There were hundreds of hopefuls that wanted to win the Xfinity Ultimate Sports Social Media job, but in the end, there could only be one winner. Meet Austin Schindel, the new “Xfinity Sports Guy“.
Austin, who hails from Washington D.C., is the founder and editor-in-chief of his own sports blog and has worked in the media departments of both the Washington Redskins and Nationals.
In his new role, Austin will be reporting via the @XFINITYSports Twitter account behind the scenes at some of the biggest sporting events in the world.
I had the opportunity to speak with Austin recently where we discussed:
- Some of the highlights in the first month of his new role as the Xfinity Sports Guy
- What his initial reaction was when he heard the news that he had won the contest
- Why he believes his past sports internship experience helped him land his dream job in sports
- What he believes helped him ultimately stand out above the crowd and win the contest
- Austin also tells us about the Ultimate Sports Pad package that he is receiving and what he is most looking forward to receiving
- And finally……Austin offers advice to other that want to work in sports
Video Interview Transcript
Trevor Turnbull: Hey everyone it’s Trevor Turnbull here from Sports Networker and I’m joined via Skype right now by Austin Schindel. Austin is I guess you would say formally known as Austin, now known as the Xfinity sports guy. He is the winner of the ultimate sports social media contest. Welcome.
Austin Schindel: Thank you very much.
Yeah. Really looking forward to chatting with you about this. Obviously you’re working a job that I’m sure everybody that follows our Web site would love to have. Before we get into your background and everything else first of all tell us how has this first month has been for you.
The first month has been really incredible. I’ve always said that I wish I could go to the NFL Draft one of these days. Not only did I get to go the NFL Draft I got to go behind the scenes and meet all of the top 10 picks. It’s just been a little bit of a whirlwind, learning a ton in the first couple of weeks. When you dive yourself in there you see everything with branding and there’s just so much to learn every single day in the sports world and I’ve really been fortunate so far to be able to learn on the job.
No kidding. What was your first reaction when you found out that you won? We posted an article on this in I think late January and the application process was right through to the end of March so there was almost a couple on months there where you were jockeying for position and trying to win the role so when you first heard about it what was your reaction.
When I first heard about it I was actually at my current internship right now. I was in an office and it was very quiet and I get this call and I’m trying to prevent myself from exploding in the office. Only one other person in the office knew that I was in it so they looked at me and said “did you win? did you win?” and I was like yeah, yeah. It was really incredible. The first thing I thought was I made it, which was incredible because I had wanted to work in sports, I had a couple of internships but I always planned on entering college with my first job being in sports but I didn’t understand what magnitude I’d be working in it. It took a while to realize that I had really just gone above and beyond what I thought was even possible right out of college.
No doubt. So let’s talk about your background then. What brought you to this point? What’s your background school and your previous work experience.
I’m actually an international affairs major at George Washington University. I have never taken a sports class in my life but I have been inundated with sports since I was five years old. I own every single Topps baseball card since 1990, I woke up every morning and didn’t watch cartoons I watched SportsCenter.
As I went to college I started down one path and then I started working for the Washington Nationals as a summer intern and I worked for the Washington Redskins as a gameday social media intern. Those two internships were really important for me because what they said to me afterward was even though at the time some people don’t think those kind of internships are valuable I realized I was no longer afraid of the athletes, I understood the arenas.
Those were my two big internships and from there I also wrote for BleacherReport.com, I was an intern there. Then I was lucky enough to be hired as a featured columnist, I worked there for about a year and a half before this contest came about. That’s really my foundation of where I really started in sports.
So do you feel that background and experience of working the internships and then ultimately writing for a sports business nation helped you get this job in what way do you think?
I think I did help me because, like I said, when you’re at these internships and you think all you’re doing is handing out these papers or doing this little things. When you’re on the field you realize you learn a lot. You learn little things but you don’t think about them until later on.
When I went to Doral Golf Course for the finals and I’m standing next to Tiger and I’m standing next to Rory McIlroy I was like I’m here for a job. These guys have their job, I’m here for my job, I’m here for a reason. I think that was really important.
With Bleacher Report I was constantly researching, nonstop. They give you a topic; one article that I had to do was the top 100 players that will never make the Hall Of Fame. When I got that I was like how am I going to find 100 players. So I did it like a Bill-Simmons-style pyramid of the top 100 players. That took me I think three days straight of just sitting at my computer and going through baseball reference and all of those different things and just continuously learning.
Yeah. So tell us so far along the way what’s been the highlight. You obviously mentioned standing next to Tiger Woods; you’ve done some pretty cool stuff so far. You’ve been at the NFL Draft, you mentioned you were at the Opening Day for the Philadelphia Phillies. What’s been the highlight so far on the trip.
One of the highlights was definitely going on the stage at Radio City and taking a picture behind the podium and looking out; that was extraordinary.
I went to the MLB Fan Cave and I actually got to meet Penn Jillette; he’s awesome. All of those Fan Cave guys and girls are really cool, they have a great job there.
Also NFL headquarters was incredible because every single floor is themed something different. When you go up to like the fan room they just have pictures of fans on the wall. They have Fireman Ed and I’m a huge Jets fan so that was really cool. I’ve gotten the opportunity to see a lot of things that the people who work there see as commonplace but the fan that gets to go there it’s just incredible.
So in this role then, obviously Xfinity was thinking we have to put somebody who has their finger on the pulse, a true fan, into these places to give the behind the scenes. Throughout the experience what’s been your perspective on how social media has impacted sports from a fan perspective, an advertising perspective.
I guess what I’m saying is why do you think they hired you to represent the brand?
I had a very active Twitter before. I didn’t have a ton of followers.
A stat that we saw recently was 83% of people are on social media during games and 63% are using it. You can just see that the transformation is incredible. I’m at the NFL Draft and you can see people take pictures and tweeting them out and you realize that it’s becoming such an interactive experience that even if you’re sitting at home by yourself you can still talk to people who are genuine sports fans that have the same interests as you. I find that extremely interesting. I’ve learned that so quickly here that while I’m trying to engage the fans and find out where the interest lies you see that people are willing to talk and they’re willing to respond.
I’m not really interested in how high my follower count is or how many people I’m following, I know some people like to keep theirs low. I love having a ton of followers because then I know what they’re saying and I just love responding to them.
So throughout this whole experience then what are you actually managing? You’re managing the Xfinity sports Twitter account. Is there anything else?
Yeah I’m managing the Xfinity sports Twitter account on a daily basis. I am doing some blogging, a little bit of writing where we’re not really sure where it’s going to have a home yet. I’m taking a lot of pictures that we’re starting to make photo blogs for and we’re in creation for that. We’re really trying to expand how we show everything that we’ve been doing. Right now it’s primarily tweeting.
I understand too that Xfinity has given you a pretty wicked home package. You have all kinds of stuff like TVs. Maybe tell everybody about all of things that you’re getting from Xfinity.
Yeah Xfinity is really hooking me up. They’re trying to create the ultimate sports pad. I’m going to be having a 3D TV, iPad, several different televisions. Actually those Xfinity couches that you see on TV, I believe I will be getting one of those and that’s actually what I’m most looking forward to and that’s the most unique item that I think I’ll own.
They’re really giving me every way that a social media sports fan can be interacted and watch several things at once and be able to comment. That’s really all about putting the “dream job” in the title.
Yeah. So how long is this internship? How long do you actually work with Xfinity and what are some of the other things that you have coming up over the next few months?
This is a full-time job. It’s a year contract that started about a month ago. It runs through the year and we’ll see what happens.
Going forward I might be going to a UFC fight in Fairfax, hopefully going to Manny Pacquiao’s fight against Timothy Bradley June 9. Like I always said if they want to send me to the Olympics; I’m not going to say no but I don’t really know exactly how feasible that is. There’s tons of things; we have great partners at MLB Network and NBA Network and those kinds of things so who knows. Maybe I’ll wind up going to the NBA Draft, maybe a couple of baseball games this summer. We just have such great network partners that I think we’ll be able to eventually get to different arenas.
I guess that’s part of the fun isn’t it. It’s exciting you never know where you’re going to end up. There’s obviously a lot of sporting events that a person could end up at. It should be a fun year for you.
Is there anybody in particular, obviously you don’t know exactly where you’re going to be, is there anybody in particular in the sports industry that you’d like to be able to interview or talk to during this whole process.
I’ve always loved Rich Eisen from NFL Network. I think he’d be really cool; he’s really interesting. There’s Peter Gammons from MLB Network; he’s also a huge star. There’s so many great personalities, Mike Mayock from NFL Network.
I’ve really been fortunate so far with who I’ve been able to meet and just been able to sit down and talk to some of the people who not only are great with the game but study the game, know it and are able to have such great Twitter followings; I think those people would be great to interview.
Yeah and you get to learn from them along the way right? I think that’s probably one of the best parts about this experience is you’re going to get. The contacts that you’re going to make and the learning process along the way.
Again, we started this interview with there’s a ton of people that would want your job and there’s a lot of people watching this and thinking what can I do right now, what’s the first step I can take to go and follow in your path. What would that advice be that you would give to those people?
First I would say take every opportunity that comes to you. There’s no bad opportunity. Even if you’re working for a minor league baseball team, if you take that opportunity and run with it and do it extremely well and make contacts and learn the game and learn the ins and outs of just the business you’re going to be better off.
Two I would say you have to relax a little bit. I got lucky. With how I started with all my internships I had some friends who said I know someone who knows someone, I know you love sports. Just be proactive.
Always keep your Twitter and Facebook clean. I think that’s something that you don’t think about while you’re tweeting but people look at you’re Twitter if they’re going to hire you, that’s the new thing.
You have to work so hard. There is some sacrifice that comes along with it; I was writing some Bleacher Report articles late at night when I had school work to do when I didn’t really want to be doing it. It works for any industry but especially sports because there’s so many different things you can do. Learn what is out there, go for it.
The hardest thing is investing in yourself and trusting yourself that you’re going to be able to go into this internship and outshine five or ten other guys and girls. Trust yourself; if you know sports and you know you’re going to work for the Nationals learn everything about the players, learn everything about your bosses because it’s all out there.
Yeah. Great advice. Obviously we advocate that here on Sports Networker as well. You spoke to this; your first impression is essentially what you’re putting out there online. Your Twitter account, your LinkedIn profile, it’s really important to keep that up-to-date.
Austin thanks very much for doing this, we really appreciate it. Wish you nothing but the best going forward. It’s going to be an exciting year, we’ll no doubt be tweeting back and forth throughout the whole season and best of luck to you.
Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
