I have completed my mandatory five interviews! I could not be more excited for accomplishing all I have and the best part is I still have more interviews to conduct. Crazy how just a couple weeks ago I was praying for a break through and I have received just that and more. Since my last post I have been able to speak with a gentlemen form the Baylor athletic department as well as someone from, my future school, the University of Oklahoma. Both these interviews were very helpful in the sense they both offered different answers to my questions than my previous interviews. Something I am noticing is that all of the professionals I have spoken to are not some new bees in their field they have worked very hard and held their positions for quit some time. By them being at their individuals schools for so long it lets me know I am truly talking to the best in the business. They are able to keep up with changing times and know how to execute their duties so they might target multiple age groups. I do hope now that I am able to keep up with the professionals I interview for future reference even if they are not my mentor for the remainder of the year.

Last week I was honored with the opportunity to head over to Denton and visit the UNT Athletic Department. There I got to meet and interview with the Mean Green Athletic Director. He specifically works with football but over sees all sports as well. The interview was great with a lot of awesome information provided to me. Luckily I have slowly been getting better at my interviewing skills an was able to ask questions that were not even on my list of pre-written questions but were based of his previous comments. I was also able to speak with the programs two interns at the moment. I loved hearing their take on on where they are at in their professional life right now and how they did not expect to be where they are but know the hard work will pay off. He was extremely helpful with future contacts and also made me very comfortable and wanting to come back and learn more about the UNT Athletic program. 

This week I am hoping to reach out to even a few more professionals and maybe even complete my mandatory 5 interviews. Although I have to speak with at least 5 professionals there is no way I would turn down the chance to even talk to 5 more. The more knowledge and grasp on the sports PR work, the better!

My prayers have been answered! In my last post I was talking about how I have been kind of struggling setting up interviews and people not being able to get back to me due to their busy schedules. I decided to send out another round of emails this time reaching out to contacts I was able to get from my first and last two interviews. I was fortunate enough to immediately hear back from one of them and they seemed very enthusiastic on meeting with me and sharing their experiences. I am so thrilled by just the little growth I have made.

I also got in contact with the professionals I met at the Business Symposium who crazily enough knew folks in the sports PR world too. I am looking forward to seeing where those take me these next couple of weeks. 

I am excited to further my interview skills this week when meeting with the gentlemen I get to talk to and hear his experience with this career field. So far everyone has had a different thing they have liked most about their job and easily enough they have also had one common thing they struggle with the most. It will be interesting in seeing if this pattern continues. Can not wait to blog next week on my progress!

This past week was pretty slow for me in terms of progress. I followed up with a couple people who I have been exchanging emails with in hopes of booking more interviews. Unfortunately at this time they are busy but I know my big break is coming and I will be flooded with interview opportunities soon.

Tuesday Coach Goff prepared the class on a large event we had on Friday called The Business Symposium. During this event myself along with the other ISM students on the west side of Frisco had the chance to interview adults, mainly parents, with large careers. The professionals may have not been in the line of work I am studying but it was extremely helpful practicing our interview skills on them. They were also able to provide me with contacts of their friends who are in the the sports PR world that I can connect too. 

I’m very committed to studying sports PR but I will not lie when I say hearing about the adults professions who were there was very cool. They had some jobs that I did not know even existed and others that I thought I would never have the opportunity to get a real inside look on. I am very grateful for Friday and the extra experience I gained.