I graduated with a Sports Management degree. Before college, I had mixed ideas about what I wanted to go for. English teacher, chemistry major, marketing and business? Weeks before move in day I decided on Sports Management, and no, I don't at all regret it.
The program at my school was amazing, it was smart, hands-on, challenging, and I learned so much. I did internships with the Steelers, the Cape Cod Baseball League, and the (former) Worcester Sharks, an AHL affiliate to San Jose. I loved the atmosphere of sports, the camaraderie, the energy, the dedication through good times and bad, through wins and losses, the way cities, people, would come together.
When I graduated I had all expectations that it would be easy to get into the sports field, but I quickly found otherwise. We were taught, through my four years, that you needed to start with sales and work your way up in an organization. In my mind, I was going to bypass that. I was young and motivated and eager to present myself in front of business men and women who lived in this sports world daily. Except I was not even able to get to the front step of presenting myself and showing the potential I thought I carried. I knew I didn't want to be on the phone all day making over 100 phone calls. It wasn't me, my creative side did not want to limit myself to just phone calls. I wanted to learn marketing or event planning or public relations, but I had very few experiences and the people in those roles had years of it.
After eight months, I knew that I could no longer work retail and I needed to find a step towards a career. My first, my second jobs were in customer service, sales, and recruiting. I knew what I was naturally good at, human interaction, people. Would this make me a good saleswoman? Maybe, but it was not what I wanted. I didn't let it discourage me, what I did is I took the knowledge I learned through college, through my internships, and put it to use in the jobs I had. I learned quickly that my knowledge of sports and the behind the scenes of sports easily compared to everyday life. There was still teamwork, camaraderie, counting the "wins" in everyday business life. Through every interview I've had to this day, I discuss the importance of my internships, of my courses that led me to where I am.
I am now an HR coordinator for an Insurance company and I love it. For two years I became knowledgeable about the aspect of HR and all that comes with it, no matter what kind of company you work for. I learned that I was naturally good at the recruiting process, I was hungry for more, and continue to be. I remember back in my first interview for the company my future boss asked "why sports management" and I started to go into my spiel of how it compares, after I was finished he told me his background, sports, for years he had been in the golf industry, and he too, knew exactly what I was talking about.
I do not regret my decision to choose sports management, and I do not feel like I missed out on being able to work for a team. I took the information I learned, the experiences I had, and I channeled them into a different avenue. When you are 18, 22, or even 26, you are not required to know exactly what the rest of your life holds. I love writing more than anything I do, but I also love my full-time job, and who says I can't do both?
So to those that are carrying on in careers that they may have not studied, that they did not expect, and to those still in the process, it's okay to take a path in which your degree did not point you.
