So, you want to work in baseball?

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So, you want to find a job in minor league baseball at the Winter Meetings? That’s how I did it and it was probably one of the top five experiences of my life.

December 2004, I got on a plane and flew to Anaheim for the PBEO Job Fair. PBEO stands for Professional Baseball Employment Opportunities (www.pbeo.com). PBEO is the official employment service of minor league baseball. PBEO was established to provide an employment service to minor league and major league baseball clubs. When a club needs an employee, it can contact PBEO to review all resumes from the current databank of registrants.

Resumes are a form of job marketing tool that present candidates before recruiters, portraying their job essential details like the educational qualifications, experience and other important skill sets. Resumes create an impression on recruiters even before the candidate actually meets them. What better way could there be to portray ourselves to someone in a way we want? You can use resumes as a way to make the recruiters look at you as the perfect candidate for the job.

The way you create your resume has direct consequences on your overall chances to grab an invitation for an interview. There are only two possibilities, either your resume will package you in a winning way or you will be sacked. A good resume writing advice: give proper attention to the template when the resume writing is being done. There are many significances of a good template.

The template of the resume which is actually the outline or the structure of the resume decides the positioning of every element of the resume. If this positioning is clear and clean with an equal weightage given to every element, it appears that there is a flow in the format and so the resume appears attractive. Such a resume neither looks like a piece of art which shows that you were keen about the outline of the resume rather than the content nor does it appear as an essay.

An attractive resume templates makes it more powerful. Just as dressing smartly helps a candidate in an interview, good formatting does the same for a resume. Looks do matter at all places, in the real world and on paper. When you present yourself well, you get noticed. Similarly, when you present a good resume, it will be noticed; otherwise, it would be very easily find a bin to rest in.

When you register for PBEO (annual fee of $50) you submit a resume and fill out a questionnaire to determine what positions you have interest in, what locations in North America you wish to work and other categories. As a member, you also receive a newsletter every month, emails notifying you of available positions and other information.

 

So, you are a member of PBEO and you go to the Job Fair. What should you expect? First, you should expect to see hundreds of other people looking or jobs. Expect to see college graduates, people with twenty years of experience and everything in between. Expect to meet job hunters who you have no chance of being hired and people who will have five job offers before you have an interview.

The day before the actual Job Fair, you attend the Business of Baseball Workshop. For me, the value of this was tremendous. During this seminar, you get to meet representatives from a handful of teams, listen to their advice and suggestions, spend quality time with them and even speak with them regarding positions. During my session, I met General Managers of three teams and owners of two others. They gave us background about work in minor league baseball, what to expect in the job fair and hints on how to survive. During this seminar, I met about a dozen people in the same boat as I was. We hung out, talked and found that we all had a common goal, getting hired.

One thing you learn in the Job Fair is the importance of networking. Meeting people and being able to talk to them to learn and share information is half of the battle.

So, the day that the Job Fair begins is a big one. There are three different rooms that you need to know. Room #1 is the Job Posting Room. Room #2 is the Interview Posting Room. Room #3 is the Interview Room. There are different other areas but these are the ones that you need to concentrate on.

As the Job Fair begins, you are sitting with a folder full of your resumes. There are certain things that you need to have on your resume. You receive that information ahead of time. At the appointed hour, the first sets of job postings go up on the wall. All job postings have a number of the posting. You, and every other job searcher, enter this room and read every posting. You read about the team, the position, the description, the salary and everything else you need to know about the job. At the top of the posting is a number. As you go through the postings, you keep very good records of which postings you want to apply for, making a list of numbers. After you go through the room of postings, leave the room and find a quiet spot and get out your resumes. You submit one resume for each posting that you want to apply for.

Then the waiting starts. From this point forward, you repeatedly check the Interview Posting Room to see who wants to interview you. During this time, you check the Job Postings again. You talk to other job searchers and if you are lucky, members of front offices. This is the time that meeting people at the Business of Baseball Seminar helps. Instead of sitting alone, you are with a group. You get to hang out, talk about different postings, learn about their experiences and make friends. This waiting can be very stressful.

During the Job Fair new postings show up all the time. You are continually walking into the Job Posting Room looking for new postings and submitting your resume. If you are a lucky one, you see your name on the requested interview list and you get to pick a time for your interview. If you do not know anything about the team you are interviewing with, do research. Bring a laptop and look at their website. Research their front office personnel. Every bit of research will prepare you as you walk into the Interview Room, find what table the team is sitting at and have your interview. When I interviewed, I met with as little as one person to as many as nine.

You wait more. You can spend hours waiting for someone to call your cell phone to talk with you, or never hear from anyone at all. You know that you came to the Job Fair to be hired. You did everything you could do for that to happen. You prepared your resume. You dressed very well (remember, these are interviews). You nailed the resume and now you wait. If you got an offer, consider yourself lucky and enjoy the career in baseball. If not, do not give up. People get hired after the fair and PBEO is always posting new jobs.

I was lucky. I got hired two weeks later. I interviewed with about six teams when I applied for fifty jobs. There were people I met who were hired in their first interview and some that were never hired. I know this is cliché, but the most important thing is that you tried.

One last thing, there is always great opportunities to mingle at the bars at the hotels. But, watch how much you drink. People may remember you for being outgoing and having a good personality. But, people will always remember that drunken idiot who was on the bar.

Good job searching!