Aaron Rodriguez
September 28,2020
Internship
Analysis Paper
Cohort
21S
The
Los Angeles Rams have a commitment to community outreach and look to build on
their charitable legacy in Los Angeles. I have been able to understand these
efforts firsthand while working with their community relations department as a
50/50 raffle ticket seller. Through their program of 50/50 raffle ticket
selling as well as other fundraising activities the Los Angeles Rams have been
able to better the community through investments in education, regional food
banks and encouragement of voter registration. Their efforts in the community
are also felt within their team which was shown while I worked with them by
providing meals for our team. This was an incredibly kind gesture that I
appreciated as I thought that this would be a place where we would just clock
in and clock out. I found the team to
provide a competitive yet supportive environment that lives up to their
mission. They always make our efforts
feel like a team effort as we always huddle before a game and have our chant
of: “Whose House, Rams House”. This is another small gesture which is impactful
as we feel as though we are a part of the team and bigger mission of the
organization. The days I was out selling tickets and may be getting a lot of
rejection in the beginning or may not have stellar numbers it is good to know
that there is a bigger mission at hand. Knowing that we are supporting our
community of Los Angles and our Rams community is supporting us is something
that I find comforting and helpful in providing an excellent effort. Their
commitment is not only to reach out to a community but to build a community. We
can develop a community not only with the team but also with the fans. While
working there I was able to build relationships with fans who bought from me
every time. I didn’t really stop by to sell tickets, I more stopped by to
interact with them and have fun to hype them up for the games. Selling the
tickets was simply a byproduct of having fun with the fans.
While
working there I saw that this community of the Rams organization had a typical
administrative structure. As you got lower and lower down the organization the
number of employees increased. A small nuance to this was that there was some
cross-department interaction which developed a more complex administrative
structure. I was only able to observe three levels of this structure firsthand
but through some research I was able to learn about the cross-department
interaction. The three levels I was able had the first level being the sellers
which was the largest group and managed by two others who were the Raffle
Ticket Coordinator and Community Affairs Intern who was then managed by the
Community Affairs and Player Engagement Manager. Through some research I was
able to learn that other departments such as operations and partnerships are
involved with the community affairs department to better assist their efforts.
Through the COVID-19 pandemic this has evolved this relationship by further
intertwining different departments. For example, the community relations
department worked with the partnerships department for their “Game Faces for
Good” campaign to reach fans and get them to buy carboard cutouts to help the
Los Angeles community from the proceeds of these purchases. In the future I
predict that this interconnectivity will continue to grow, and more departments
will work closer together. Given that everyone must use various technological
platforms to communicate this has made it easier than ever to work together
because of the lack of need to be in one physical location as well as the
reduction in travel to and from meetings. This provides more time to work and
an ease to communicating with others thus giving the ability of different
departments to work together. I would suggest that they continue to work with
other departments and find new departments to work with. This will not only
make work better by bringing in many different perspectives but will also
develop a stronger community within the organization as they are all working to
achieve a common goal.
My
routine duties in the organization was to generate sales, maintain an accurate
count of sales and utilize a point of sale system. First, was generating sales.
I was able to generate sales by developing relationships with fans. On the
first day I did not look at developing relationships and simply looked at just
trying to get the sale. I had not performed how I expected and was able to
improve when I changed my tactics and developed relationships with people. Once
I started doing that sales came. I was also able to learn where the best spots
to sell where and at what times I should move from one area to another. Talking
to people and developing relationships became my strength. Through this I was
also able to find out my weakness, which is that I don’t know how to end
conversations well. I found myself on multiple occasions that I was interacting
with a fan who went on talking about themselves or the game which in the moment
made me lose sight of my goal of a sale. Some occasions ultimately ended up in sales
while others didn’t. I am still working on a strategy to end conversations that
are going on too long without being rude. Overall, I think I did well and was
able to grow quickly to learn the system and different tactics for success. I
think although I did lose sight of goals at times everyone who I interacted
with did have a good experience by the time we had stopped talking to each
other.
This
internship has helped significantly in my personal and professional growth.
This was my first job in the sports industry, and I was able to understand how
the culture of a sports organization is. Everyone is hyperconnected to the
industry and talk about what is going on all the time. Coming into this I was
more focused on getting things done and achieving goals. I was able to find
that those things are important but developing relationships with others and
being able to talk about what is going on around us is just as important to
having the knowledge to be able to do my job. This also developed skills of
talking to people I don’t know and develop relationships form that. I am now
more confident in striking up conversations with new people at work and finding
common things we can talk about every time that we meet. My coursework has been
a great tool to my growth in the industry as I have been able to have more
things to talk to people about and provide insight during conversations based
on case studies and talk about new ideas based on different projects worked on
through the program. I found that in positions that I worked in that required
specific skills or had a more selective process I had positive experiences such
as the Los Angeles Rams, Rose Bowl and my current role at SoFi Stadium.
However, roles that were less selective such as CSC where places where I didn’t
have a positive experience. It was tough for me to work with people who didn’t
care about their work and were just looking to collect a paycheck. Despite
this, I did try and understand why they were thinking this way and I came out
of that experience with a better understanding of different employees.
Coursework
as well as internships have expanded my professional goals as I have learned
more about different industries in sports while learning about different
departments through internships. The internships really showed me how
interconnected everything is to have a successful event. While coursework
allowed me to explore different industries through projects while case studies
introduced me to many different situations that others have faced which
prepares me for similar situations and provides a reference for future
dilemmas. Overall, my professional goals are still the same, but I am
continuing to explore more avenues for future endeavors once I have
accomplished those goals.
I
believe that my agency supervisors were effective at their jobs. They allowed
us to explore different strategies for success and gave us a framework to
provide structure to our ideas. The Los Angeles Rams provided a lot of
enthusiasm and provided great incentives for us to strive more and work harder.
It made me want to learn more about the organization which I was able to do
through informational interviews with others in the organization. Through
coursework I was able to better prepare myself for these interviews and gain
insight into the organizations and the future and challenges that they are
facing. Everyone around the organization seems very excited about graduate
school students and are very willing to share information of their experiences
with others. I believe the Rams organization is a great place for future
students to learn due to their supportive environment and enthusiasm for
graduate students. This enjoinment combined with the access to those in
leadership positions allows future students to be able to learn a lot about the
team, league and sports industry.