mentors for sport?
April 12, 2011 11:07 AM   Subscribe

I used to produce a public radio show and do journalism. I love writing and the work of program-making. They say everyone should change their careers at least once in their life. I moved in fundraising, which I do not honestly think is in itself a career. Since October 2010 I am the commercial director of a pro basketball team in England. I don't know how long the job will last but it has brought a lot of meaning to my life to do real executive producing again. I would like to find a mentor in sports business but most mentoring organizations in the UK are not equipped to deal with this request. What are some logical resources in Europe and the USA I should be looking at?
posted by parmanparman to Grab Bag (1 answer total)
 
Best answer: You should try networking. It might not be realistic (- yet -) to approach someone and ask them spend hours each month mentoring you, but there are lots of little things you can do to gain some insight and information.

Try joining a networking group, or go to a networking event, where you can meet people in the sports business. In my experience, people in networking groups are very open to offering you information and helping you. Chat with them for a while there. If you click, ask if you can meet for coffee. Or you can even offer to buy them lunch. Then go from there - maybe you'll find that only one coffee meeting is appropriate, or maybe you'll find that this person is really interested in teaching you. Maybe they don't have time for that, but they'll have time for a phone call; that works too.

Have you heard of www.linkedin.com ? It's a social networking site, and you can view people's resume's, send them messages, and connect with people. LinkedIn also has a number of discussion groups that you can join, so that can be a great way to get to know people a little more informally before emailing them or calling them with a request. The other great thing, is at the bottom of people's profiles, it shows their messaging preferences. One of the options that people can select is that they're open to requests for the expertise (something to that effect.)

You can also connect with experts on twitter. With both of these sites, people are looking to network, and it is often to their advantage to share their knowledge, because it shows other people that they're an expert.

You can also try searching for sports business federations or associations on google and see if anything comes up. You might find a networking site specifically for people in that field.

You could also try doing some research, finding some people/companies who you admire, and emailing or calling them and saying that you're doing some research and you're consulting the experts in the field, and you're wondering if they would have 15 minutes for you do some informational interviewing? You can schedule a phone call, or coffee, or whatever. Honour their time and stop after 15 minutes, but if they want to continue, go ahead. Then send them a hand-written thank you card.

Also, with all of these networking methods, at the end of your meetings with people, ask them if they know of one or two other people who you could interview or who could give you some guidence. Then you can just go from one person to another, and your contacts and information snowballs.

I hope that helps you. I know that informational interviewing and networking has been the best thing for me. Best of luck!
posted by Jade_bug at 8:19 AM on May 14, 2011


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