I traveled back to Vienna from Germany on Saturday and spent the rest of the weekend recovering. It was an intense but also very interesting showcase week. Today I had to catch up on many things from the daily business, especially emails and messages I had to answer.
At this point, I want to take this opportunity to wrap up my mentorship. However, it is by no means a conclusion for me, but just the beginning at Scholarbook. I will continue to be an integral part of the Soccer Team. I have grown a lot in the short time I have been here and have made great strides. I have improved a lot in communicating with customers and their parents and have gained confidence accordingly. My studies helped me indirectly because my time in the U.S. is very important for my job as an athlete manager. The content of my MBA program has not been a big part of it yet, as I currently have a position in the agency where other qualities are required. With increasing responsibility, my new expertise in sponsorship and organization will certainly help me. In addition, I will soon be a Master of Business Administration. This title will also help me in the future. Since we also have many employees in the U.S. or from other parts of the world, our company language is English. My time in Tiffin has helped me a lot to improve the English language. Communication with Susanne went without a hitch. Especially in the early days, I asked her for help very often. The longer I worked independently, the better I got. That's why Susanne is also very satisfied with my performance so far. I can recommend this experience to every student. Work experience is the key to a successful career after graduation, so every student should gain as much experience during their studies as possible!
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Today was the last official showcase day. Today is a little more relaxed for me than the days before because today was the Womens Soccer Showcase day. Why has the day been calmer for me? The other two days I had some soccer players from my team with me. I spent a lot of time talking to my guys. Both before the showcase and after the games. Especially after the games, we talked a lot as I gave feedback. These tasks fell away for me today, so I didn't have to follow the games closely and was even able to take care of daily business in the office for a bit.
Because it was the last showcase day, we had to leave the site today and clear everything away and load it into the cars after the games. Therefore we still had a lot to do. Niklas took the opportunity to have a short follow up talk with us. There were not so many topics open, because we have already talked in detail on Wednesday in our meeting. All in all, the showcase was a lot of fun. It was really exhausting in parts but the stress was definitely worth it. In addition, we worked significantly more hours than we normally do. For this reason, every participating employee gets an extra day of vacation when they are at the Showcase. The Showcase has definitely been the highlight so far during my time at Scholarbook. I am very happy that I made this step and I am very satisfied with my job. Today was different from the other days so far. Today there was no Showcase, the next and last Showcase day is tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day for Womens Soccer. This day off was used by our team to take care of the Daily Business as much as possible. Nevertheless, after breakfast we all went to the soccer field where we set up our office and worked there with our laptops. Here I again had the opportunity to ask my colleagues personally if I still needed help in some areas. Since we never actually sit together in an office, we had a lot of fun together.
After lunch, Niklas, the Director of Soccer called a meeting and talked to us about how the showcase was going so far. He was very pleased and also asked us all for feedback. Since I am new to this, Niklas asked me personally what suggestions I had for improvement since I have a different view of the showcase than the others. I shared my points on how to improve the showcase. Fortunately, I was prepared for this as I had already thought about how we could do things differently. I already realize how important this showcase was for me and how important direct communication with colleagues is. It is a big challenge to communicate permanently only virtually with your colleagues and your athletes. Scholarbook trusts the employees in the home office, but it is also very helpful to exchange ideas in person. My supervisor Susanne will not attend the Showcase. I will meet Susanne for the first time in person at our annual meeting in August in Cologne. Day two of the showcase started about the same as the first. We were at the soccer field very early again and made some last preparations. Since the showcase went very well so far, we tried to build on yesterday's performance. I greeted my soccer players again and had good conversations. We got a precise schedule from our project manager, which all the other staff members follow. We also communicate with walkie talkies to give each other instructions or ask for support. That also worked very well on this day.
The level at the showcase was really very good, which pleased us all. During the games I was again responsible for the live stream and took notes on my soccer players. When the games were over I talked to the guys from my team again. These talks are mainly about today's performance and how the chances are for a good scholarship in the USA. This is a very sensitive topic, so you have to talk sensitively with the soccer players. Under no circumstances should you give them false hope. We have a guideline for these talks that we can follow. But it's up to each athlete manager to decide how he wants to communicate with his boys. I found the right way for me. I imagined how I would have liked my athlete manager to talk to me at the time. So far, all the guys have absolutely accepted that. Other topics during these talks are the next steps in the placement process. Every soccer player is somewhere different in this process, so you have to adapt to the client's personal situation. The day ended the same as yesterday, we went back to the hotel after dinner and watched soccer together. Today the showcase really started. This day was the turn of the first group of men. Our day started at 8am, we drove from the hotel to the soccer field and made final arrangements. I helped set up the cameras to record the games and set up the photo station. Then the first group of players arrived. I took the opportunity to talk to the guys from my team.
My tasks today were first to welcome and assign the players. Then I took care of the photo station. After all the photos were taken, I went to the soccer field. I followed the live stream during the games and indicated player changes and goal scorers. Unfortunately, there are no coaches on site for this showcase, as the current Corona situation did not make this possible. Therefore, we have provided a live stream so that as many coaches as possible can participate virtually in the Showcase. The distribution of tasks worked well and we had a lot of fun working. It was a hot summer day, so the Showcase took a lot of energy from the participants. After the games, each Athlete Manager talked to his guys individually and gave direct feedback on the performance. Therefore, we all had to follow the games very closely in order to be able to give constructive criticism. After the talks with the soccer players were over, there was still an open Q&A with our experts. Afterwards, all participants made their way home. We still had to make preparations for tomorrow and had a lot to do. Since it starts again in the morning tomorrow, all things had to be done today. In the evening we ate together again and then went to the hotel. I was on the soccer field all day and am accordingly tired. The first showcase day is over. I arrived at the airport in the morning and went straight to our hotel. There I met most of the team and we had lunch together. It was very nice to talk to everyone in person, we got along very well. Most of the people in our Soccer Department were Student Athletes themselves and had the same experience as I did.
In the afternoon we went to the soccer field and prepared everything for the next days. We set up everything that we will need for the next days. From Tuesday to Friday there will be a lot of soccer players here, so we will hardly have time to take care of organizational things. Therefore, we have done as much as possible today. Finally, the Director of Soccer Niklas held a meeting with us where he presented us a power point presentation on how the next days should ideally go. Niklas is responsible for the entire soccer department, both Mens Soccer and women's soccer. Niklas has been with the agency for several years and has a lot of responsibility. His word is always the last word, so I also see him as my boss. Niklas is a very pleasant person, he was also a student athlete himself at Wisconsin. In the evening, we had dinner together at the soccer field and then went to our hotel. All in all, it was a very exhausting and long day for me. However, I had a lot of fun with the team. Now I am very tired and go to bed as soon as possible, good night! Today was the last day before I will not work for a few days. I had some administrative things to do today. I also had some calls again today. I put together a handover for my colleague who will be filling in for me next week. In this Word document I have summarized all the important issues that are coming up in the next week.
Afterwards, I spoke with my supervisor and talked about my progress. I received feedback that was very positive. I was pleased that it was noticed within the agency that I try very hard and fill this position very seriously. My goal was to deliver positive results as soon as possible, because the first impression is very important, I have made this experience in the past. I have now achieved this first goal. Also, I booked the flights to Germany today with our project manager, for me it already starts on Monday 07/05/21. I will spend the whole week in Germany and try to present myself as good as possible. I enjoy the work so far, but it is still my goal in the future to spend most of my time on the soccer field. During the showcase I will have exactly this opportunity. I will spend a lot of time on the soccer field and will try to bring my expertise in soccer to the table. I am also very excited to finally meet many colleagues in person, as this will make future collaboration a lot easier. Today I took a closer look at the tests to be taken, the SAT and the TOEFL test. Two very important elements for our soccer players, because without these tests you usually can't get into an American college. Therefore, it is also important that the Athlete Manager is well versed in this subject. I also had an eligibility call today. In this call, very important eligibility topics were discussed. Every athlete has an individual career. Therefore, it is very important that all Athlete Managers know for which colleges the athlete qualifies. To do that, we have to look closely at all the data and have transcripts evaluated on a regular basis. I myself was only NCAA Division 2 eligible at the time because of my situation. So I have prior knowledge of this as well, which was useful for me.
In the afternoon, our virtual team meeting took place. The Showcase was once again the main focus. A few days earlier, some of my colleagues created a health concept for the Showcase that aligned with the current Covid rules. This concept was presented today and still worked on in the group. After the team meeting, I worked with 3 other colleagues to divide up the teams for the showcase. We assigned all participants to teams, and we had to make sure that there was a balance between the teams. It was not an easy task, because we had to pay attention to many factors. There were a lot of soccer players signed up, so this was the most time-consuming part today. Today started with very good news for me, which I was very happy about. The family with the junior college offer decided to accept it. So he is the first athlete who will go to the USA with my support. I am very happy that it worked out so quickly. The coach and the soccer player got along very well and the coach was able to convince the boy of his project. The start of the semester is already in August, so there are a few things that still need to be sorted out. I went straight to work and tried to figure out what tasks were left for me to do now. After making a list for myself, I contacted the Admission Office of the junior college and introduced myself as the Athlete Manager of the young soccer player. The admission criteria for this college were not very strict, so there is not much to do for now. The soccer player has already taken all the tests and has already started sending all the important documents to the college.
Afterwards, I had a few more conversations with guys from my team, and parents were also there. In the meantime, I need considerably less time to prepare for the calls. I notice progress day by day. Tomorrow we have a virtual team meeting where the showcase will be in focus again. I have the next week off, because I have a lot to do this summer with soccer, university and internship. That's why I try to finish all open topics this week. The week after my vacation the showcase already starts. For that I will travel to Germany. I am really looking forward to it! Over the weekend, I got two more soccer players to join my team. Today I had the initial interviews with both of them, one by one. Parents were there again and we had a very good exchange. In the meantime, I also have my routine for the Zoom Calls and benefit from my time as a Junior Client Advisor at an advertising agency here in Austria. I also notice progress in all other areas, so I am currently very happy with my performance. I will talk to my supervisor about my progress at the end of the week. I am already looking forward to the first feedback, but I still have some questions I want to ask Susanne. Especially the beginning at Scholarbook was full of information, so I couldn't remember everything.
I also watched some highlight videos of my soccer players today and evaluated them. I took notes and would like to make suggestions to all my guys soon on how to improve their video. Video is an essential part of the placement process, so our expertise in this area is very useful to our clients. I took note of the strengths and the weaknesses of the videos and offered solutions to improve them. In this area, we as Athelte Managers can merely assist and have no influence on the video footage collected. It is the responsibility of the footballer to collect enough footage. Our task here is to point out the importance of the highlight video and to evaluate and then revise the collected material. My own video back then was very elaborately made, so I also show it to the guys in my team so they have a comparison to their own video. |