About six months ago, I created this website to better position myself to take the next step in my career. I think it's a common thought from many in this industry - you have to market yourself as well as humanly possible, and if you do that and still don't take steps forward, you probably should look for another line of work.
For me, I was at that point.
Don't get me wrong, the projects I was working on were fun, I was passionate about them, and at the end of the day, if I'm honest with myself, I'm not sure I could have walked away from them and just moved on completely from broadcasting and media. But you hit a point, with anything, where you either have to get serious and do everything you can to make gains in a field, or you have to dedicate your time elsewhere.
So I asked myself some hard questions to try and figure which of those two categories I'd fall in to - where was all this weekly time I spent on my coverage of the MIAC, the Big Ten, and Augsburg College really going? Was it leading anywhere, or was it just a short-term way to keep me busy outside of my 9-5? What, if anything, was next?
Today, I have answers to all of those questions, and over the next two years, I will find out the answers to many more, because all of the logistical I's have been dotted and T's have been crossed with a big move for me, as I'll be joining East Tennessee State University as their Graduate Assistant in Sports Broadcasting starting June 2, and I'll come on board with the Rookie League affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, the Elizabethton Twins, just a few weeks later.
Was it the website? Did I have someone on the inside? How did I get so lucky? Let me provide some context.
After completing this website in early December, I knew I had to get my name out there and continue to build on the momentum I felt I had harnessed by completing this project, so I applied to anything and everything I could find within sports.
This was a similar approach to what I had done in the past - cast a wide net, hope you get lucky. Predictably, I wasn't getting much in return, as a couple of months of applying, both in Minneapolis and around the country, went by the wayside with the same old issues of not getting solid feedback, leads, or responses.
Then, towards the end of January, I came across the ETSU Graduate Assistantship.
Fool that I am, I didn't apply at first, most of my hesitation coming from my lack of desire to go back to school.
I continued to look around over the next few days and, much to my dismay, the landscape was as baron as could be. The one job I continued to see that I couldn't seem to get away from? ETSU.
For days I continued to wrestle with the idea of going back to school, taking a huge pay cut, moving halfway across the country, and leaving my strong support system I have in Minneapolis, when it finally hit me one cold, snowy evening: why the hell not?
This opportunity could not only give me the chance to call D-1 sports and see if my work is up to snuff but, should I actually be terrible at this and not be able to get a job after I'm done with the Bucs in the ever-contracting market that broadcasting is, I still will have gotten a higher degree, making me more marketable in the business world.
That sounds like a pretty good worst-case scenario, and hey, if I was even going to get to the point of being offered the job (which I felt silly for even considering given my recent interview-less streak), I could make the tough choice then. Apply, damn it!
So I did, and I began to get excited about it. The more I thought about the gig, the more sense it made. Would it be tough to leave the place I've lived my whole life, start school again, and make a big level-jump in the broadcasting world, all in the span of a few months? Absolutely. Did the possibility of the chance passing me by feel like it would be more traumatic than all of those things put together? To my surprise, YES!
So I kept note of when the application deadline was, when the folks at ETSU would be reviewing applications, and slotted my next moves appropriately. I got in touch with Jay Sandos, the point of contact and director of their broadcast network, the week before the post closed to ask a few questions. I asked around in my network over the span of a few weeks leading up to Jay reviewing apps to see if anyone had connections at ETSU that could help. And while those two steps were a nice beginning, I felt like I needed something further to make sure I was covering all my bases, so I got in touch with my boss at the MIAC, Matt Higgins, who graciously offered to write a letter of recommendation on my behalf and send it to Jay the first day he was reviewing candidates.
Then it was time to wait.
A few days passed, nothing. A few more, nothing. But I never panicked, and was actually more calm than usual about the opportunity, because I knew I had done everything I could.
Not so coincidentally, having made sure I had cinched everything up on my end, Jay got in touch looking to set up an interview.
I was ecstatic, and a few days later, after we had concluded our roughly hour-long chat over the phone that we had set up via email, that feeling was amped up to 11. It went great, and while there were a number of great takeaways from our conversation, one moment stood out above the rest, something that really stuck with me about the process.
"You know this Matt Higgins, right?" Jay asked.
"Yeah, that's the Assistant Director at the MIAC, my boss over there, you must've gotten his letter of recommendation for me," I replied.
"I did and you give him a big thank you next time you see him," Jay said. "He hit on all the right things in that letter and, to be honest, I didn't really give your stuff much of a look until I read that. You know how it is when you have a pile of resumes."
This post isn't meant to preach or teach, it's really just for me to tell you about my next adventure and how it came to be, but I feel the need to give the obvious advice based on my experience with that quote from Jay and this process as a whole: DON'T FEEL LIKE YOU NEED TO GO IT ALONE. Far too often I did, and it got me very little, and while it's not always comfortable or easy to ask for help (definitely a weakness of mine), an outside presence advocating for you can make all the difference.
About a week later, I found out it made the ultimate difference in Jay's search for his next grad assistant, as he gave me a call and offered me the position. Yes, this website and my interview had something to do with getting the gig, but without Matt's letter, I would've gone unheard, and my work, unseen.
Now I come to you just two weeks short of leaving for ETSU. I've gotten accepted to the university (a requirement of any graduate assistantship) and their Brand and Media Strategy Masters program, acquired housing in Johnson City (not required but I'm thinking having a place to stay can't hurt), and Jay was even nice enough to talk with some people in the Appalachian League, and he got me the inside track on a play-by-play position for the Elizabethton Twins, the Rookie League affiliate of my hometown Minnesota Twins, a gig I start a little over a month from now.
Not sure I could write up a better, or more surreal, script than that.
In the meantime, I have wrapped up my role on Gopher Sports Update, my time with the MIAC hosting MIAC Weekly and calling their championships, my broadcasting/announcing at Augsburg, and even my full-time academic advisor position at Walden University. They have not been easy things to put to bed, but I felt my work began to stagnate at almost all of those places, which is how I knew it was the right time to move on.
Luckily, I have something to move on to.
I'll have more in the weeks ahead as I transition into my time in Tennessee, and away from my 28 years here in Minnesota.
Here's to a great last few weeks in the Land of 10,000 Lakes!