Issue 13: What Networking Actually Gave Me

The advice to network is everywhere, and I understand why it can start to feel like noise. It is the kind of guidance that gets repeated so often it loses some of its weight. But I want to talk about it anyway, because in my own career, it has mattered more than almost anything else I could point to, and I think the reason it works does not always get said clearly enough.

I figured out I wanted to work in sports PR during my junior year of college. I switched my major to communications and started doing the one thing that felt accessible to me at the time, which was reaching out to people on LinkedIn. I would find someone in a role I hoped to have one day and ask for fifteen minutes of their time. I did this constantly. Some people did not respond. Plenty did. And almost every one of those conversations taught me something I did not know I needed, whether it was about a specific part of the industry, a path into a role, or simply how someone else thought about their own career. I learned early that you can always learn something from someone, no matter where you are in your career or where they are in theirs.

What I did not fully expect is how directly that habit would shape my career. Every major position I have held, going back to my earliest internships through the full-time roles that followed, came through networking and reaching out to people directly. Not through a cold application that happened to land. Through a conversation that started because I asked someone for their time and their perspective, and a relationship grew from there.

I also work remotely, and that has shaped how I think about this. I do not get the in-person energy that comes from being in an office every day, the kind of exchange that happens just from being around people while they work. I have had to be intentional about building that for myself, and reaching out to people across the industry is how I do it. I do not only talk to people in the exact role I am in. I reach out to people across different parts of sports PR, and sometimes outside of sports entirely, because everyone brings something different, and you genuinely do not know in advance what conversation is going to matter most.

The way I think about building a network is not transactional. It is not about collecting contacts in case you need something later. It is about being willing to show up for people, professionally and otherwise, without needing to know exactly what comes back or when. Sometimes that means something comes back to you directly. Sometimes it means you were simply useful to someone else’s path, which is its own kind of worthwhile. Community in this industry, and in any industry, tends to work better when people approach it that way.

I know how difficult the job market is right now, especially for anyone trying to break into sports PR with the limited number of positions being posted. If there is one thing I would say to someone in that position, it is to keep applying, keep building your knowledge of the industry, and also keep reaching out to people. Talk to people doing the work you want to do. Ask questions. Stay curious about parts of the industry you are not in yet. It will not replace the applications, but it adds something a posted job listing cannot, which is a real understanding of how people in this field actually think and work.

I recently told someone at the end of a call that I meant it when I said to stay in touch, and I did. I have also been on the other side of that exact sentence, where someone said it to me and I reached out afterward and did not hear back for a while. I do not think that takes away from the sincerity of either moment. People are busy, timing does not always line up, and most of the time it has nothing to do with whether the offer was genuine. I try to hold onto that perspective, because the people who do follow through, and there are a lot of them, are the reason this approach has worked as well as it has for me.

No matter where you are in your career, there are always people around you, ahead of you, and behind you who are part of the same broader effort. Being there for them, in whatever way you can, tends to come back around in ways you would not have predicted.

You can also read this issue and subscribe to Built in Public on LinkedIn: Built in Public

Built in Public is a newsletter where Amani Marie documents her growth as a young sports public relations professional in real time. It focuses on what she is learning, what she is observing across the industry, and the people and work that stand out.

Some issues will examine moments in sports and how they are communicated. Others will reflect on career development, access, and what it takes to build in this space over time.

This is intended to be a space for learning, sharing perspective, and tracking progress along the way.

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