Advice I Had to Learn Along the Way 

Sometimes during the week, I like to kick up my feet and share my war stories with some of our interns. Maybe it’s my teacher quality, but I like to offer our interns advice — solicited or unsolicited — because I had to learn some things the hard way. I learned a lot by trail and error growing up in the profession. Not because I needed to but because I had to.

If I don’t learn at least one thing or teach someone something new each day, then that day is not a success to me.

My stories may not be as cool as some others in the business or in other professional sectors, but each story has played a critical part in my development. And I want to impart those experiences on others.

As a former intern myself, I knew if I wanted to make it in this profession, I had to separate myself from the pack.

How do you separate yourself from the others? Below are seven insights that I think are crucial for interns working in college athletics…especially if you want this to be the becoming of a career.

1. Every day is a job interview. I’m beginning to sound like a broken record on this one because I say it so often. You never know who’s watching your every move.
2. Stay in your lane. Don’t veer into “oncoming traffic” or other people’s areas of expertise.
3. Under promise and over deliver. Don’t set the expectations so high that you fail to reach it each time. Don’t promise the world when you know you can’t do it.
4. Don’t be above the job. Here’s what I mean: just because it’s not in your job description, or it’s “grunt” work doesn’t mean you get a free pass. Do it. I’ve done grunt work everyday for the last 13 years. If you want to work in athletics, then you’ll know that you have to do more things than are required of you.
5. Expect to screw up. No one is perfect. I’m a perfectionist..and I hate to make mistakes, but that is the only way we learn and get better.
6. Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.
7. Volunteer to learn E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G.

I offer advice not because I think I’m sage or wise but because I never had the resources to seek advice from others when I was an intern. If only one person asks me for advice, then I’ve done my job.

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Chris Yandle is the Assistant AD for Communications at the University of Miami. Follow him on Twitter at @ChrisYandle.