Mary Southern's article, "You Spent 20 Years Building a Career. They Rejected You for It," highlights a reality many experienced professionals face: years of experience alone are not always enough if employers cannot quickly connect that experience to the specific problems they need solved.
The article challenges the assumption that more years automatically create more opportunities. Instead, it emphasizes the importance of positioning, clarity, and effectively communicating value.
That message aligns closely with many of the themes I strive to address through this blog.
The Connection
One of the recurring themes throughout this blog is that experience alone does not create opportunity—impact does.
Whether the topic is career advancement, convention networking, resume development, leadership, or personal growth, the underlying message remains the same:
Don't just tell people what you did. Show them the difference you made.
In athletic communications, it is easy to build a resume that lists responsibilities:
Managed social media
Wrote game recaps
Oversaw statistics
Coordinated media relations
But hiring managers are increasingly looking for outcomes:
Increased social media engagement by 45%
Generated record livestream viewership
Created sponsorship opportunities that produced new revenue
Expanded student worker programs that improved content production
That distinction is something I have explored repeatedly through articles such as Turning Experience into Resume Impact, More Than Content Creator, and my convention-focused career development series.
From an Athletic Communications Perspective
Many veteran athletic communicators encounter a challenge similar to the one Southern describes.
After 15 or 20 years in the profession, they have:
Covered thousands of events
Managed countless social media campaigns
Built meaningful relationships across campus
Led staffs, interns, and student workers
Yet many struggle to articulate how those experiences created value for their institutions.
The danger is that experience begins to look like tenure rather than impact.
For athletic communications professionals, the question is no longer:
"How long have you done this?"
The question is:
"What changed because you were there?"
That is a question I regularly encourage readers to answer.
Why This Matters
The audience for SIDAssistant includes job seekers, emerging professionals, and experienced leaders—many of whom work in sports communications and collegiate athletics.
They are navigating a profession where:
Artificial intelligence is changing workflows.
Content expectations continue to increase.
Revenue generation is becoming part of external relations responsibilities.
Hiring managers expect measurable outcomes.
Southern's article serves as a valuable reminder that careers are not simply collections of responsibilities. They are collections of results.
Final Takeaway
The lesson for athletic communicators is not to downplay experience.
The lesson is to translate experience into evidence.
Twenty years of experience should not be the headline.
The headline should be:
"Here is the impact those twenty years created."
That idea fits naturally alongside my mission: helping professionals become better equipped for their personal and professional endeavors.
Experience may open the door, but clarity, positioning, and demonstrated impact help keep it open.
For athletic communicators pursuing their next opportunity, the question is not how many years appear on the résumé.
The question is whether the résumé clearly communicates why those years mattered.
As always, I welcome your feedback. If this article resonates with you—or if you've experienced a similar challenge in your own career journey—I would enjoy hearing your perspective. The conversations that emerge from these reflections often provide as much value as the articles themselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment