In my 21 years on earth, I’ve come to realize a few vital things about life. While I would love to sit here and tell you about, among other things, how I’m convinced that everything tastes better with ranch dressing, I’ll spare you and discuss the one thing that has directly led to my internship experience with Octagon this summer: networking.

As I’m sure is the case with every industry these days, I’ve come to realize that networking is a vital aspect to those hoping to break into their industries of choice and to separate themselves from the masses of people who recently crossed the stage with that diploma.

Unfortunately, for those hoping to make their living in sports, the need for networking becomes that much more vital in an industry that routinely sees hundreds, if not thousands, of applicants for one position.

The Sports industry is notoriously difficult to break into because not only is it considered “glamorous” work, but there is little turnover in what is a relatively small industry. As a result, in order to stand out from hundreds of other resumes, you often need to know someone.

To give you an example of how daunting a task this can be, a Sr. VP of the Pittsburgh Penguins spoke at one of my classes this spring, and he mentioned that when one of their entry level jobs opened up, the 5 finalists chosen out of over 1,000 all had some connection to the team.

If that doesn’t make you cringe, then I don’t know what does, but that certainly opened up my eyes to the importance of networking, networking, and of course more networking.

The interesting thing about connections in sports is that they don’t stop after you break into the industry. Like I mentioned before, sports is a relatively small field, and as a result, many people either know each other or have close connections to others across many different teams and leagues.

This sort of connection lends itself well to recommendations and the option to explore new opportunities when the time is right.

To give you one of those classic small-world stories, the first day of my internship my boss asked me what other companies I had interviewed with for internships. After discussing a certain opportunity with an NFL team, I came to realize that the person who had interviewed me was his former intern when he worked for that very team.

Stories like that are not at all uncommon in the industry, and it shows how small the industry is in comparison to some other fields.

To give you a final piece of perspective on the importance of connections, I’m going to share with you a story from a guest speaker that came and spoke to the group of interns today.

The guest speaker used to handle the marketing for some major NBA players, and his boss was considered to be one of the elite agents in the game. When his boss got an offer to join the agency that recently signed the number one picks in the NFL, MLB, and NBA drafts, he asked him to come with him. This example shows the importance of networking, which stretches far beyond merely breaking into the industry. It can make your entire career.

In two weeks I will post another blog entry discussing how I used networking to my advantage and just how valuable LinkedIn can be.