In this episode of Career Compass, hosts Ledia Dobi and Kevin Abbed are joined by Ryan Becker, HR Manager for Major League Baseball’s Washington Nationals, taking listeners through his journey that began supporting local sports teams to today, serving in a leadership role for a major sports franchise. Along the way, he offers advice and insights for emerging professionals who may be looking to make a career change, as well as overall tips for professional development and expanding your career.
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Kevin:
Welcome back to season four of Career Compass, a podcast from SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management, and the SHRM Foundation. Career Compass prepares the future leaders today for better workplaces tomorrow.
Lydia:
As the voice of all things work, SHRM supports students and emerging professionals with advice, information and resources for every step of your career.
Kevin:
Designed for the student or emerging professional, Career Compass delivers timely, relevant and critical conversations about work to help you succeed in your career journey. Thank you for joining us for this episode. My name is Kevin Abbott and I will be your co-host.
Lydia:
And my name is Lydia Dobe, and I will also be your co-host. During this episode, we will explore HR within the sports and entertainment world with special guests, Ryan Becker, who works for our local MLB team, the 2019 world series champions, Washington Nationals. Also, just so you know, this episode is valid for professional development credit, or PDCs for the SHRM CP or SHRM SCP. We will provide the code later in the episode. And with that, let's get started. Kevin, I had a great time at Nationals Park earlier this season and we are going to talk with Ryan in just a bit about some of the highlights of working for a sports team. But as a fan who grew up in this area, what was it like for you when the Nats won the world series in 2019?
Kevin:
Wow. Honestly, I don't want to over exaggerate, but life changing would probably be the way I described it. Living in DC for all my life it was just the classic DC thing to make it into the playoffs and then fall short in dramatic fashion and having the opportunity for I as well, I'm a huge baseball fan and getting the opportunity to go to the wild card game and getting the opportunity to go to a couple playoff games, it meant the world to me. My dad and I spend a lot of our time watching baseball have since I was a kid. So it was a very large part of my life. But Lydia, for you, as someone who's becoming more familiar with pro sports, what are you most looking forward to in today's conversation?
Lydia:
I really am appreciating the opportunity to dive into the culture, the history and this new arena that I've really never been familiar with growing up. So I'm just excited to see how human resources interacts with all of that on the scene.
Kevin:
Yeah, that's great. You know me, I watch a lot of sports. So really doesn't matter if there's a ball involved, I'm probably watching it. So it's going to be interesting to look at it from more of the behind the scenes. So let's not wait any further in speaking with today's guest, Ryan Becker is currently the human resources manager for the Washington Nationals. In this role, he leads the organization's talent acquisition efforts. He has an MS in sport and recreation leadership, as well as a BBA in management from James Madison University. We're extremely excited about today's conversation, and with that, Career Compass would like to warmly welcome Ryan Becker.
Ryan:
Thank you so much for the invitation. It's my pleasure to be here and join you all and share some thoughts and stories and insights.
Kevin:
Awesome. Well, let's just jump right on into it. So Ryan, we want to get to know you a little bit better. So I'll start with this question. Prior to working with the Nationals you worked with a local soccer club and you were also a program director for the YMCA. It's obvious you clearly have a passion for sports and empowering the youth, so tell us about your devotion to youth sports organizations and how those roles prepared you for the world of professional athletics?
Ryan:
Yeah, that's a great question. I think, to be honest, my involvement with the youth soccer club and then ultimately working at the YMCA was really just, personally, I've had an interest in sports and working with youth and youth development through sport. And I just found those opportunities interesting to me so I jumped at the opportunities when they became available. And I think, to be honest, working for these smaller organizations gave me a lot of in depth, hands on experience that I may not have gotten right away when I was trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to do in my career if I was somewhere larger. So I think working for those smaller nonprofit organizations really gave me, like I said, a lot of in depth, hands on experience that kind of helped guide where I wanted to take next steps in my career.
Lydia:
Wonderful. So there are a lot of people listening to this podcast who are transitioning jobs or possibly career fields. You have a BBA and an MS in sports and recreational leadership from JMU. Can you tell us how you transitioned into an HR career? What was that transition like and what advice can you provide to our audience who might be in the midst of career transitions or reentering the workforce?
Ryan:
Sure. Yeah. So I really, when I started out and I was kind of working my way through college at JMU, I didn't know exactly where I wanted to go in my career. And so I studied business management just because I felt like that was sort of a more broad topic and had some different areas where I could go with that. I knew I wanted to do something in business. I knew I enjoyed working with people and interacting with all different types of people. And so I started with business management and figured I would kind of go from there. And then I have always been involved with sports and playing sports growing up and following sports. I was born and raised in the DC area and have been a fan of the Nationals and other DC sports teams all the way through, like we kind of talked a little bit about earlier. And so with that, I didn't really think too much about it, but just sort of fell into working in business, working in sports and kind of combining those two interests and those two passions.
And so with those early steps in my career with working in youth soccer and then working with the YMCA, like you mentioned, I think a piece of what I had done was human resources related. So I was working more in kind of the general business operations and a small part of what I was doing was the HR piece, whether it was recruiting volunteers or training employees, or whatever it may be. That was a small piece of what I was doing in addition to some of the marketing or the operations. But I found really through those experiences, that HR was what I wanted to focus on. So I didn't necessarily actively go into it knowing, I want to start a career in HR. I sort of started somewhere else and then realized that was the piece of what I was doing that really stood out to me the most. And I realized that I wanted to make that really my full-time focus.
Lydia:
Right. I definitely think that a lot of our listeners can empathize with that situation. They're in the midst of query transitions, or maybe they're just emerging into the HR field. Have you found that your previous background in business is still useful to you now in your HR career and how do those two elements tie together?
Ryan:
Yeah, absolutely. I think with my background in a variety of different areas of business, I think it's been helpful for me. My primary focus now is in talent acquisition so I work a lot with different areas of the business and hiring managers from different departments. And so I can bring a little bit of experience and a little bit of understanding, definitely not to their level of expertise, but at least to have a little bit of that baseline knowledge, to be able to have some of those conversations and get a little bit of an understanding of what they're kind of looking for when they're trying to fill roles for their teams as well.
Lydia:
For sure. That's very important.
Kevin:
I actually have to know. I've always wondered this, especially working for talent acquisition for a major sports franchise, when you're telling people what you do, how often do people ask if you're hiring players and general managers and and pitching coaches?
Ryan:
It honestly happens a lot. And that's typically one of the first things that people will say, and they're like, oh, that's awesome. You get to hire the players and all that. Trust me, they don't let me anywhere near any of those decisions. I wish I had the knowledge to do that, but yeah, absolutely. Nowhere close to that.
Kevin:
We talked a little bit pre-show about you starting your job with the Nats just as COVID was beginning back in 2020. At that time, there was obviously a lot of uncertainty, some of which we still feel today. In your role, how did you address some of those unknown circumstances and situations?
Ryan:
Yeah. I think that was a tough time for myself for joining a new organization and obviously the rest of the country and the world as well. And it was something that we haven't really experienced before so there was so much uncertainty. And I think, for me, it all helped being surrounded by a great team because we had a great team here in HR at the Nationals. And so I was new to the organization, but I was able to kind of lean on them and rely on them to provide some help and some guidance. And I was able to build some really great relationships with people, not only in the HR team that I'm on, but across the organization as a whole. And so I think the first step was recognizing that there was so much uncertainty because it was something that we've never experienced before.
And so realizing that this is new territory, that we may not have all of the answers to all of the questions that come up right away, but it's relying on each other and other resources outside of the organization. And if it's organizations like SHRM that have great resources to help with things like that as well. But I think, yeah, it was really helpful to be surrounded by a great team to be able to work our way through that. And I think we're definitely in a good place now to hopefully continue to move forward in a positive direction.
Lydia:
So following up on some of the unknown circumstances and core variables, how do you think that hiring in sports and entertainment is different than hiring for other industries? Are there any unknown variables that you weren't expecting when you came into this field?
Ryan:
Yeah, I think it's interesting because there are definitely some differences, but I think there's a lot of similarities as well. With hiring for a professional sports organization, there's definitely a lot of interest in the Washington Nationals as a brand and working in major league baseball and being in a position where you have the ability to be around 50,000 fans in a ballpark every day.
And outside of that, though, to be honest, it's not that different. I think sometimes people do tend to get stuck a little bit on, I really want to work for the Washington Nationals and I'm going to do whatever it takes to get into working in the sport and entertainment industry. And I think that makes it in some ways it's a little bit more challenging on the talent acquisition side, because we're looking for people that are a great fit for the organization and a great fit for those roles as well, because I think having people that are attracted to the brand definitely helps with recruiting, but it's important to find people who are interested in the specific roles and the organization as well, and not just the logo or kind of the prestige of working in major league baseball.
Lydia:
For sure. I can definitely see that being a challenge. How have you addressed that challenge?
Ryan:
Yeah, I think it's really when we're having conversations with potential candidates, I think one of the things that we hear a lot is when we're asking about, why do you want to work for the organization? What stood out to you about the opportunity? One of the first things that we hear a lot is, I'm a huge Nats fan. And that's awesome and that's great to hear and I love to hear that, but also we want to know about you as an individual and what you can bring to the organization outside of just being a fan of the team. Because it's great to be a fan of the team, but we're also looking for people that have the right background and the right mindset and the right attitude as well. So I think it's really trying to work with those candidates to bring out that information as well.
Lydia:
For sure. Yes. That definitely links in with hiring with other industries as well.
Kevin:
I want to pause just for a second to take care of a couple of housekeeping items. First, those of you listening to this podcast who are seeking professional development credit, this program is valid for a quarter of a PDC for the SHRM CP or SHRM SCP. The code to redeem your PDC is 23-M779S. Please note that this code will expire June 2nd, 2023. Again, that code is the number two, the number three, dash, the letter M as in Mike, the number seven, the number seven, the number nine, and the letter S as in Sierra.
Lydia:
And speaking of PDCs, one place to earn several PDCs, 27 in fact, while networking with peers, connecting with mentors and expanding your HR knowledge is at SHRM 22 in just a few more days. The SHRM annual conference and expo, which has drawn more than 20,000 attendees in the past, is a can't miss experience for any current or emerging HR professional. There is still time to register and take part in a curated student experience featuring career focused programming and discounted member pricing at just $425 for in-person registration in New Orleans and $275 for virtual passes. For more information visit shrm.co/SHRM22student. So jumping back into the podcast, just like us and many of our listeners, you are still pretty early in your career. What has been the biggest challenge you've faced and how did you overcome it?
Ryan:
So, honestly, I think this kind of goes back to what we had talked about before and just with COVID and the pandemic. And for me, I started with the Nationals at the beginning of March 2020. And so I think I was in the office for, it was six days before everything really started happening with the pandemic and we had to start working from home. And I was nervous about that, to be honest. Being new to an organization, not really knowing too much about my role or responsibilities or not really knowing too many people at the organization and then immediately having to go start working from home with so much uncertainty that we talked about before. Not knowing is this going to be for a couple days or a couple weeks, or a year and a half.
So I think that was a challenge and kind of like we talked about earlier, I think it helped being surrounded by a great team and just using each other and being able to lean on each other to try and find solutions. And whether that was things like employee engagement, where we were so used to doing certain things in certain ways in person and having those in person events to build those relationships and not being able to do that. So putting our heads together as an HR team to figure out, what are some ways that we can still engage with our employees even while we're working fully from home and things like that. And so I think, yeah, really just kind of leaning on each other to support and come up with new ideas and face that uncertainty. So I think that's probably the number one thing that would come to mind for me in terms of a challenge that I've faced up to this point.
Lydia:
Right. Can you expand a little bit on what tools you use for employee engagement early in the pandemic that helped team building and team relationships?
Ryan:
Sure. Yeah, so I think I never knew how to use a Zoom meeting before and I think now that's kind of second nature to a lot of people. And so that was one thing, I think at the beginning, was just getting comfortable with those virtual meetings and what that looks like and how to interact from home and from so many different places. And we did some things with that in terms of, we've had virtual trivia nights with employees and we had some speaker series from executives and employees throughout the organization to really try and bring people together in a time that was really so, so isolating for people across the world.
To try and bring some of that togetherness and team atmosphere that I think you get in a lot of places, but especially in sports, there's really that team environment that you need, not only on the baseball field, but in the front office environment as well. And so as an organization that was so used to being in person and being around those 40,000 fans, it was some of those things, like I said, the trivia nights, the speaker series, and just kind of having one off conversations with people throughout the organization. I think those were things that definitely helped.
Lydia:
So it seems like the key is connection, whether it's virtual or in person. Connection is the most important element here.
Ryan:
Yeah, absolutely.
Kevin:
Yeah. That's great. I have to imagine that a lot of people in this emerging professional age range that COVID and moving to a virtual environment for some of their first jobs, I think that's going to resonate with a lot of people. I want to wrap up the show with one last question. Working in HR for the Washington Nats, it sounds like a dream job, honestly. What would you say the best part of your day is? And what advice can you offer someone who's looking to grow their career by working with such a prestigious major league organization, such as the Nats?
Ryan:
Yeah, so I think for me, in terms of the best part of my day, I think, like I said, I primarily work in talent acquisition. So I get to work with so many great, talented hiring managers across our organization to bring talented individuals to the Washington Nationals, to help create memorable experiences for our fans and for our community. So whether that's in guest services or in marketing or in finance or whatever department it may be, because we have a little bit of everything here at the Washington Nationals. And I think that the best part of that is that every person in every role, regardless of full time, part-time, seasonal, whatever department you may be in, everyone makes an impact on that experience that we have. Not only on a game day here at Nationals Park in front of all of our fans, but with some of the things that we're doing in the community as well.
And so I think the ability for me to work with so many of those different departments and the great managers that we have to bring great people into the organization is definitely what excites me a lot about the position here and I think is the best part of my day. And I think to answer your second question about advice that I would offer someone who's looking to grow their career, I think it would be probably a couple things. So I think the first one I would say is never stop learning. I think you're never at a point in your career, whether it's at the very beginning of the career or if you've been in your career for 30 years, I don't think you can ever get to a point where you can say, I'm going to stop learning now.
Never stop learning. I think it's taking advantage of things like this, where it's listening to podcasts or reading articles or talking to individuals in the industry. I think it's always learning about current topics and trying to stay up to date on best practices and things like that. The next thing that I would say would be to challenge yourself. I think a lot of times it's easy to just kind of take the easy way and just sort of coast through some things, but there's not as much growth with that. And I think an important part of challenging yourself is being able to learn to grow because if you're just doing the same thing over and over and kind of keeping that status quo, you're not challenging yourself and you're not really growing. And I think that's one thing that I get a lot when I'm talking to candidates for positions is what are some of the challenges you've faced and how have you grown from some of those things, just like what we've talked about earlier.
And I think there there's a lot of value to that and it gives you a lot to learn and grow as an individual, but also it gives you things to talk about when you're looking for a job change or a career change. That you can say, hey, these are the, some of the things that I faced those challenges, and this is how I was able to face those things and move forward in a positive direction from that. And I think kind of going along with that, the last thing that I would add would be, especially for someone early in their career, is to speak up. I think a lot of times there's a tendency to just sort of sit back and soak in a lot of information and analyze, which is great. And it was something that I kind of struggled with too, was thinking about these ideas and then really having the comfort to step up and say something if I had a suggestion.
I think early on in my career, I was hesitant to do that because I felt like, well, I'm early in my career. I don't know the answer to that. How can I suggest something or make an impact? But I think every opinion is valid and every opinion is valuable. And if it's a challenge to speak up, that's two of the things that I mentioned. Challenging yourself and then speaking up to really be able to make an impact. Because I think, like I said, there's a lot of value in opinions from everyone, whether that's someone that's been with an organization for 30 years or someone that's just starting their career, those different perspectives are so important.
Kevin:
Yeah. Just going off your last point, I think that's paramount, honestly, to getting a start in your career is being able to speak up and know that even if you are straight out of college or relatively new to the workforce, great ideas come in all shapes and sizes and they'll they come from anywhere. I think Career Compass, our podcast, was started by three people who really had no background in podcasting or anything. And we kind of just, someone spoke up and was like, hey, I think we should do this. And it turned into into what it is today. So I think if if people don't speak up, that is a great point.
Ryan:
Yeah, absolutely. And that's a great example of it.
Kevin:
Well, Ryan, thank you so much for taking the time to share your career path as well as your insights with our HR community.
Ryan:
You're very welcome. Yeah. Thank you all for your time and enjoy the experience and go Nats.
Lydia:
Go Nats. Thank you, Ryan. And with that, we're going to bring this episode of Career Compass to a close. We'd like to thank SHRM and SHRM Foundation for providing us with this platform. But more importantly, we'd like to thank you all for joining us and hope you stay with us throughout the season as we discuss more topics like this episode.
Kevin:
For more exclusive content, resources and tools to help you succeed in your career, consider joining SHRM as a student member. You can visit us at SHRM.org/students to learn more about being a part of a community of over 300,000 HR and business leaders who impact the lives of over 115 million employees worldwide.
Lydia:
If you liked what you heard, follow or subscribe to Career Compass on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And do you have a topic you think we should cover or a guest we should hear from? We'd love to hear it. Email us at careercompasspodcast@shrm.org.
Kevin:
Lastly, are you looking for more work and career related podcasts? Check out All Things Work and Honest HR at shrm.org/podcast. Thank you again for listening and we'll catch you on the next episode of Career Compass.