(This is a guest article by Mark Washo)

I host a weekly online Sports Management chat as an Adjunct Professor for Sports Management Worldwide where I’m able to invite guest speakers from within the sports industry to participate. Over the past few months the students have learned from executives at many top teams, companies and agencies.

I also have been on the sports conference circuit in the past year, participating in numerous sports business panels. Whether I am sitting on a panel or facilitating chats, I hear the same reoccurring advice about how to break into the sports industry. Here are some tips from recent calls to help give sports job seekers a head start.

1.  Network, network, network- build your pro sports Rolodex

• One of the most important things you can do when trying to break into sports, is to build your Rolodex of professional sports contacts.  Learfield’s Mary Lee Gilliland comments “Job seekers should seek out events and opportunities to meet as many sports executives and people working in the industry as they can. The first place sports executives look when they have open positions, is within their own network.  I receive dozens of e-mails a year from my friends in the business asking me if I know of candidates that would be qualified for their open positions.”