5-Step guide to getting a job in pro baseball

Step 3: Expand Your Personal Network

Gaining experience by working a game day staff job and joining professional organizations also allow you to do one of the most important things necessary to get a job in baseball: expanding your personal network.

Not only is networking the most important thing you need to do to get a job in professional baseball, but you should be actively expanding your own personal network before you actually need to. If you haven’t made any relationships in the game prior to actively searching for a job, you’re already a step behind the competition. Furthermore, when job seekers decide to ramp up the networking because you are actively searching for career opportunities, many often present a less genuine personality, which can give a negative impression to decision-makers.

That said, you don’t necessarily need to become best friends with a Minor League general manager. Networking and developing a life-long friendship are two completely different things.

As Malcolm Gladwell notes in his fascinating 2000 book The Tipping Point, acquaintances are very powerful, and especially when it comes to getting a new job. Gladwell references a classic study conducted by Mark Granovetter that found more than half of people get a job through social connections – but not the close connection you might expect:

"“People weren’t getting their jobs through their friends. They were getting them through their acquaintances. Why is this? Granovetter argues that it is because when it comes to finding out about new jobs — or, for that matter, new information, or new ideas — “weak ties” are always more important than strong ties. Your friends, after all, occupy the same world that you do. They might work with you, or live near you, and go to the same churches, schools, or parties. How much, then, would they know that you wouldn’t know? Your acquaintances, on the other hand, by definition occupy a very different world than you. They are much more likely to know something that you don’t. To capture this apparent paradox, Granovetter coined a marvelous phrase: the strength of weak ties. Acquaintances, in short, represent a source of social power, and the more acquaintances you have the more powerful you are.”"

For example, I have a friend that is a Class-A radio broadcaster that got his foot in the door because of an acquaintance he made at broadcasting camp. Seriously. The opportunity came about because one of the team’s two full-time broadcasters suffered a nervous breakdown, which through a wild chain reaction, ended with a bad car accident and jail time. With a chair open, the No. 2 broadcaster earned a promotion, and was asked to help find a new No. 2. He put in a call to my friend, and asked “how soon can you get here?”

Of course, my friend had prepared himself to make the jump. He spent countless hours watching games in his bedroom with the sound turned off, practicing his commentary and recording it to review later. He also worked as a broadcaster for local college basketball games to stay in shape and build his demo tape.

There are many ways to expand your personal network. Social networking has made it easier than ever, and Facebook, Twitter and especially LinkedIn are tremendous resources. But, nothing beats good, old-fashioned face-to-face interaction over a couple of beers, which is what makes the Baseball Winter Meetings a potential gold mine for those aspiring to work – and work up the ladder – in professional baseball.

Next: Attend the Baseball Winter Meetings