As a public relations major interested in working in sports promotion/broadcasting after graduation, I decided it would be a solid idea to get involved with Appalachian State athletics. I am now interning under the assistant athletic director and have had the chance to work with men’s and women’s basketball teams, as well as the softball and baseball teams.
So far my experience has been amazing. Not only am I getting something awesome to put on my resume, but I’m getting so much hands on experience you just can’t get when sitting in a classroom.
It also helps when you get to work with men’s sports teams and a lot of the players are attractive but that’s beside the point.
Here are the top five reasons I love my internship, and why YOU should work an internship as well.
1) Meeting new people.
I’m all about meeting as many people as I can throughout my four years. I love seeing new perspectives, learning about where people are from, how they got here and where they plan to go.
2) Connections.
Is having a 4.0 with no contacts going to get me a job after graduation? Negative. But having a 3.0 with multiple connections from various locations will. The job market nowadays thrives off good recommendations. I have no doubt that my boss will provide me with a good recommendation next year when I’m applying for jobs. Also, since he’s in the sports field I’m sure he has multiple teams and companies where he can put in a good word for me.
3) Behind the scenes – Hands on Experience.
I’ve gotten to see the basketball team one-on-one and interview coaches. I would have never had the chance to do that without getting out of my comfort zone and working this internship. I’ve had to write articles for baseball and basketball and sometimes honestly, they sucked. Sometimes my boss had to go in and completely re-write it but that’s okay. It’s experience and that’s all that matters. Now is the time to make mistakes, which brings me to my next point.
4) You are allowed to make mistakes.
Making mistakes in the real world can produce worse consequences than making a mistake in an internship. I’ve made multiple mistakes, forgotten countless pieces of information and have had to learn how to do very common things (aka work a copy machine!!). But I asked for help, because it’s all a learning experience and hey, I’m only a junior in college, what do I know?
5) Skills. Things I may not need and things I should have learned years ago.
As mentioned earlier, I had learned how to use a scanner and copy machine, which I definitely didn’t know how to do before. I’ve also had to play with Excel alot, which I only used during my torturous freshman year math class. However, I now know how to make a media guide for basketball and baseball, put in statistics, research statistics, work scoreboards, how to interview and what to ask, how to format articles, and so on and so forth. Will I need all of these skills in the future job I want to have? No, probably not. But has it been pretty cool to learn them? Of course.
Sources:
http://blog.internationalstudent.com/2013/04/sports-broadcasting-for-mlb/