You want to advance in your career? You must pursue it! You must attack it! You must have an action plan! Everyone wants to advance in their career, so you must set yourself apart. How can you do that properly?
Securing an interview can be difficult. In the business of basketball today, in order to advance in your career the individual must learn to successfully navigate the game of networking, social media, and technology. You must learn how to professionally package yourself so that you can be multi-dimensional. You must be able to promote yourself without being a “Self-promoter”.
First and foremost an interview is a two-way street. The candidate is being interviewed by the employer at the same time the employer is being interviewed by the candidate. As the candidate you should have a series of questions (10-12) that you are prepared to ask of the employer.
Researching becomes a very important part of your action plan. With the easy access to information via the internet today, it is imperative that you learn as much about the position you are interviewing for, the head coach you are going to work for and the university you are going to work at as possible.
This information can and should help you make an intelligent non emotional decision after you have interviewed and have been offered the job.
Some of the strategies that can be used to help you secure the interview and help you prepare for the interview are:
* Read the head coaches biography on the university’s website to learn his background.
* Learn who is in the coaches “circle of influence”. Try to make a connection to your “circle of influence”.
* Research if the head coach has written any articles or lectured to gain understanding of their thinking.
* Do a statistical analysis of their teams for the last 4 years to determine what stats are important to the success of their program.
* Prepare a scouting report of their team to learn more about their system. This also shows you can effectively prepare a scouting report.
* Anticipate questions
* Practice your answers
* Dress the part
* Look at tape of the team
* Learn as much as you can about the culture of the program.
* Learn the dynamics of the staff and they roles they play.
There is so much more that you can do to best prepare yourself for the interview. Once again, the interview should be a dialogue. It is about “seizing the moment” and more importantly being prepared for “the moment”, so that you can be “special in the moment”.
