CAREER TAKEOVER: Annie Langley: Soccer Star Turns MLB Associate Producer

Name: Annie Langley

Hometown: Little Silver, NJ

Graduation Year/Major at CUA: 2014/ Media Studies

Zodiac Sign: Virgo

Spirit Animal: Matt Bellassai  (‘Whine About It’, look it up)

HC: Hi Annie!! Thanks so much for taking your time to speak with HerCampus CUA! So, tell us a little bit about yourself and your CUA experience. What was your campus involvement like at Catholic?

Annie: Hi! I was the captain of the women’s varsity soccer team (KACUA! I’m so lame), an unenthusiastic and inefficient secretary for SAAC [Student Athlete Advisory Committee], and the school mascot—secret’s out. 

HC: Awesome! After graduation, you jumped into the working world pretty quickly. What’s your job now like? How did you get it?

Annie: I work as an Associate Producer for MLB Network.  I was offered the position after interning there for a summer before my senior year.

HC: How did you get your internship? To be more specific, who helped you get it or where did you hear about it?

Annie: I got my internship by speaking to anybody and everybody that I knew who was involved in sports television, including a second cousin (or third cousin? Unclear) who happened to be a Producer for FOX Sports and put in a good word for me at the Network.  

HC: What do you think made you stand out in your internship to get you that job offer?

Annie: My sports knowledge and production experience was anything but spectacular, especially in comparison to my fellow production interns.  I’m 99.9% sure that my personality and ability to talk to people was the reason I ended up being the only intern offered not one, but two positions at MLB Network after my internship.  I have learned in my short time ‘adulting’, as the bloggers call it, that being straight up friendly, open to learning, and hard-working will get you further than anything else.

HC: What is it like being a female working in a majority male dominated field?

Annie: It’s fantastic.  I love it. It’s easy-going and it’s fun.  It may not be for everyone, I think it just works for me because of the kind of attitude I have to begin with.   I was the only girl at my desk for about a year and a half and the guys I work with have become like brothers to me.  We’ve become very close and they’ve helped me grow a lot as a professional and have given me many opportunities.  It’s been a great experience overall.   However, I am aware that this era of bliss could be short-lived as far as advancing up the corporate goes.  There are not many females in positions of power in the industry.  I would love to see that change in the near future, and be a part of it.

HC: What do you like most about your job?

Annie: The atmosphere.  It’s a bunch of young bros (and ladies, holler!) working in a very, very fast-paced environment, working for a sport that we all very much enjoy, meeting amazing people, and going to really cool places.  It’s pretty fun. 

HC: Do you have any advice for current students looking to find that dream job?

Annie: My advice, and I know it’s something that soon-to-be young professionals hear all the time, but just make as many contacts as you possibly can.  I’m still doing this as I move through my first job.  Knowing people that like you and respect the work you do will get you incredibly far in the workplace.  Even if you met them only once, a firm handshake, looking them in the eye, and at least acting like you’re interested in what they have to say could get you a job later on.  You never know who could help you later!  This obviously goes along with the unspoken rule of simply working hard day in and day out throughout your first job to eventually reach that dream job.

HC: Wonderful! Thanks a lot for the advice.  Now, on to some more light-hearted topics. What is your favorite thing about game day?

Annie: Well in baseball, every day is game day so pretty much everything I said above!

HC: Most Embarrassing Baseball Related Moment:

Annie: I had just taken over as the Network’s Talent Manager, a rather important position for the winter, while our resident talent manager was on maternity leave.  I was reporting directly to the Vice President of the company for the time being.  On my third night on the job,  I was in a heated debate with my coworker, Pat, about who was the most attractive female athlete.  Being the proud soccer player that I am, I was campaigning for Alex Morgan, naturally.  As ammo, I copied and pasted an article from the very respectable website, Brobible.com, that features a video of Morgan, um, gyrating in a bikini, for the win.  In my anticipation to win the argument with this infallible evidence, I typed in “P-A-T” and pressed send.  Instead of going to my friend, Pat, it went directly to the vice president of the company.  I obviously proceeded to have a minor breakdown, anticipating the inevitable response, “Congratulations, you’re fired.” LUCKILY, Dave (the VP) is the coolest and responded with “Can SHE come on one of our shows?!” I lucked out, but moral of the story is, keep only work-related stuff on work emails. I know that’s not exactly “baseball” related but it is CERTAINLY the most embarrassing story I’ve got.

HC: Finally, if you could do senior year at CUA over again, what would you do differently?

Annie: I would live in the moment more.  As I was approaching graduation, I knew I had a job that I loved waiting for me, I had a rough blueprint of where I would live, when I would move, where I would move, etc., and I would always say, “Yeah, I’ll miss college, but I’m ready to move on.”  If anyone out there is saying that, trust me, you’re not ready.  Real world can be really great and very fun.  But college-life, you’ll find after graduation, is the most ridiculous, amazing lifestyle in the world.  You look back on it similar to how you look back at your trips to Disneyworld as a kid, at least, I do. It seems straight up magical in hindsight.  So, CHERISH IT EVERYBODY!  One day you’ll be 23 but feel like you’re 56, sitting in your cubicle, eating your Lean Cuisine for lunch thinking, “I would give my entire salary just to be back at that ‘lame’ house-party with those girls that were ‘so annoying’ drinking that beer that was so ‘disgusting’.  I haven’t tasted the sweet, sweet foamy pleasures of Natty Light in a while, but something tells me it would only remind me of the greatest time of my life. 

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