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Assuming that you’ve read
Part I, now it’s
time to get our hands dirty in the application process. We’re going to
assume that you’ve done pretty well in class, became a student member of
the NSCA, and even
attended a conference or two. Hopefully, your undergrad program requires
that you complete an internship in the field before you graduate. In order
to graduate, I had to complete a 100-hour on-campus practicum, a 100-hour
off-campus internship, and another 450-hour internship. This was awesome
because it really threw you into the fire while you were still raw (100
hours). By the time you completed your big one (450 hours), you had some
real life experience to rest on. Because the last one is usually our last
semester of college, it sets us up to get a full-time job or a graduate
assistantship.
So where do we begin? Let’s start with the
internship search. You have to ask yourself what you want. Assuming you
want to be a strength and conditioning coach, ask yourself the following
questions.
- What setting do you want to work in? Division I?
II? III? High school level? Private? Commercial?
- Do you want to stay close to home?
- What teams are you looking to work with? Football
only? Basketball? Female sports?
- Will you have enough money to support yourself if
you’re not getting paid?
- Are you willing to go wherever there’s an open
spot?
Once you get past these issues, you can begin to
look for locations that accommodate your needs. However, your “optimal”
environment may not be exactly that. Shoot for the best, but always expect
the worst.
1) Research your internship.
Talk to your professors and coaches about internship
possibilities. Log onto
ncaa.org and look for internship postings. Become a member of the NSCA
and browse through the listings. Get on the
cscca.org website
(Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association) and look
through their internship opportunities. There’s plenty out there,
especially towards the end of each semester. There’s no excuse for not
being able to find one. Remember, many schools will take free work.
And when you do find one, don’t apply for an
internship just because it’s in sunny California, near the beach, or you
know someone there. That’s an absolute insult to the staff. If you want to
work or volunteer somewhere, make sure you know the following:
- Program philosophy: What does the staff
believe in? Inflated numbers or injury prevention? Big egos or perfect
form?
- Staff members: Who are they? What
experiences do they bring to the weight room? Did any of them publish
any articles? Write a book? I can’t believe when people get a great
internship and don’t even realize the head coach wrote a book on the
type of training he/she believes in. Do yourself a favor and read the
book. That way you’re prepared on what it’s going to be like.
- Type of training: Olympic lifting based?
Powerlifting? High intensity? Or a hybrid of all three?
- Intern program: Is there a formal one?
Will you have to do presentations and projects? Are you going to learn
anything? Or will you spend an entire semester making shakes and
mopping?
- Expectations: Is it paid? Are you working
nights and weekends from dawn to dusk? Time off? What type of
responsibilities will you have? What do they expect you to do?
The biggest thing you can do is talk to people who
have already worked there. I strongly encourage the use of your school’s
network when starting off. If your school has sent kids to certain
schools, see if you can get in touch with them to get the real scoop.
However, I can’t stress enough—break away from your network and start your
own.
Charles Staley once said something along the lines
of, “If something isn’t working, ask yourself what the opposite behavior
is.” It’s the “do the opposite” principle. Applied to training, if
something isn’t working, do something else. When it comes to networking,
it’s time to travel the road less taken and build something for yourself
and even your school.
Two of my internships were at places that my school
has never placed anyone before. I didn’t want to be the kid stuck in the
same network for the rest of my life. I wanted to get an internship based
on my qualifications, not because “we knew someone there.” Hopefully, I
did a good enough job to keep the connections that I made, especially
since they were on the other side of the country. Be a pioneer. Do your
own thing. Establish yourself! It will only benefit you in the long run.
2) Professionalize yourself.
This is an easy one, but yet we still don’t get it.
Go through the following checklist to make sure you don’t lose a spot for
not being professional.
- Is your email address appropriate? Or is it
something like I_chug_mad_beers69@email.com? Take the time to create a
professional email address like your first initial and last name.
Simple. Effective. Professional.
- What’s your voicemail sound like? “Yo, this is
‘…’. Leave a message…peace.” Considering this will probably be the first
impression a coach will get from you, make sure it’s professional.
Switch to the pre-recorded messages or record your own. If you’re doing
your own, record who they’ve reached, apologize for not taking the call,
and ask for a name, number, and brief message. Again, something simple.
But how many of us have stupid voicemails. Oh yeah, I really hate the
ones that make you think they picked up the phone and you start talking
to them only to find out it’s a message. Don’t do that. Thanks.
- How about your Facebook or MySpace profile?
Everyone can get on the internet and google your name to find out about
you. It just happened to me. Thank God the first ten hits were all
football related. Do you have to get rid of those internet profiles? No.
Just make sure you fix your privacy settings and set them to “profile
viewable to friends only.” Ever read about the high percentages of
employers checking these social utilities to get dirt on their
applicants? Unfortunately, it happens. No longer are these things for
college kids. Faculty members, corporate employees, and anybody with a
network uses them. Lesson—get rid of the naked keg stand photos.
- Don’t recognize the number on your caller id? Let
your voicemail get it. I made the mistake of picking up my phone while I
was with my buddies in the cafeteria and answered the phone like, “Yeah,
this is him. Who wants to know?” Turns out, it was the head coach of a
school I applied for an internship with. Great start, eh? He wanted to
set a date for an interview. I knew after that I had to really sell
myself in order to get my foot in the door. You may never get a second
chance. Start off on the right path.
- How’s your body language? If you met someone in
person, did you shake his/her hand? Or did you just slip them a wet
noodle? What about your eye contact? Eyes down when meeting or speaking
with someone is a sign of low confidence and an even lower level of
professionalism. Grasp the hand firmly and shake it. Look them in the
eyes and let them know it was a pleasure to meet them. Make yourself
standout!
- Follow the golden rule. This is the first thing
you need to get a hold on. The 24-hour rule can be considered the golden
rule of communication. Simply put, if anyone gets a hold of you whether
it be through email, a voice message, or even a missed call, you MUST
get back to them within 24 hours. Now, you don’t have to give a
dissertation on the answering machine. If you’re pressed for time, just
reply back, let them know you got their message, and you will get back
to them with more detail as soon as possible. If a coach takes time out
of his/her busy day to call you about a position, the least you can do
is get back to them within 24 hours to let them know you’re serious
about the matter.
After you establish contact, you can set up a time
or place to interview. Don’t expect to get an internship if you waited two
weeks to return a message. You think you’re the only one that applied for
the position? Please. If it’s a big time program and the position was
listed on the internet, you’re now just one of the crumbled scraps of
paper sitting in the wastebasket. And yet people still wonder why they
don’t hear anything back…
3) Prepare for the interview.
Once you’ve found an internship and sent your stuff
out, hopefully you will get a call back. Don’t feel discouraged if you
don’t. Many papers come in and sometimes things get overlooked. Remember
first impressions though. If that resume you sent in had a misspelled word
or missed comma, it probably went into the trash. No questions asked. If
you can’t take the time to pay attention to detail on one piece of paper,
how can a staff trust you with a group of championship caliber athletes to
train? These little things always add up.
Now it’s time to sell yourself. Just because you
look good on paper doesn’t mean you can coach, nor does it mean that you
know what you’re talking about. Most hiring occurs right after the phone
interview. It gives the coach the opportunity to find out more about you
and to see if you’re the real deal or not.
Here are a couple tips to help you out:
- Research the school. Know the history, who or
what the mascot is, where the nickname came from, and any recent
athletic achievements. Know everything you can about the school. Were
they Bowl champions? Do you want to be part of a winning tradition? Or
do you want to help turn a program around?
- Make sure you have goals! They will ask you what
your short-term goals are (get the internship, find a graduate assistant
position, learn as much as possible, try different types of training,
etc.) as well as your long-term ones (become a head strength coach or
top assistant, get your master’s degree, run your own facility, etc.).
- Know your strengths but really know your
weaknesses. Everyone has strengths, but who is comfortable enough
admitting their faults? Do you have much experience? Have you only
worked with football? Have you worked with female athletes? Many times
you can take you weaknesses and turn them into strengths such as caring
so much about your athlete’s performance. I know I’m unable to continue
my day in a great mood if my guys missed their final reps, got hurt, or
aren’t performing to their full potential. Is that a bad thing?
Certainly not. I think Dave Tate said we only have weaknesses when we
fail to address what we’re not good at. Make your weaknesses your new
strengths. Try to minimize the losses and maximize the gains.
- Show them what you can bring to the table. Do you
have experience with nutrition? Working with MMA fighters? Were you a
college athlete? What separates you from the rest of the people applying
for this position? Why should they hire you? What will you do for them?
- Have a “philosophy” or know what you believe in.
I had a coach tell me he doesn’t believe in having a philosophy because
it’s something you only believe in for a certain time and it could very
well change. Well, if you believed in one philosophy at one time, how
come you don’t believe in it anymore? Another former coach of mine
explained that he had a “methodology” instead of a philosophy because
it’s based on science, not belief. I thought that was a great twist.
- Just have a clue as to what you believe in. Keep
it simple. Olympic lifts for power or dynamic box squats? Or both? Full
body training or split? Remember the importance of single leg movements,
torso training, injury prevention, exercise form and technique, and
developing fast and powerful athletes. What will give us the most bang
for the buck? Everyone wants to follow the path of water—the path of
least resistance. What can we do to give us the most results with the
least amount of work? What do you believe in? If you had a program, what
are your program principles?
- Understand the basic good/bad ways of handling
issues. They may put you in a scenario of program design or dealing with
staff issues. These are the “What would you do if…” questions. You will
get these. Always act in the best interest of being a professional. Make
sure you cover yourself on every corner.
Hopefully, you made it this far and killed your
phone interview. You’re now on the right path to setting up your future as
a strength and conditioning professional. Now what do you do when you show
up? In my next article, I’ll show you how to make the most out of your
internship, whether it’s the best opportunity of your life or simply not
what you expected.
Adam Feit received his B.S. in Exercise
Science with high honors from Springfield College (MA) in 2006. He has
completed strength and conditioning internships at Springfield College,
University of Connecticut, US Olympic Training Center-San Diego, and
Arizona State University. After only a year as a GA Strength Coach at The
Citadel, he is now a full-time Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach
for a Division I Big East football team. He can be reached at aefeit@gmail.com.
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