College Experiences That Helped A Senior Director, Ticketing And Experience At Premier Lacrosse League Succeed
To prepare for a successful career, Danny recommends seeking diverse work experiences throughout college, emphasizing "accountability and reporting," even in entry-level roles to shorten the learning curve in future positions. The process of accumulating experiences, learning from various mentors, and developing their own unique management style by synthesizing "the good and bad" from past experiences proved invaluable to their career trajectory.
Career Development, Project Management, Leadership, Mentorship, Accountability
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Danny Passovoy
Sr. Director, Ticketing & Experience
Premier Lacrosse League
University of Arizona
N/A
Creative Writing, Journalism
Sports & Fitness
Sales and Client Management
None Applicable
Video Highlights
1. Seek diverse work experiences throughout college to build accountability and ownership skills.
2. Identify mentors and leaders who can guide your professional development and learn from their management styles.
3. Extract positive lessons even from negative experiences, understanding that every role offers valuable learning opportunities and contributes to shaping your own management style.
Transcript
Here's the cleaned transcript:
Q12: College ideas for success
What did you do in your undergrad to set yourself up for success in your career? I tried to have some sort of job every semester to start getting familiar with what a working environment looks like. This means understanding what it means to have responsibility in different areas and ownership over certain projects.
Having that level of accountability, reporting to someone, and being expected to deliver things on specific times and ensure they are right, is crucial. The more you can experience that type of environment, the better prepared you will be. It's different than school because in work, you either do it or you don't, and it's either good or it's not.
For us, the more structure people have when they come to the PLL, the better. If they've been held to goals before, had responsibility, and managed projects, even at the lowest level, it's still helpful experience. This will make the learning curve less steep when you finally get into a role you're passionate about.
As much experience as you can get, try to find mentors or bosses invested in you, who want to help develop and teach you. Not everyone will be perfect. Some situations will prove the opposite of what you expect, but there are still learnings to be gained.
I think about this a lot, especially when I became a manager for the first time. I reflected on the managers I had during internships and with the Diamondbacks. You take the good and the bad from all of them and mesh it together to create your own style.
There isn't one definitive roadmap for management. You have to create it yourself by taking all your experiences and determining who you are and how you want to interact with people. This includes what you look for when hiring and how you treat people.
So, I'd say get as much experience as you can. Find leaders you respect who believe in you and want to teach you. In any job or internship, there's something to learn, always a silver lining. Even if it's just learning to work through tough environments, that in itself is a really good skill to have.
Advizer Personal Links