Belmont students had the unique opportunity to hear from Bruin alumni currently working for the city’s Major League Soccer club, Nashville SC, on March 15. The panel reflected several departments within the Nashville SC front office and provided students insight into their day-to-day operations while also offering advice to those eager to enter the sports world.
The group was comprised of the following employees:
Hannah Adkins — Event Manager
Andrew Fair — Digital Marketing Director
Jeffery Robben — Director of Team Administration
Michael Sanderson — Staff Accountant
Lauren Smith — Business Strategy & Analytics Manager
Coleen Solitro — Entertainment Manager
Andrew Suttle — AV Coordinator
Internship Success Stories
Securing internships was a central theme of the event. Multiple panelists shared how their brief stints with the club in college landed them permanent places with the emerging powerhouse organization.
Andrew Fair kicked off the event by sharing how he got an initial advantage over the competition when applying for a marketing internship with the club in 2017, a role that later turned into a full-time job thanks in part to a skill he learned outside of his internship.
“I had figured out Twitter a little bit before most other people did,” Fair said. “I had a Chicago Cubs themed Twitter account that a friend and I started on a whim and grew to about 40,000 followers. At the time, people didn’t really know that Twitter should be fun. So when I was asked if I wanted to do social media, even though I was just an intern with no professional experience, I took it and ran with it. Seven years later, I’m still running our social media.”
Likewise, Jeffery Robben’s Nashville SC tenure started out with an internship that grew into a full-time offering. Robben began his time at Belmont as an accounting and finance double major before realizing that his interests lied elsewhere. After graduating, obtained his Master’s in Sports Administration from Belmont, during which time he interned with Nashville SC’s operations and administration team in 2017.
“At the time, I think we had more interns than full-time staff,” laughed Robben. “Fortunately for me, I got on with our head coach really well. He wanted me to fulfill the role that I have today which mainly involves the team’s day-to-day operations including making sure coaches and players know where they’re going when we travel, taking care of logistics and taking calls at all hours of the day and night.”
Advice to Land a Sports Internship
Lauren Smith and Hannah Adkins both provided students in attendance with a list of do's and don’ts when applying for an internship in sports, specifically Nashville SC.
“Work on your resume with Belmont’s career center, especially when you are applying for a position without any network connections,” Smith said. “You need a resume that grabs our attention. A few months ago, we had over 600 applicants for an analyst job, and we spent probably 30 seconds tops looking at each resume which is already an unusual thing for an employer to do. Tailor your resume to the job you’re applying for with key highlights right at the top. When you send it, name it something that is easy for me to find on my computer with your name and date. Don’t make your employer’s life difficult.”
In addition to a complete resume, Adkins encouraged students to be diligent when filling out a Teamwork Online profile, one of the leading job aggregate sites that focuses on openings in the sports industry.
“Fill out your entire Teamwork Online profile, otherwise we will not look at anything you have submitted,” she warned. “If there is a field, fill it in.”
For help with career planning, development, resume building and more, Belmont students are encouraged to book an appointment with the University’s career services department.
The Sports Industry is Not Always a Linear Path
Coleen Solitro’s biggest piece of advice to students was simply to try everything. They may never discover something they are truly passionate about if they do not find it in the first place, something that requires expanding their horizons.
“I think the biggest misconception is that there is a linear path to a job in the entertainment industry, but there isn’t, whether you are in music, sports or anything else,” she said. “Everyone up here started out doing completely different things than they are now, and that’s the point of going to school and taking internships. In the end, there are people in their 60s who still don’t know what they want to do, and that’s okay. Don’t ever think your experience in something determines your next step.”