[Limbo to Range Career Log] Uhhh it's probably that way.

Job #5: Matchday Guest Services Volunteer (Go UW Huskies!)

I loved my soccer coaching job (Job #3) but I knew I could not live off from coaching a community college team when I am done with school. Watching my head/assistant coaches working for 2-3 varsity teams on top of the college gig did not help either. I thought it was time to change my career trajectory from becoming a professional coach to either sports business or administration.

Then, I found this program at the university called Master's in Intercollegiate Athletic Leadership program. "This is the one." Luckily, one of the master's student was interning at our college athletics department. I asked, "How can I get into the program?"

"Volunteering and internships."

If you know me personally, you probably figured out I emailed the graduate program advisor as soon as I wanted to get into the program. I found that majority of the students who were in the program were volunteering for one of the football matchdays so I signed up even if I weren't part of the program.

What was my duty?

I received an e-mail a week prior to the matchday. The coordinator asked if I could set up the booth with the staff and serve as a receptionist-type of volunteer at the booth. Some asked a printed stadium map (This was early smartphone era), some wanted sticker tattoos, others just wanted to figure out where the bathroom is (including myself).

What did I learn?

Networking and connecting with someone you don't know may sound agitating, boring, or time consuming. But if you think about how those relationships lead to something valuable in the future, this changed my value of building relationship from another thing that I have to do to the most valuable currency as a human being.

How I applied what I learned from this experience to my current/future roles?

It feels surreal that sometimes I am the only one in the group who is talking to folks that I have not met before. I recall from one of the lectures in my master's program: You have to start a conversation with a small talk to share and show you care about that person. And that's how you do business, meeting, contract, lunch, anything that affects your personal and professional links. By the way, I ended up choosing another program over the athletics master's program. The reason? Well I'll share my Job #6 and #7 first.