Everything we do in life has its own unwritten rules of engagement.

Of course, the term “rules of engagement” is usually allotted for use in one’s mind via military speak, but for purpose’s of how to go about something in the game of life, the verbiage can be used and construed in myriad different ways.

For example, how does one’s go about getting a job? What principles do you undertake? What is the best way to market the product of you to a prospective employer?

These are all intense questions that do not have perfect answers ? and never will ? but there are things that can be done to help people learn to assimilate themselves to business-speak per se in the effort to separate themselves from the fierce competition of the so-called “real world.”

For this purpose, the NCAA many years ago undertook an initiative to help those in the business of college athletics learn how to obtain that first “real” job in the cutthroat sports business world.

The NCAA Conference Intern Seminar

Truth be known, in college athletics and the broader realm of sport business many internships are entry-level positions.

They pay ? unlike most internships ? but for purposes different at every different conference or campus site, they are labeled internships.

Some people even commandeer benefits within their “intern” job. So, in retrospect they are jobs in the real world, particularly when you look at the fact that many of the individuals working in these jobs already have an advanced degree.

Nevertheless, the Holy Grail has not been reached in terms of matriculating a job that finds an individual out of the gray area that is these internships that on the surface are called internships, but through it all are not treated thusly.

That is why the office of the NCAA set about setting up a seminar that brings in individuals from different conferences and institutions (from all levels of the NCAA) that teaches those in attendance principles about finding their place in college athletics.

Individuals at the NCAA Conference Intern Seminar come from all walks of life and regions of the nation. Some are in academic advising, some are in sports information and/or championships, but all are in the same place in their lives: trying to define who they are, while also searching for the right fit job-wise.

The Future

The seminar took place over three different days (Jan. 26-28) in Indianapolis, IN, at the headquarters of the NCAA.

Its design was emblematic of what the NCAA is all about really: helping those in athletics find a job; except for this time, the ones looking to find their place are the ones that are already involved in the promotion of student-athletes or the core basis of the NCAA and its mission statement.

This is articulated because sometimes people forget that the NCAA works opposite of mainstream culture and business in that it is run from the bottom up since the NCAA in essence is really working for the institutions that it is serving on a day-to-day basis.

This is why the NCAA views the intern seminar as extremely vital to its future since the people in attendance at the conference are the real future of college athletics.

The NCAA also knows for the system to work it is imperative that these individuals learn about each other and discover the network they never knew they had prior to the seminar.

True to the form, the NCAA places the individuals to which they have given their faith in the opportunity to run the conference, allowing the interns to set up the events and the different activities.

The crop of interns at the NCAA undertook this huge task with grace and humility, bringing in a great deal of talent from throughout the NCAA ? including on-site ? to talk about what it takes to get ahead.

The Brand That (Really) Is All About You

Knowing that sometimes knowing the right steps does not necessarily correlate with doing a smooth tango, the interns at the NCAA went about finding the right people to teach different issues, touching all aspects of college athletics.

Everything was touched, from leadership to networking and job placement to how to be you.

A motivational speaker was even brought into the fold to articulate what one’s personal brand really entailed in Tim O’Brien.

According to O’Brien, your personal brand is who you are and how people portray you.

That in itself gave almost a personification to those in attendance the principles of mentoring and networking due to the fact that in essence getting a job was about selling yourself to the right people through passion and drive.

That motivational speech was just a smidgen of what went on at the conference, but it helped to correspond the lessons.

Shades Will Be Mandatory

The most important aspect of the experience was not lost on anyone at the conference, as everyone realized that all the principles were fruitless unless they were embarked upon.

They were.

Lucky enough to be there myself, relationships might have been forged that will not be forgotten.

As alluded to earlier, the people at the conference were from many different areas and from an assortment of cultures, but under the same umbrella over the three days people began to open up and network amongst each other.

Knowing that the future is now, these people made sure that they took full advantage of the opportunity placed before them.

For example, you had interns from here at the SoCon interacting daily with other interns from the Mid-American Conference to the Colonial Athletic Association to the Southland Conference to the Big Ten and also people from institutions such as Alabama, Wisconsin-Osh Kosh, Iowa, UNC Charlotte, Delaware, Eastern Michigan and Penn State.

Personally, John Hooper and I made contacts with other interns within our field of media relations almost effortlessly, relaying our experiences at the SoCon and listening to the way things are done via their office or school.

All of these people are skilled in their own way and have extremely bright futures ahead of them.

Now though, we have each other to help and depend on in the future, which will end up paying categorical dividends.

That was what the intern seminar was all about ? relationships.

Success

For the longest time heading into the event, my immediate boss and one of the people that I consider one of my mentors, Bryan McGowan, had been trying to explain to me that the seminar would be something that I would never forget because it would open my eyes to some things I had never thought about previously.

While I believed him obviously due to the respect he garners from me, I did not fully think it would be a life-altering experience.

It was.

The NCAA Conference Intern Seminar had some aspects in it that I already seen and some that I did not, but what it did do was allow me to see things from the perspective of many others.

There may not necessarily be a secret code for being successful, but there are many avenues on the road of life that one can take on the road.

Frosty Westering, former head football coach of Division III Pacific Lutheran University, put it best in his book “Make the Big Time Where You Are,” when he said our goal should not be to reach the end of the road like so many articulate, but rather stay on the “road to success” or “success road.”

Broken down, it is never the ends, always the means.

Joan Cronan, the Women’s Athletic Director at Tennessee and the keynote speaker at the intern seminar, gave her own take on this during her keynote speech ? “do not be afraid to say I did not know that.”

All of this is why in my mind, the “rules of engagement” for work in college athletics was fully construed vehemently over the course of the conference: be yourself, work hard, have pride and most importantly never stop learning.