Christopher Roberts

Responsibilities

Operations and logistics intern Prepare for, set-up, monitor, and tear-down a variety of sporting and non-sporting related events throughout the internship. Communicate with other departments about the details, timeframes and contacts of events. Maintain the National Sports Center facility, ensuring everything is presented to a high standard and is running as it should.

Accomplishments

The carrying out and completion of Target USA Cup, the largest amateur soccer tournament in the world. While the details and set-up for this tournament were put together over many months, it was the two-week period when the tournament actually ran that was incredibly demanding. Every day was at least a 12-hour day, but we produced an incredible tournament for nearly 1,100 teams.

Learning experience

Never underestimate how important communication is. Even if it is the smallest thing, or something you do not think is important, communicate it to co-workers and clients who are involved. There were multiple occasions throughout my internship where communication was lacking and it consistently leads to time being wasted and jobs not being carried out correctly.

What advice would you give?

Internships are of course about gaining experience in your field but they're also about finding out what areas of your industry you enjoy. In order to fully understand this, fully commit to your internship and throw everything you have into it. You are there to work and this in turn will highlight whether you enjoy the work. I loved my internship and would love to return next summer to the National Sports Center, albeit in a different position. I put everything into my internship, and realized this was a workplace that really suited me. Now that I understand that, I can look to find a role within, that is just as suited to me.