Will blog for Experience: Brandon

Friday, March 9th

Morning! It was an early rise for me in Chi-town. I was up at 7 to get ready for breakfast with my home town New Jersey Nets. I was very excited to get the chance to sit down with the organization and meet them on a more personal level. There were about 20 different candidates from all over. Brett, Todd, and Kim from the Nets were very nice and I got a real great feel for the working environment that I could possibly be entering and the future for the soon to be Brooklyn Nets. The potential here is amazing and I look forward to getting even closer to this team.
After breakfast, we entered the job fair. There were booths all over the place with willing teams to meet their future employees. I quickly hit some of my favorites such as Seattle, Minnesota, Cleveland, Chicago, and so on. I spent hours trying to reveal myself as a genuine person and opened up to a lot of teams. After the very long morning, we broke for lunch. I had the honor to dine with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Bryant, Jane x2, and Ryan from the team were down to earth and answered questions from the 6 candidates that were selected. These candidates were very friendly and I started thinking of them and my future co-workers and got to know them on a personal level. After a great lunch I hit the job fair floor again. I was soon intercepted by NBA TV and they sat me down and interviewed me. It has been a while since I was interviewed to be on television. The last time was back in high school after a basketball game. As soon as I finished, I went to Phoenix. They were one of the more popular teams of the fair as well as the most successful ticket sales teams. I met with a great gentleman named Mike. In the middle of our conversation, I see a microphone pop in front of our faces. The next thing I knew the NBA TV crew followed me over and we were on camera. Mike and I were very surprised but continued our convo like they weren’t there.
After Phoenix, I went back to Indiana to meet with their crew again. I got chatting with a bunch of the guys when I was asked the question, “Do you have plans for the night?” Of course I didn’t; I was in Chicago and I didn’t know many people and the job fair ended at 5. “Come with us to the Big Ten Tournament.” My face dropped. I thought the job fair was bad timing with all the basketball tournaments on TV, but now I got the chance to go see it live with a great organization and try to get to know them a little more. I continued to work the fair when Mike from Phoenix approached me and invited me to a pub to watch the Suns vs Hornets. I had two great options to do tonight, so I asked myself “why not do both?”
5 O’clock came around and I was exhausted! I had about a half an hour to go to my room, relax, change, and meet Indiana. The half hour flew by and I was down in the lobby to find out that we were taking a stretch hummer limo to the game. This could not have gotten any better! We arrived halfway through the Michigan State vs Wisconsin game. During the game, I got to talk a lot with Dionna Smith who was a job fair candidate last year. I asked her a lot of questions about her experience, why she chose the Indiana Pacers, etc. It was nice to get to relate to a person who was in my shoes recently. We watched the end of that game and the beginning of the Illinois vs Indiana University Hoosiers. The games live are much better in person than on television. We left the arena after a lot of fun with tons of information exchanged.
I returned to the hotel around 9:30 and took a taxi over to the Phoenix social. They had a special back room reserved for them with big screen TV, food, and drinks. I meet with amazing people such as Drew, Nick, and Jeff. It was nice to sit down with them and find out about their organization and let them know a little about myself. I spent a good 2 hours there before fatigue really kicked in and I needed to find out who I had interviews with. After grabbing a taxi back, I sprinted downstairs to where the interviews were posted. I quickly started seeing my name all over the board. I had a total of eight interviews for tomorrow. Yes 8! Starting from 8:30 till 3:30 straight, I would be meeting with team representatives of Minnesota, Indiana, New Jersey, Chicago, Portland, Cleveland, Golden State, and Phoenix. With the big day ahead, I decided that I needed a good night’s rest so hit the pillows quick.