Summary: Looking to Change the Focus of Your Sports Career? How Do You Pivot into a New Sports Job?<br> Hi everybody, I’m Brian Clapp Director of Content for <a href="http://workinsports.com">WorkinSports.com</a> and this is the Work In Sports podcast.<br> <br> Our first QA session of the year! I love getting your questions so if you have something gnawing on your conscience, let’s talk about it…because chances are if you have the question so do other people in this community. Email me – <a href="mailto:podcast@workinsports.com">podcast@workinsports.com</a><br> <br> Quick shout out to fan of the show James P from Northwestern who has asked some great questions in the past – he’s a little disappointed he was a finalist for a job with the Milwaukee Brewers but didn’t get a job, but as I told him and I’ll tell all of you, every chance you have to interview is a chance to improve and get better. <a href="https://www.workinsports.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/qa_cover.png"></a><br> <br> Don't take it as a defeat, take it as a learning experience. You got more experience interviewing, so now is the time to do a self-analysis and think about areas you didn’t handle well, or need to expand your horizons -- after this experience you are more prepared for your next opportunity, so buck up and get out there.<br> <br> Time for today's question from, Lauren in Wisconsin<br> <br> As you touched on in one of your previous podcasts, there are many different areas of specializations in both professional and collegiate sports (i.e Sports Reporting, Community Relations, marketing, business operations, analysts, etc). What do you think about people who are working in an area but want to pursue a position in new one? How do you recommend going about it?<br> <br> I followed up with Lauren to get a little more detail – she is currently working in Community Relations at a major college athletic program, but has learned she really enjoys the video production part of her job and wants to pivot towards the video/photography/storytelling aspect of the job.<br> <br> But my answer will apply for anyone who wants to make a change in their career within the sports industry. So if you are working in sales and want to get into operations, this advice works for you too.<br> <br> Lauren, the first thing you need to realize is that everyone pivots.<br> <br> We all shift and move in our career and try different paths. In fact, according to multiple studies people change careers, full careers, 5-7 times over their lifetime. One report from CNN Money said in the first decade out of college millennials change employers on average 4 times…which is a huge change over previous generations.<br> <br> The reason I bring this up is because the first thing you have to do is remove fear or a feeling of, I can’t do this, out of your mind. It’s not as uncommon as you think, people change and shift and adjust all the time.<br> <br> We all tend to shackle ourselves with emotional chains that aren’t based in fact. Often the first thing you need to do in any career shake up moment, is to convince yourself it’s not only possible it’s probable.<br> <br> Simply put, don’t let you hold you back.<br> <br> But now that we got the emotional chains part out of the way… let’s talk action, because I’m not that great at all the smooshy stuff.<br> <br> I’ll break this down into three categories: Your Skills, Your Portfolio and Your Network<br> <br> 1: If you are going to change your career, even if it’s a relatively subtle shift - you need to overachieve with the tangible skills of the new position. We’ll use Lauren as the example.<br> <br> Anyone who went to school for video production or journalism has a natural advantage over you. How do you make up that gap? By learning as many of the tangible skills you can. So if you want to get into video production – take an online class on Final Cut Pr...
