By Amy Do
Alexa Sandler graduated with a degree in Public Relations and Advertising and a minor in Communications and Media. She worked extensively in student media and her work experience includes Sports Photography, Email/SMS/Web Marketing, Data Analysis, and market research. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Alexa and discussing what it’s like to work in Sports Business, graduate during COVID, relocate for work, and navigate the job market.
Alexa answered my phone call the way she always answers anyone’s calls, with a bright voice and a warm greeting. She recently bought her first house and a dog named Edison with her girlfriend and was excited to share her story.
Alexa At DePaul
Although she ended up graduating from the PRAD program, Alexa came into DePaul as a film major. She said, “The film program brought me to DePaul… I initially started as a film major with a concentration in cinematography.” After a few quarters in the program, she decided to switch majors.
She says that the switch was more aligned with her interests. “I wanted something that was still creative, but more along the lines of a strategic thinking path. switched into PRAD (Public Relations and Advertising) with a minor in Comm and Media. It was a better, more engaging combination of the things I liked…strategic thinking, research, all the things that come together to create a media execution.”
As Alexa proceeded through her degree program, she started to gain experience through classwork, on campus jobs, and student media:
“I enjoyed my time in the PRAD program because it allowed me to do so many things,” she said. “I worked for the College of Communications as a digital content assistant, social media stuff, and did a video series fora bit that I hosted talking to alum and current students… the PRAD program is what got me into Robin Hoecker’s Sports Photojournalism class.” A combination of on campus employment and taking higher-level electives prepared her for the workforce.
Alexa also registered for a study abroad and went to France, the Netherlands, and Spain for 3 weeks learning about international advertising. She said, “(study abroad and the PRAD program) game me experiences that I’ll never forget and jump started me into the career that I’ve been in now… it makes me so nostalgic to think back.” Alexa’s experiences in college gave her an understanding of how to navigate unfamiliar environments and build marketable skills.
On the Court with Alexa
Sports photography for student media was a huge part of Alexa’s on campus experience.
Starting from her sophomore year at DePaul, Alexa was one of The DePaulia’s sports photographers. She got to go to the championship games with the women’s basketball team, and her photographs were showcased around campus in print and online. Her dynamic work won first place in the Sports Photo category for the 2019 ICPA Awards.
“I took a sports photojournalism class and it clicked,” Alexa said. “Although I’d done some of it (in high school), I didn’t know I could do something with it…The diversity in being able to capture different sports…ultimately became my biggest passion- once I started I didn’t stop. It was a really big part of my job (with the Daytona Dragons).”
Alexa continued to get press passes to games through student media and captured countless photos, some of which are showcased throughout this article. The equipment was all on loan from DePaul’s student equipment rental center. This allowed Alexa to develop a portfolio of professional quality work, and to gain technical knowledge of camera equipment and shooting in high stress environments. She also learned how to navigate court sidelines to get dynamic photographs and develop rapport with players.
Graduating + COVID Job Market
Alexa graduated into the pandemic job market. The sports industry was heavily impacted by the global spread of COVID-19. “Upon graduation I had really wanted to work in the sports industry…I had my heart set on wanting to work in sports.It was hard with no fans for a while, all that kind of stuff.”
Getting a job in the sports industry is notoriously difficult. It’s a highly competitive network-based field, and so having an award-winning portfolio of student work and industry connections through faculty helped put Alexa ahead. She said, “I had been told by people that you can’t get a job in sports without working in sports… (it was a) shot in the dark. I believe in myself and the experiences that I had and my photography… made me a valuable candidate.”
Alexa was able to leverage her degree and her portfolio to apply for openings across the country. She eventually secured a position a few states away in the Marketing department of a baseball team. “Fortunately…in May… I started working at a minor league baseball team in Dayton Ohio. That’s what brought me to Ohio, I landed a job there.”
She also said that relocating for work was a fun challenge. “Because of the crazy job market in 2021 I…wasn’t limiting myself to a location for my first job out of college…I’ve lived all over the place… I packed up the entire apartment in the back of a car, drove it back to my parents’ place in Michigan, and then drove to Dayton.”
Alexa said relocating felt like a fresh start, similar to the beginning of undergrad. “I moved to a state that I knew nobody, formed some great relationships with coworkers that did a lot to make a new place feel like home. If it’s something that excites you…a lot of people do the same thing for college, kind of the same mentality where you just start getting involved.”
Working in Sports
Alexa’s position at the Daytona Dragons gave her unlimited access to the team’s activities. “I did photography, social media, managing the website, app, and creative department. It was a great experience and I had a lot of fun.”
“My favorite part of the job was that access is unlimited. I could hang out in the stands, be in the clubhouse with the players… it’s a really unique experience to have that access and be like, ‘Hey, the team’s outside doing batting practice? Let me get out and grab some pics for social media.”
The sports industry is one of the few remaining fields where there are designated, full-time photographers as a mainstay of a team’s operation. “The team photographer role is still very important (in sports). For a large team, there can be nine to ten dedicated people who cover games, other events, player appearances, things like that.”
But after several months in the role, Alexa noticed a shift in her relationship to photography that impacted her outlook regarding her work.
Burnout and Pivoting
Alexa said that the constant production of content started to feel like pressure: “It was kind of the same thing as what I felt like in the film program at first- creative burnout. It got to the point where I was struggling to write captions for social media posts… I didn’t think I had the creativity any more.”
After struggling with burnout, Alexa decided to leave her role and pivot away from the sports industry. She now works in marketing.
During the pivot, she said that she went back to her degree program to pull work samples and industry knowledge. She said, “I used a lot of my experience to tie back in on the advertising strength that I really had. I went back to thinking about things in classes, pulled a lot of that experience in. Marketing is still a creative field…all the skills were really transferrable.”
Alexa looks back on her time at her previous job fondly, and reflects on how turning her passion into her full time job might have taken a toll on her creativity. “In college, (sports photography) was just my passion. I was doing it for the love of it, and then it became the biggest part of my job…I wasn’t doing it on my own terms.”
Alexa celebrates the freedom to explore that she felt in undergrad. “With the DePaulia I got to do it at my own time and my own pace, if I had to miss a game it was no harm no foul, they had someone else to cover it. When it’s the primary task for your job, it drives the need to execute all the time. It was a dream come true for a bit for sure…you grow, things evolve over time, and it’s not necessarily a good or bad thing- it’s just something that happens.”
Advice
Alexa’s advice to those looking to go into the sports industry or any creative field is to take reality checks with a grain of salt. She said, “People are gonna say you have to have this, this, and this to get (a job in the industry)… and that might have been their experience but that’s not everybody’s experience. My advice would be to not give up on yourself- that’s really hard (during the) interview process.”
Alexa encourages people who want to enter competitive industries to remain optimistic and be their own cheerleader. “Keep chasing what you want. The moment you give up on yourself is the moment that everybody else is gonna give up on you.”
She also encourages building community and finding people to lean on to normalize the struggle of job searching and postgrad life. “I can’t tell you how important talking to people and hearing stories is to make you aware that there’s tons of different paths and journeys to get where you are…most importantly just don’t give up.”
Connect with Alexa on Linkedin for an informational interview! Don’t know what that is? Come in for a career coaching session with Amy or another member of our advising staff.
A huge thank you to Alexa Sandler for donating her time, energy, and wisdom to this article! The DePaul Career Center is proud to showcase her story and other alumni’s career journeys through the Hire DePaul Blog. Here are some more articles that you might enjoy:
- https://hiredepaul.org/2023/01/18/the-journey-to-ux-design-an-insiders-perspective-with-shelby-robinson-and-elena-seo/
- https://hiredepaul.org/2022/12/29/a-conversation-with-andy-rosenberg-of-shortcuts-editing/
- https://hiredepaul.org/2023/08/08/portfolio-advice-and-insights-from-creative-circles-taylor-dunlap/