Advice From A Freshman: Network!

Lindrit Shkodra is a freshman in Drexel Sport Management student. You can learn more about Lindrit his SMTSU Member Spotlight from November.

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I did not know what to expect out of Drexel going in as a Sports Management Student. I knew it was going to be nothing like high school but it was even further than I had expected. In college, there is no one telling you what choices to make anymore, other than your college advisor. There was one word that everyone kept repeating, NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK. What does this word actually mean?

At first I just thought it meant just meeting a lot of people. However, when one tends to think this way, he or she spends too much time on quantity and not quality. One good relationship with one person is better than 20 relationships where all you know about the other guy is his name. TIP: Get to know the person. Find out where he has worked in the past and even if you don’t think it’s that interesting, toot their horn because they will remember you.

Take time and set up meetings with the teachers in your Major. Write down the things they tell you. Not only your teachers but make sure you become friends with each and every person in your major, especially our major. Who knows down the line when their employer might ask them if they know of a person who can fulfill the position they just opened up. It never hurts to make another connection. Joining the Sports Management Student Union doesn’t hurt either because, once again, it’s another opportunity to make more connections with people, which could benefit your future.

The business we are in is a tough one. Why? Because I’m sure you have heard it before and I know it’s really cliché but it’s not what you know it’s whom you know. People everywhere get jobs where they might not seem perfectly fit and you wonder how they got the job until you find out that they are somehow related to that person. Well in our case, we want to make connections with as many people as we can because even if we aren’t fully qualified for that particular job, just because we know a good friend of theirs, they might give us a chance and teach us how to do that particular job.

So I took this advice and became very good friends with both Mark Gress and Brett Burchette. Mark actually helped me get an internship only a couple weeks after he and I sat down and talked together. This internship is with Ron Jaworski’s Celebrity Golf Challenge where I make tons of other connections daily. What Mark did for me was not only let me know of the internship but he also sent in my resume and cover letter which to employers is always an extra plus.

Brett is also going to be introducing me to a friend of his who works in the sport’s agent business. I want to be a sport’s agent so you can imagine my excitement. Now this friend is not just a nobody in the business, he is the sports agent for both Chris Johnson of the Tennessee Titans as well as Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Remember, NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK. I know now why people would stress it so much.