It is no wonder that I decided to play volleyball in college. After all, my parents met on the volleyball court, and my first toy was not a doll or a teddy bear, but it was a mini Molton volleyball too big to even fit in my hands. Upon graduation in a couple of weeks, I will officially be retired from college athletics. As I enter the working world in the fall, for the first time in my life, I will be forced to fit volleyball into my schedule, rather than fitting my schedule around volleyball. Unfortunately, in consulting “on the beach” means working out of the home office, where volleyball is not an approved activity. Had I known that volleyball could have been my work and my play, like it is for the AVP’s interns, I may have decided on a different career path. It’s too bad One Day, One Internship wasn’t around during my internship search.
For those of you who didn’t grow up with a mini volleyball in the crib, AVP stands for the Association of Volleyball Professionals. Their major endeavor is the Crocs AVP Tour which consists of both men’s and women’s professional beach volleyball leagues. The matches are a lot of fun to watch, and the sheer athleticism of the players is incredible. What’s even more impressive is that many AVP players have to work day jobs while they train during the week, and then compete on the weekends.
The AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour has a significant internship program. It provides an opportunity to work in pro sports with a more laid back atmosphere than some of the other sports leagues offer. The internships are unpaid, but the fact that interns often get (have) to travel (this isn’t guaranteed) to AVP events across the country makes up for it. Don’t worry, travel expenses will be covered. The need for interns is greatest during the season, which runs from March to September, but there are also internships at other times of the year with more focus on in-office projects.
The AVP is currently offering internships in Player Relations, Online / Interactive Marketing, Marketing, Ticket Sales, Accounting, Operations, Sponsorship / Promotions, Video, and Advance Planning. You can find more information on these internships, as well as an overview of the entire program, on the AVP’s internships page. The listings are Word Documents and they have 07 in the file name, but they still are intended to describe internships for 2008. The main page says to send a cover letter and resume to jpace@avp.com if you’d like to apply, while the individual postings offer some different e-mail addresses. We recommend that you go with jpace@avp.com, since it appears to be more up to date.
Over the past three years, seven of the AVP’s interns have received full-time offers from the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour, so there’s definitely a future here. In addition, interning at the AVP has some pretty good perks - you may even get to interact with the talent (video).
Links to Help You Begin Your Research
Any other beach volleyball players out there? Leave a message and say hi in the comments.
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Volleyball was my favorite Phys-Ed class- unfortunately Cornell scheduled mine at 8 am, including Saturdays. I wish I’d kept it up.