So, I decided I wanted to find a sports job over in Seattle. Seemed like a cool idea at the time, you know? Big city, lots of teams – pro stuff, college teams, the whole nine yards. I figured, “Hey, this should be an adventure!”
First thing I did was jump online. You know the drill, hitting all those job boards, typing in “sports” and “Seattle” and seeing what popped up. I spent hours, man, hours just scrolling through listings. Some days it felt like I was just staring at the same ten jobs posted over and over again by different recruiters.
I also went straight to the source. Looked up the Seahawks, the Mariners, the Sounders, even the Kraken, and checked out their career pages. Figured that was the direct route. Did the same for the universities around there, like UW.
What I found was, well, interesting. There were definitely jobs. A lot of them seemed to be in sales – ticket sales, corporate sponsorships. If you like selling, man, you’re probably golden. Then there was a bunch of marketing stuff too, social media, content creation, that kind of thing. And, being Seattle, a surprising number of tech-related roles, like data analysts or IT support for the sports organizations.
It wasn’t exactly what I pictured. I was hoping for more on the operations side, or maybe something in community programs. Those jobs were there, but they seemed way fewer and farther between. Or they wanted, like, a ton of experience, or you had to know someone.
I sent out a bunch of applications. Tailored my resume, wrote cover letters – the whole song and dance. Got a few of those automated “thanks but no thanks” emails pretty quick. One time, I applied for a role that sounded perfect, like it was written for me. Sent it in, and crickets. For weeks. Then, poof, the listing was gone. Never heard a thing. That’s just how it goes sometimes, I guess.
Here’s something I noticed: a lot of the entry-level or “foot-in-the-door” type opportunities seemed to be internships. And many of them were unpaid or paid very little. Now, I get it, experience is key, but Seattle ain’t a cheap city to live in. Made me wonder how folks managed that unless they had family nearby or a pile of savings.
I did talk to a couple of people who worked for one of the teams. Just informational interviews, you know, trying to get the lay of the land. They were nice enough, but the message I got was that it’s super competitive. Like, hundreds of applicants for any decent opening. And networking is huge. Knowing people definitely helps get your resume looked at, at least.
After a few months of this, I started to broaden my search a bit. Looked at sports retail, some smaller sports companies, that kind of stuff. It’s a grind, for sure. You gotta be persistent and not let the rejections get you down too much.
So, yeah, that was my little adventure trying to break into the Seattle sports job scene. It’s a scene, alright. You just gotta be prepared for what it really is versus what you might think it is from the outside looking in. Keep plugging away, that’s the main thing.
