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ENTRY ONE

Sport has been a passion of mine since I was a young tucker, I was always seen with a football in my hands or wearing some sort of sporting attire. I started Auskick when I was around three years old, and started playing U/9s at the ripe age of five years old, at St Pauls Junior Football Club, a club I’ve stuck with for just under 20 years now. 

I was fortunate enough to win a premiership in U/16s, and was also the captain for the last two years of my junior career. I’ve since moved to the senior club, where I made my seniors debut in 2017, at 18 years old.

After completing VCE in 2015, I was set on my plumbing apprenticeship, throughout year 12, I enjoyed the social aspect of school over the academic part, as for me, I didn’t really worry about an ATAR score, as I was moving into a trade. This took me to mid-July, 2017, where everything changed for me. I was playing football down at Skye, where me and bloke from the other team went just about head on with each other going for the football. Apart from the fact that I got poked in the eye and a cut around eye, I looked down at mt wrist and just saw it didn’t look right, walking over to the bench and saying to my coach “I think I’ve broken my wrist”.

It was later confirmed I had in fact broken my wrist in three places, dislocated it, tore my ligaments and tendons in half and off the bone. If you’re going to do an injury, may as well do it the right way. This therefore stopped me from working for six-months, where in that time I had three surgeries to repair my wrist, where I’ve now got two screws and two bone anchors in there to keep it together. In that six month of intense rehab to get full mobility back in my wrist, I really started thinking about my career, what I actually enjoyed doing in life and what was next for me.

I eventually went back to work January 2018, and I just wasn’t enjoying it anymore, I felt like I was back at the start again. Once it come around to June 2018, I quit my job and took a three-month break from everything and took that time to think about my next move.

It was Christmas Day, and I was talking to my cousin, about what he has been up to, and he spoke about that he had started a course at Holmesglen, it was in fact the Bachelor of Sports Media degree, and I was sounded pretty good from what he was saying, from that I went home and researched the course and ended up applying for it. I never thought I was going to return back to the classroom but well, it happened.

A quote which I am able to relate too, in regard to starting a new career path is, “the first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are”. 

I have a major interest in sport, I live and breathe it, it is the only thing I watch on the television. AFL is my number one sport; I’ve been a mad Collingwood FC member for over 20 years now and I love it. I’m a huge fan of the NBA and eventually I want to travel to the states to see a plethora of NBA games. The English Premier League is also a very big interest for me, I’ve been lucky enough to travel to England a handful of times, and been to some of the biggest stadiums in England. I’m also a big fan of watching the Darts, I went to the darts at Rod Laver Arena in 2019 and it was a grouse event. I also enjoy watching Boxing and MMA, and a few other sports which are a bit left field.

I’ve had a variety of different jobs, working at McDonalds was my first job, stuck around there for just over three years before moving into my apprenticeship. After stopping that I started my studies, while working two jobs on the side. A meat delivery driver at my mates’ butcher and am currently a retail runner across Melbourne Olympic Park Stadiums.  

I’m not really set on one job just yet, but I have an interest in a few fields. I like the digital content side, making content, editing photos and videos and uploading them. I’d like to dabble in AFL match calling or just talking on the radio, or even just to branch off and create my own brand and built it from the ground up.

From the first two years in the course, I have enjoyed some subjects more than others, I think in 2020 I really did struggle with the whole online concept, as I am a in person learner. I probably didn’t show up too many classes or I just left early, therefore my motivation dipped a fair chunk. Personally, I’m not a big fan of writing, assessments that are based around essays I don’t enjoy, and I don’t really give it my all, compared to assessments which involve making my own content, taking videos and going out and doing what an organisation would do.

I would definitely say my writing need to improve the most, back in high school I was a very good writer, but after being out of the system for a while I lost that edge. I’m hoping in this subject I am able to really knuckle down and clean up my overall profile, such as my LinkedIn profile to make it more professional and also make changes to my Resume and develop a cover letter that I am able to use for the future.

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ENTRY TWO

I have noticed the importance of both a resume and cover letter, instead of just piling on information, which may be worthless, it has come to my attention that it is much better to have shorter points, making them real specific and also putting the important stuff at the top, in relation for the job you’re going after. Going off my previous documents, it was relatively tidy and information were in their own sections, but it wasn’t really the information I needed. 

The cover letter and resume are what introduces you to a potential work colleague, you want to make it look as professional as possible, as this will reflect on what kind of person you are.  

It is important to try and make yourself stand out within your resume and cover letter, letting organisations know what you’re about and what you’re capable of doing.

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ENTRY THREE

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ENTRY FOUR

My preparation leading up to the interview with Janet was a complicated one. During our classes on a Thursday, we practised the interview process a number of different ways, to help us prepare for the interview. At first, in the practise interviews I was just saying stuff off the top of my head, but after that, I decided to write down my answers to questions, and would read over them to better prepare myself.

After doing it for a number of weeks, I decided to change up my answers slightly each week, to see what best suited me, and to also get the most information out about myself and what I’ve done in the course and outside. Unfortunately leading up to the interview process, I was concussed and this heavily impacted my preparation and also my performance in the interview.

I feel as though, if this didn’t happen, I would have had a much better preparation, I would have been able to get my answers down, and spoken about them exactly how I wanted to. The interview itself, I thought I did alright even though the circumstances. Personally, I thought I was well dressed, with a button up shirt, chinos and nice shoes but I was marked down as being ‘casually dressed’, which I didn’t understand.

For the first five minutes or so I thought I performed well, but the longer it went on, I was losing focus, and my head was starting to spin a lot due to my concussion symptoms still messing me around.    

There were a few questions where I stumbled through, as I did tend to forget a few things to talk about, including the VAFA work I did with the Beaumaris Football Club. I found it a bit difficult to answer a few questions without knowing the certain organisation I was having the interview with; I feel as though if at the start we just made up an organisation it would have made it easier to relate questions.  

Overall, I thought I did alright, room for improvement but that is all part of the learning process, and when it comes to the actual interviews I will hopefully be at full health and smash through them.

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ENTRY FIVE

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ENTRY SIX

Looking back at my interview, and the feedback I received, it does somewhat match up in certain areas. I did feel as though I had a positive start to the interview, with a strong opening, which was highlighted. The feedback highlighted that I need to speak a little slower, which I do completely agree with. I do tend to start speaking at a much quicker rate when I am talking for a long duration, making me potentially skip over certain information or making it hard for people to understand me. That will be a major thing for me to work on heading into the actual interviews, taking a breath and just slowing down a touch.

It was noted that when talking about getting into the media industry, I should have a story basically set up for me to talk about and be ready, instead of rambling on. This is something that I will certainly work on for the proper interviews. I need to articulate my words better instead of using words such as ‘stuff’, with a bit more preparation this will improve. When talking about leadership, I will bring further expand on why my football club chose me to be the captain, talking about that I am a dedicated worker, I want everyone around me to give it their best, and I am able to take control of players around the field, instructing and helping them on and off the field.

I felt as though my answer to the problem-solving question was well spoken about, I should have implemented the STAR technique to developed the story a little bit more. Going into more detail of the ins and outs of the deal, and how it could have worked in a positive and negative way for the social media page.

The point of difference question threw me off a little bit, I had to think for a moment in how I would stand out ahead of the rest of the pack. I forgot to mention the work I did with the VAFA club in the first two years of the course. This is where I would like to talk about that I am ready to move into an internship to gain more experiences and then going into the industry as a professional.

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ENTRY SEVEN

This subject has taught me lot and has opened up my eyes with how I should present documents such as my resume and cover letter, while also demonstrating ways to present myself to stand out ahead of the pack.

I’ve learnt that it is always key to speak in specific details about experiences that I’ve had with work and even just general life experiences. From where I started to where I am now, I feel like I’ve improved a lot more with my document presentation along with speaking about myself and my career profile. I feel a lot more comfortable with speaking about myself in an interview process and really giving detail about the question being asked to me.

Being able to develop cover letters and resumes for quite big organisation has significantly helped myself in that process of applying for a job, giving me certain tips and tricks to follow when putting it together.

The subject has really helped identify what to and what to avoid in the professional world, in regard to working in the industry. During the internships it is important to ask questions, as this is able to help benefit myself in the long run, and it also shows that I am keen as engaged in the program and workplace.

Overall, this subject certainly has given me the confidence to head into the world of sports media and utilise my skills and be confident in myself to apply for the desired jobs.