Each Role Taught Me Something Different
When I started working in football, I thought the goal was to find one clear path and stay on it. Get good at one thing, build expertise, and keep moving up within that lane. But after working with five different organizations, I realized that approach leaves a lot on the table.
I’ve done analytics for Dartmouth and Navy. I handled recruiting for Georgia. I worked training camp operations for the LA Rams. And I spent time with The 33rd Team. None of those roles looked the same. That wasn’t an accident, and it wasn’t a detour. It was the point.
What Changes When You Switch Contexts
The biggest lesson from moving between organizations is that good ideas are not universal. What works in one place often fails in another, not because the idea is bad but because the context is different.
At Georgia, for example, the scale is as big as the imagination. Recruiting there meant operating in a high-stakes environment where every decision mattered and the margin for error was thin. The Rams taught me what it looked like when a professional organization runs at full speed. Training camp operations required coordination across departments, tight timelines, and zero room for miscommunication.
Each of those environments had its own rhythm. If I had only worked in one, I would assume that rhythm was the only one that mattered. But moving between them showed me that there is no single way to do this work well. You adapt to the context, or you get in the way.
The Skills You Don’t Learn Staying Put
Switching roles forces you to start over in small but important ways. You have to learn new systems, new vocabulary, and new expectations. You have to figure out who makes decisions and how information flows. You have to earn trust again.
That process is uncomfortable, but it builds something you can’t get from repetition. You learn to ask better questions. You learn to read a room faster. You learn to identify what matters in a new environment before you start suggesting changes.
The other thing you learn is humility. When you move from one role to another, you realize how much of your success came from understanding one specific system. Take that system away, and you have to rebuild. That keeps you honest. It keeps you from assuming your way is the only way.
What Recruiting Taught Me That Analytics Didn’t
Recruiting at Georgia was not about numbers. It was about relationships, timing, and reading people. You had to understand what a recruit cared about, what their family cared about, and how to communicate in a way that felt genuine rather than scripted.
Analytics taught me to trust data and to question assumptions. Recruiting taught me that people don’t always behave rationally, and that’s not a problem to solve. It’s the reality you work with. Both skill sets matter, and I wouldn’t have learned that if I had stayed in one lane.
Why Operations Work Matters
Training camp operations with the Rams was the least visible role I’ve had, and it might have been the most instructive. Operations work is about making sure everything runs smoothly so that other people can do their jobs. It’s not glamorous, but it’s essential.
That role taught me how much goes into coordination. It taught me to think about logistics, timing, and dependencies. It taught me that the person keeping things on track often doesn’t get credit, but without them, nothing works.
If you only work in roles where you’re the one making the decision or presenting the analysis, you miss the perspective that comes from supporting the process. Operations work gives you that perspective, and it makes you better at every role that comes after.
The Advantage of Not Specializing Too Early
I’m not arguing against specialization. Depth matters, and at some point you have to be excellent at something specific. But if you specialize too early, you end up with a narrow view of how the field works.
Exposure to different organizations and different roles gives you range. It gives you the ability to see problems from multiple angles. It makes you more adaptable when circumstances change, and it makes you a better collaborator because you understand what other people are dealing with.
The professionals I respect most are the ones who can move between contexts without losing effectiveness. They know how to adjust their approach based on the environment. They know when to push and when to listen. They know that what worked last time might not work this time.
What I Would Tell Someone Starting Out
If you’re early in your career, resist the urge to lock in too quickly. Take roles that teach you different skills. Work for organizations that operate in different ways. Pay attention to what changes and what stays the same.
You don’t need to have a five-year plan that maps every step. You need to be intentional about learning, and you need to be willing to start over when the situation calls for it.
The goal is not to become someone who has done a little bit of everything. The goal is to become someone who understands how different parts of the system work and how to contribute no matter where you land. That’s what exposure buys you, and it’s worth more than a straight-line resume.