Co-Op Confidential - Brian Palmer

Name: Brian Palmer

Year: Pre-Junior

Company: Philadelphia Freedoms

Location: Ambler, PA in the Offseason; Villanova –During the Season

Who are the Philadelphia Freedoms?

Co-founded by Billie Jean King, World Team Tennis is America 's only professional co-ed team sport. Tennis fans have the opportunity to watch world-class men and women professionals on the same team playing singles, doubles and mixed doubles in an exciting and unique format. This year we have James Blake, John McEnroe, Bryan Brothers and other outstanding tennis players coming to the Pavilion to showcase their talents.

What are my responsibilities?

I have a hand in most areas with the Freedoms, except for ticketing. I am working with the General Manager Barbara Perry, formerly Vice President of IMG, to gain corporate sponsors and sell corporate packages for the upcoming season. Also, I work with Jon Blitzer and Melissa Alpuche in operations in different aspects, from forming trade deals to working with our marketing agency. I have a hand in most things which only enhances my experience.

Do you like it so far?

I truly do enjoy my experience so far with the Freedoms. It has its ups and downs but I am gaining a valuable experience here. Working with Barbara Perry is truly a pleasure. She loves new and creative ideas and I try to find new ways of adding something to the company everyday. It is challenging and frustrating when someone does not return your call or email however, that’s part of the business. So far I enjoy my time here and I believe its only get better once the season begins.

Downsides?

The only downside for me is the cost of travel. Aside from that I really have no complaint because I am kept doing something at most points of the day.

What are you looking forward to?

I won’t lie and say that I am not looking forward to meeting tennis icons such as John McEnroe, Chris Evert, and James Blake. I’ve met Billie Jean King previously and it was a pleasure. It is not every day you get to meet someone who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America ’s highest civilian honor. So I can’t wait to see the many other stars that work through the Pavilion.

Is Rickie Fowler Here To Stay?

Rickie Fowler won his first event on the PGA Tour last Sunday when won a three way playoff at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow.  Many say that this was a great moment for golf because Fowler hits the younger demographics better than anybody in recent memory.  What are your thoughts: Is he good for the game of golf? Is Rickie Fowler here to stay at the top?

Co-Op Confidential - Kevin Rossi

Name: Kevin Rossi
Year: Sophomore
Company: Comcast-Spectacor
Location: Philadelphia, PA

What does Comcast-Spectacor do?
Comcast-Spectacor, not to be confused with “Comcast”, is the company that owns the Philadelphia Flyers and the Wells Fargo Center.  Comcast-Spectacor also assists in some of the Philadelphia 76ers operations.  Also, Comcast-Spectacor has Global Spectrum, Ovations, New Era Tickets, Front Marketing, and others under their umbrella of companies.

What are your responsibilities?
I'm an intern in the Technology Solutions department; however, I usually just tell people that I work in the market research department because that sums up my job easier.  The game day interns during the season administered surveys at games and basically my job is to now clean up the surveys.  This requires a lot of time spent on Excel.  The ultimate goal is to get the information prepared for the end-of-season report that will be presented to the stakeholders.  After this big project is done, my job will be changing a lot.  Since there isn’t as much to do during the offseason, I will be jumping from department to department helping out where needed.  I’m actually looking forward to that because I’ll be able to meet some more people and get closer to figuring out what I want to do with my career.

Do you like it so far?
I have thoroughly enjoyed my co-op experience thus far.  I have connected with a bunch of people so far which will be extremely beneficial down the road.  Never too early to start building up a network!  Some of the information is interesting, but I am getting valuable experience in an extremely valuable field.  One of my projects required me to research into different customer relations management (CRM) systems.  On the surface it isn’t too exciting, but it is beneficial to get familiar with all of the different options out there.

Are there any downsides?
Sitting at a computer for most of the day is tough.  Anybody who knows me knows that I’m not very good at sitting still.  I’m more of the up-and-at-‘em type.

What are you looking forward to?
The biggest thing I’m looking forward to is jumping around from department to department.  When that time comes I will meet a lot more people and learn a lot more about the business.  Considering I’m not exactly sure what I want to do with my career, this experience and networking will be extremely valuable in trying to figure things out.  Plus, I love learning, so learning anything new is always a huge positive. 

Interested in sharing your co-op experience?  Contact DrexelSMTSU@gmail.com for details!

“Facebook for professionals”

It seems a little odd to me to be writing about other social media on a blog but the topic of LinkedIn comes up often in my daily life working in Drexel’s Career Center.  LinkedIn, in my opinion, is one of the best networking tools that nobody really uses…or at least uses effectively. 

I was first introduced to LinkedIn as an Executive Recruiter at Turnkey Sports and Entertainment.  As a recruiter, having a tool like this at our finger tips made our job ten times easier.  Before LinkedIn, we would rummage through team media guides, we would make hundreds of calls, and we would review hundreds of resumes- all for one search.  We liked to believe that we knew everyone in the sports industry and if we didn’t, we knew someone who knew that person (confused yet?).  The bottom line was that we were very good but not great networkers.  Something was missing.  When we first stumbled upon LinkedIn, we, as recruiters, figured that it was simply a place to store your online resume or your professional profile and allow others to view it.  So that’s what we did- we looked people up and we recruited them.  What we found is that it was a place much more valuable than that!

For a professional in any industry, but especially in sports, whether you are or are not be an active job seeker, LinkedIn is as necessary of a tool as a cover letter, resume, reference list, or samples of your work.  Yes it is where you post your educational experience, work experience, personal or company website, achievements, and skills.  However, that is just the start.  You can get your recommendations displayed (reference list), add networking contacts (business cards), join relevant groups (associations or chambers of commerce), and perform search functions for jobs, companies, or people (search engines, job sites, classifieds, databases).

As a job seeker, what I recommend to my students is very basic.  First, create a profile.  Make sure it is accurate and up-to-date.  Second, begin adding contacts.  Start with me, continue with professors, and then look to add former/current bosses or co-workers.  Add clients, add classmates, add alumni of your high school.  This is the essence of networking.  Third, join groups that are pertinent to you; my shameless plug is always for them to join the Drexel University Sport Management group.  But there are more out there- sports groups, Drexel groups, school alumni group, and job searching groups.

The second and the third suggestion are great, in theory, but must also be executed properly.  Not only do you need to add contacts but you need to keep in touch with them, even when you don’t need something.  When you are adding someone out-of-the-blue as a contact, introduce yourself and explain why you want to connect.  When joining a group, participate in discussions, reply to posts, and be an active member.

Being a professional and a job seeker (active or passive) is different now than it ever has been before.  However, you are at an advantage if you have prepared accordingly and utilize every tool at your disposal.  If you aren’t on LinkedIn, join.  If you are on LinkedIn, use it!

The Talented, Kind, and Unselfish Leader - Junior Seau:

Junior Seau was 43 years old.  He played 20 seasons for the San Diego Chargers, Miami Dolphins, and New England Patriots.  For some reaction check out Marcellus Wiley react on-air to the death of his former teammate.

Also check out the reaction from Junior Seau's mother.



Junior Seau's untimely death reminds of us of what is important in life.  So take a minute today to appreciate what you have and if you ever need help, there is always a friend or family member around to help you.  RIP Junior Seau and the approximately 100 other suicide victims yesterday.

"Things are never so bad that they couldn't be worse." - Bill Veeck

NBA Launches Tumblr/Pinterest Pages for Playoffs

Pinterest. Tumblr. NBA Playoffs? One of these things is not like the others… but in order to extend their social media presence in time for the 2012 Playoffs, the NBA now has pages on both Pinterest and Tumblr. These campaigns will support existing Twitter and Facebook campaigns.

The main purpose of these extensions is to increase attention to the playoffs through photo sharing. The league sees this as a worthwhile endeavor to use their “rich library of content to drive further engagement.”

Color me skeptical; I’m all about extending social media engagement wherever possible, but when I think of the NBA, Pinterest and Tumblr is largely incongruent. The main demographics for these two social media sites are hipsters and women. Unless I’ve missed something, I don’t think these are the most active supporters of the NBA. Expanding the league’s social media footprint to as many people as possible is a great idea, but this might be too large a jump. (Facts to back my assertions up courtesy of MarketingPilgrim.com: 68% of Pinterest users are female, compared to 38% of NBA fans) Noble idea, unlikely reward.

This being said, the NBA also plans on trying to push a great deal of e-commerce through both platforms—this is about the only way Pinterest makes sense to me, although they’re going to get to offer a bit more than another outlet to buy league apparel to get (let alone keep) the attention of users. Whether that’s possible has yet to be seen.

What do you think? Is this a brilliant business move on the NBA’s part, or a flop-campaign in the making?

Co-Op Confidential - Greg Monforte

Name: Greg Monforte
Year: Sophomore
Company: Daddis Fight Camp
Location: Cherry Hill, NJ

What does Daddis do?

Daddis is one of the best Mixed Martial Arts schools in the area.  They offer lots of martial arts training including Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. 

What are you doing?

My coop so far has consisted of mostly the regular gym maintenance and greeting and helping students when they arrive.  Gym maintenance includes the everyday cleaning and helping with side projects that need to be done around the gym.  This week I started making cold calls to potential clients who took a free lesson before but never signed up.  I am offering them a discounted deal to try to help boost enrollment.  Another part of the job that I have been working on so far is sales training.  Once the sales training is complete, I will start doing the introduction lessons for new students.  The final aspect that I have done so far is helping with in-house events.  This past weekend Daddis held a Family Fun Day.  My responsibilities for this event included making the schedule of events, setting up these events the day of, working the event, and the clean up after the event was over. 

What will you be working on?

As my coop goes on my job responsibilities will continue to grow.  I will be done the sales training soon and will start selling their program to perspective students.  At Daddis we are working towards the goal of getting forty five new members to sign up in the month of May.  Doing cold calls every day will help us reach and hopefully surpass this goal.  As summer gets closer there will be more events held in-house and at their Philadelphia location that I will be helping with.  These events include tournaments, staff meetings, and kids’ summer camps. 

Do you like it so far?

So far my coop has been a great experience and I have enjoyed it a lot.  One of the best aspects about my particular coop is I get to do experience many different areas of the job.  When my coop is over I will have experience in sales, marketing, and event management which gives me a better idea of what I will want to do later in my career.  My personal favorite part of the job is that I get to train for free.  This may not interest a lot of students at Drexel but I have always been a fan of MMA and use to train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in high school.  As I got older it became harder to train because of the financial burden and time management between school, work, and training.  Now I have more time and can train for free at one of the best MMA schools in the area. 

Be honest, are there any downsides?

Even though I really enjoy my coop there are always cons at every work place.  The biggest con is that the job can be slow and a little boring at times.  When I am not training or helping around the gym my job is to sit at the front desk and greet students as they come in.  This can be boring because most of the time I am the only one at the desk.  Another con is that since I am the intern and new at the school I have to do a lot of the jobs that no one else wants to do.  This can include cleaning the bathrooms, weeding outside, and organizing the equipment. 

What are you looking forward to? 

When my coop is complete in September I would have learned many skills that I can use in my career.  One of these skills is cold calls.  If I get into sales for a career this will be of the main parts of my job.  I can practice at Daddis to get use to making calls to people I do not and get use to people rejecting what I have to say.  Networking will be a huge advantage that I will get from my time at Daddis.  They have many connections with Bellator and the UFC which could help me get a job at either one of these organizations later.  Finally if I wanted to get into Event Management I will have a lot of experience in that area when I am done.  By the time my coop is over I would have helped run close to five tournaments, summer camps all summer, and countless other events including staff meetings.