessons I learned. I loved attending the Winter Meetings, and had every intention of packing my bag for Nashville come December. But, to quote the great Yogi Berra, “If you come to a fork in the road, take it.” I did just that.
Instead of heading to Nashville for more networking and job seeking, I packed up my life in San Francisco and moved cross country to New York City, where I recently began a job as a National Team Coordinator for the World Baseball Classic. My office is in the Commissioner’s Office, and I am fortunate to be working with Major League Baseball, the Player’s Association and the World Baseball-Softball Confederation to prepare for the 2016 Qualifiers and 2017 World Baseball Classic. I am absolutely loving my job and all my coworkers, and starting to settle in to the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple.
But let me backtrack a little bit. If you remember, last year I was a senior at Stanford who left the Winter Meetings with a lot of uncertainty about the future. The only thing I knew was that I was even more certain that I wanted to have a career in baseball. Though I did not leave the Winter Meetings with a job in hand, I still believe the experience was 100% worth it. What was valuable to me about the Winter Meetings was the panels, presentations and networking. In fact, some of the people who spoke on panels last year, and who I admired so much, are now my superiors. Funny how things come full circle. Knowing that I wanted to work in Baseball Ops, the Job Fair was not very helpful for me, since it mainly deals with Minor League jobs. My best advice for someone attending this year who wants to work in Baseball Ops is to proactively set up meetings with people in various organizations. Even if these meetings are just informational, you never know where they may lead.
In January of last year, I was approached by the San Francisco Giants to interview for a position in their Baseball Ops department. The reason they remembered me? I had networked with several people in the department over the course of the last year. After several rounds of interviews, I was hired as the Baseball Operations Intern for the 2015 season! It was a dream come true and I treasured every day that I got to walk to 24 Willie Mays Plaza for work. I began my internship in April, while I was still at Stanford, working from 9 to 6 while taking classes from 7 to 9. It was a grind, but I had never been happier. From Opening Day, when all Giants employees were given orange carnations to wear, to bowling with the scouts before the Draft to calling in some of the Giants’ picks on Draft Day, I had the most amazing experience. I am so grateful to everyone in the Giants organization who welcomed me and took me under their wing. I learned more in my seven months with the team than I would have ever imagined.
Intern Appreciation
But all good things come to an end. Since 2015 is an odd year, the Giants did not make the playoffs and the season ended in early October. I began preparing myself for more job applications and interviews and for a trip to the 2015 Winter Meetings. But just before my internship was about to end, one of my supervisors advised me to apply for this opportunity with Major League Baseball. I was so excited about the opportunity that I applied that night. And here, one month later, I am writing to you from New York!
You never know where this crazy baseball life is going to take you. A year ago, I never would’ve guessed that my life would go on this trajectory, but I am so grateful that I have been guided along this path. I have met the most wonderful people and I feel so fortunate that baseball brought these people into my life. I have gotten to live in Cape Cod, Los Angeles, San Francisco and now New York. And now I will get to travel the world (Mexicali here I come!) while doing what I love. Good luck to all those attending the Winter Meetings and the Job Fair — it truly is an incredible journey. Thank you to Ben Hill and all of you who have taken the time to read along.
—
Thanks, Katie.
benjamin.hill@mlb.com
twitter.com/bensbiz
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Job Seeker Journals: Sean Banks Looks Back
I am currently recruiting PBEO Job Fair attendees to write about their Winter Meetings job-seeking experience. With that in mind, throughout the week I’m running guest posts from last year’s crop of Job Seeker Journal writers. Today we hear from Sean Banks, who, after stints both Midwest and international, is back on the baseball job hunt.
Sean Banks: 2014 Job Seeker Journals file photo
Minor League baseball is weird.
Forgot to post this earlier. #lawlpic.twitter.com/14MGkK8noS
— Sean Banks (@sbanks_) April 5, 2015
Where else can you find treasures like that seen above, except in a Minor League clubhouse?
I spent this past summer as an operations intern with the Beloit Snappers in Beloit, Wisconsin, and it was a wild ride. The Snappers’ internship was the second that I’d had in professional baseball, so I knew exactly what to expect in regard to hours and type of work. I met some great people, forging hopefully lifelong friendships full of laughter, joy and stories about tarp pulls in the most obscure of locations.
I didn’t get my Snappers’ internship during the Winter Meetings, however. I had interviewed with a few teams, but, frankly, I knew that nothing would come of them. I was still a bit unsure of exactly what I wanted to do, and interviewed for some positions that I wasn’t really “qualified” for but knew that I could do if given the opportunity. If I’ve learned anything about this industry, though, it’s that that doesn’t work. Teams want to see proof.
I returned to school empty-handed. A few days later, I was studying for a final exam and decided to be a real adult, take a “study break,” and re-apply for some of the same jobs I had seen and applied for at the Job Fair. Persistent? Definitely. Stupid? Probably.
I finished my exams and drove home to spend the holidays with my family before spending my final semester of college in the Dominican Republic. It was then that I received a call from the Snappers. My phone interview took place my first day home for the holidays, and I was offered the job the next day. I decided to take the leap, and accepted the stadium operations internship.
Then, life happened.
I was set to start with the Snappers in May of 2015, after returning from my semester abroad and graduating from the University of Evansville (with a degree in music and a degree in Spanish). My study abroad program required a doctor’s clearance for me to be able to leave the country, and I wasn’t cleared. I’ll spare you the details, but suffice it to say I had to push my semester abroad to the fall of 2015 and spend the winter dealing with health tests and hospital visits. I got in contact with the Snappers and let them know that I could start in April instead of May, but would need to leave in late July para estudiar español (to study Spanish). Fortunately, I was able to walk with all of my best friends in my graduation ceremony in May because I had already completed my degree in music. Things ended up being okay, after all.
I arrived in Beloit on April 1st and got to scrubbing 2014’s dirt off of the concession stand walls. It was time for another season of Minor League Baseball in Wisconsin.
At the time, I was one of two interns due to the fact that the other four were in school until May. This was a unique experience for me, as I got to serve as a kind of special assistant to the Director of Stadium Operations because I was the only operations intern in town at the time. We learned the ins-and-outs of our ballpark and had become a fairly efficient team by the time May rolled around.
Once the other interns arrived and we were able to spread around a little more of the work, I was afforded the opportunity to spend time in the press box and learn about operating a media relations department.
Working with the media relations department while also doing all of my stadium operations duties was a dream. I have always been passionate about writing and baseball, so getting to write about baseball was great. And, on the other hand, stadium operations is what I know and what I’m good at. It was awesome.
However, all good things must come to an end, every door that closes opens another, and [insert your next favorite cliche here]. I departed from Beloit on July 23rd and prepared to live in a foreign country for four months.
Last day lol pic.twitter.com/Mrqa9Q1gFr
— Sean Banks (@sbanks_) July 23, 2015
I landed in Santo Domingo on July 27th and cleared customs without a problem. I settled in, blinked, and now here I am. I chose to study in the Dominican Republic because of baseball in general and specifically because Pedro Martinez is my favorite player of all time. It tears me up inside that I had to miss his January parade down El Malecón (Avenue George Washington), but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I got to spend time watching games at Estadio Quisqueya (the stadium in Santo Domingo that plays host to two Dominican Winter League teams: the Tigers of Licey and Lions of Escogido. We became Licey fans in our four months here.) When I wasn’t adventuring to Pico Duarte (the highest point in the Dominican Republic) or traveling to El Sur Profundo (the country’s southernmost peninsula), I spent my time taking classes at a local university and interning with Ruddy Ramirez’s Little League in Martinez’s “hometown” of Manoguayabo. It was at El Play (baseball field) San Miguel that he got his start in baseball.
Summit Selfie at Pico Duarte
El Play San Miguel in Manoguayabo
At the beginning of fall instructionals I had the opportunity to travel to the batey (town that surrounds a sugar plantation) of Guerra to work with the Kansas City Royals. I traveled via Guagua (not sure whether to call them small buses or large vans, but they were almost always as beat up and falling apart as they could handle) every Tuesday and Thursday. At the Royals academy, I would work one-on-one with players to help them learn English and about baseball in the USA. It was an absolutely incredible experience, as I was able to use my passion for baseball, ability to communicate (in two languages), and the skills that I acquired studying education for almost three years. It was a success, and I really enjoyed my time at the academy.
And now, it’s back to the Job Fair. It is going to be strange to land in Nashville and be welcomed by the cold weather. But, to say the last eleven months were an adventure would be the understatement of the century. I will definitely miss the Dominican Republic, the friends that I’ve made here, and my host family most of all. But, I’m also ready to start my next adventure as a real life adult in a mystery location somewhere in the United States of America.
‘Toy listo salir pa’ Nashville ahora mismo. Hablamo’.
—
Thanks, Sean.
benjamin.hill@mlb.com
twitter.com/bensbiz
instagram.com/thebensbiz
Job Seeker Journals: A Look Back
After reading my previous post looking for new Winter Meetings Job Seeker Journal writers, you may find yourself wondering, “What is this all about? What did previous Job Seeker Journals look like? And who were the writers?”
This post is here to answer those questions, by providing links to the last three years’ worth of Job Seeker Journals. Click on each writer’s name to see all of their posts.
At the 2014 Winter Meetings in San Diego, these four individuals chronicled their experiences:
Darius Thigpen, Julie Brady, Katie Carlson, Sean Banks
In 2013, this quartet wrote about their comings and goings in Orlando:
Kasey Decker, Ian Fontenot, Meredith Perri, Alex Reiner
Nashville was the location in 2012, when this foursome dutifully detailed their time in the Music City:
Clint Belau, Chris Miller, Eric Schmitz, Linda Le
In 2015, we once again return to Nashville.
If you’ll be looking for a job at the Winter Meetings and want to write about it, then read the previous post and get in touch. I look forward to hearing from you.
—
benjamin.hill@mlb.com
twitter.com/bensbiz
instagram.com/thebensbiz
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