SportsBiz Hiring Plans for 2021 with Mark Gress Jr. Partner, Prodigy Search

The Work in Sports Podcast - Insider Advice for Sports Careers

Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp VP of Content and Engaged learning at WorkInSports.com and this is the Work in Sports podcast. A few years back I was watching a pretty lame movie with Bradley Cooper and Zoe Saldana called The Words. It was predictable, kind of boring, not as interesting as they thought it would be on paper… but there was one moment in it that stuck out to me. You see, I’m that kind of guy that tries to find one piece of value in every moment. One thing you can learn, one thing that changes your perception. Despite this movie receiving, and truly earning, a 24% on Rotten Tomatoes, I still had to find some value in the experience. In this movie, Bradley Cooper is a writer, I won’t get into the details, but in one scene he says “this is my reading day”, meaning, to be a good writer, he needs to read what else is out there. Often. I've kind of adopted his philosophy at that time. I don’t spend an entire day reading, but I do dedicate an hour of every workday to reading what is out there -- long-form pieces relating to the sports industry, data studies, content techniques -- I like being a continuous learner and being open to knowledge. You never know where you’ll find incredible little nuggets of information. For example, I was reading this morning about how Yale is going to offer their most popular online course, titled “Psychology and the Good Life” which presents a scientific explanation of happiness, to 500 low-income high school students for free. A feel-good story, right? Nice way to start the morning. Well, the more you read the more interesting the gets. Near the bottom it says something very relevant to my ears: The course -- which was developed in partnership with the University of Connecticut and the National Education Equity Lab with support from the Arthur M. Blank Foundation -- will "present students with scientifically validated strategies for living a more satisfying life and examine what psychological science shows about how to be happier, how to feel less stressed, and how to flourish more," according to the university. The unexpected nugget -- Arthur Blank Foundation. Arthur Blank, owner of the Atlanta Falcons, making a difference in the lives of people. Maybe that changes my perception of billionaire owners, maybe it changes yours, it’s definitely a little nugget of information wrapped up in a story where I wasn’t expecting it. Good for you Artie! Another unexpected nugget in the past few weeks was an extremely informative survey and data report put out by our friends at Prodigy Search, leaders in sports recruiting -- and published in the Sports Business Journal. The team at Prodigy Search conducted a 23 question survey – comprised of chief people officers, human resources and talent acquisition executives, COOs or chief administrative officers at nearly 200 major league teams, league offices, agencies, venue and event operators to discover their feelings about how their respective organizations had handled staffing during the past year and what some of their plans are for the future. It was fascinating and I’ll link to it in the show notes of this episode. But it also inspired me to book today’s guest, Mark Gress Jr., Partner at Prodigy Search to discuss sports hiring trends in 2021 and their survey results -- here is my friend, Mark Gress Jr. A Few Select Clips from the Work In Sports podcast with Mark Gress Jr., Partner, Prodigy Search: Mark shared a lot of perspective on the recent survey conducted by hand his team at Prodigy, in this clip we discuss one surprising and upsetting response: https://youtu.be/RumjDlTPBI0 Mark Gress Jr. Partner at Prodigy Search shares insight into sports leagues and organizations that are thriving right now despite the pandemic: https://youtu.be/IfbSUa9ILYY Mark Gress Jr. Partner at Prodigy Search shares his thoughts on what it will take for entry-level sports job seekers to get hired in...