How to land a job in the sports, media, and entertainment industries with LinkedIn Top Voice Parul Khosla

• In this episode, Parul Khosla, founder and CEO of Elevate Sports Talent and co-founder and CEO of Arena, shares her wealth of knowledge on breaking into and advancing within the sports, media, and entertainment industries. With a passion for these fields, Parul discusses her own journey, highlighting the unique challenges and opportunities that come with working in such dynamic and competitive sectors.

  A Passion for Sports and Entertainment

  Parul begins by delving into her personal journey and passion for sports and entertainment. She recounts her experiences and the pivotal moments that led her to establish Elevate Sports Talent and co-found Arena. Her story is not only inspiring but also offers valuable lessons for those looking to enter these industries. She emphasizes the importance of perseverance, networking, and staying true to one’s passions as key drivers of her success.

  Unique Challenges in the Hiring Process

  A significant part of the conversation revolves around the unique challenges and differences in the hiring process within the sports, media, and entertainment industries. Parul explains that these fields often require specific skills and a deep understanding of the industry landscape. Job seekers need to be aware of the nuances in job titles, responsibilities, and the specific language used by recruiters. This awareness can significantly increase their chances of getting noticed and landing the right role.

  Understanding Your Value Proposition

  One of the critical pieces of advice Parul offers is for job seekers to understand their value proposition. She stresses that knowing what sets you apart and being able to articulate this effectively is crucial in such competitive industries. Whether it’s unique skills, relevant experiences, or a particular passion for the industry, being clear about your value can make a significant difference in your job search.

  Introducing Arena: An AI-Powered Recruitment Platform

  Introducing Arena, an AI-powered recruitment platform, Parul highlights how this innovative tool aims to transform the hiring process by fostering transparency and equity. She explains that Arena is designed to address the biases and challenges that often plague traditional recruitment processes. By focusing on skills and qualifications rather than just previous job titles, Arena aims to connect top talent with employers in a more inclusive and equitable way.

  The Role of AI in Recruitment

  The role of AI in the recruitment process is another fascinating topic Parul explores. Arena’s AI technology identifies top talent based on a comprehensive analysis of skills and qualifications. Additionally, it provides real-time career coaching for job seekers, helping them understand how to improve their applications and increase their chances of success. This approach not only benefits job seekers but also ensures employers find the best candidates for their needs.

  Networking and Personal Branding Strategies

  Networking and personal branding are also crucial aspects Parul discusses. She provides practical tips on building a strong personal brand and effectively networking within the sports and entertainment industries. These strategies can help job seekers stand out in a crowded market and create valuable connections that can lead to career opportunities.

  The Future of Recruitment in Sports and Entertainment

  Looking ahead, Parul shares her vision for the future of recruitment in the sports, media, and entertainment industries. She believes that with the continued evolution of technology and a greater emphasis on diversity and inclusion, the hiring landscape will become more transparent and equitable. Arena aims to be at the forefront of this change, continuously adapting to meet the needs of both job seekers and employers.

  Conclusion: Key Takeaways from the Episode

  In conclusion, this episode offers a wealth of insights and practical advice for anyone looking to break into or advance within the sports, media, and entertainment industries. Parul Khosla’s experiences and expertise provide a roadmap for navigating these competitive fields, while Arena represents a groundbreaking approach to recruitment that prioritizes skills, equity, and inclusion. Whether you’re a job seeker or an industry professional, there’s something valuable to take away from this engaging conversation.

 

Transcript:

Mary (00:00.942)
Carl Kostla, welcome to Recruiting Insider.

Parul Khosla (00:04.302)
Thank you. Thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Mary (00:07.853)
Parle is the founder and CEO of Elevate Sports Talent and the co -founder and CEO of Arena. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Parle worked as a recruiter and DEI manager at leading sports, entertainment, and media organizations, including the NHL or the National Hockey League, the NFL National Football League, Madison Square Garden, Minute Media, and Disney.

Today, we’re going to discuss career advice and industry insights to help you both break into and elevate your career in sports, media, and entertainment. Parle, what inspired you to pursue a career in the sports, media, and entertainment industry? And how did your journey lead you to where you are today?

Parul Khosla (00:58.734)
Yeah, it’s a good question. It’s kind of a loaded question, but I’ll try to make it as simple as possible. Basically, going all the way back to my childhood and just like my interests and my passions, I’ve always been interested in sports and entertainment. I played sports all growing up. I played soccer. I played tennis in high school.

Mary (01:01.459)
Yeah.

Parul Khosla (01:24.366)
And I always was watching sports and going to sporting events, mainly because I think that my passions really aligned with how sports is a way to bring people together. And it’s kind of like an entryway into a lot of things, friendships, relationships.

business, like partnerships, like all kinds of stuff. You can kind of use sports and media and entertainment as kind of the…

groundwork of like building relationships with people and I really liked that and I found that you know a lot of my friendships growing up, my relationships with family members, and then even like as I got into the business world I was able to really foster a lot of relationships with people through my passions for sports and entertainment and that was kind of always what got those relationships started. So I knew that there’s you know something special about this industry that I wanted to be a part of not just as

Mary (02:22.887)
Yeah.

Parul Khosla (02:25.44)
like a fan or a consumer of the industry, but as somebody that was actually behind the scenes and like helping to foster those relationships and create those kind of like inclusive spaces for people to really be themselves and be authentic in this industry. So that was kind of always, I think, as if I’m thinking all the way back to it, like what got me really into wanting to work in this space. It wasn’t necessarily something that I was ever.

introduced to in my childhood, like never knew anybody that worked in the space, never even understood that like sports and entertainment is also like a business behind the scenes and it’s not just what you see like on TV. And so it took me a while to kind of understand that and when I got to college I was

Mary (03:06.821)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Parul Khosla (03:15.662)
originally a business major and then I was talking to one of my students in my class and she we were talking about sports and she was like do you know about the sports management major and I was like what are you talking about you know like I had no idea that anything like that existed and so obviously immediately I went and I looked it up and I talked to like the faculty of that major and I was like it’s basically

Mary (03:27.331)
Yeah.

Parul Khosla (03:44.238)
business like a business degree, but

in the sports industry, which is like exactly everything that I wanted to do. So I did that and then through that major, I was able to understand all the different aspects of the business side of sports and like where my specific passions lied. And then starting in sports, you obviously it’s easy to branch out into the entertainment and media side of things. And I worked at different more entertainment and media type companies as well. So all three of those

spaces kind of are closely interconnected in my opinion and so that was kind of how I initially got here.

Mary (04:24.639)
I feel like you’re lucky that you kind of stumbled in that in college because a lot of us, me included, I went into college thinking I wanted to do one thing and then I changed my mind like 10 times. And then, you know, now I’m doing something completely different than what I thought I was going to be doing even when I graduated from college. And so you knowing that you had a passion for sports, you had a passion for business.

Parul Khosla (04:36.302)
Yes, yeah.

Parul Khosla (04:44.27)
Right.

Mary (04:49.119)
Figuring that out in college and really being able to start your career journey early on was probably a huge advantage for you as well.

Parul Khosla (04:49.262)
Yeah.

Parul Khosla (04:56.814)
Yeah, well everybody always tells you when you go to college and…

They’re like, what’s your major? And you’ll say like, I don’t know. Like I’m unsure. And then they’ll be like, well, what are you passionate about? And like, that’s always the question that everybody asks you. And to me, like the answer was always like sports. Like if you’re really asking me what I’m passionate about, it’s sports. Like at that time it was primarily baseball. I’m a big baseball fan. It was like what I spent all my time watching, learning, talking about, following in the news. And so that was like always my honest answer. And a lot of times people would be like,

Mary (05:04.094)
Yeah.

Parul Khosla (05:30.656)
like, okay, like pick like a different fashion. Like, yeah, what are you going to do with? Yeah, exactly. Like what, what are you trying to do? Like go be like a head coach of a team or something like that. But.

Mary (05:31.581)
Yeah, sport? You’re not gonna be a professional athlete. Yeah.

Parul Khosla (05:42.926)
It also goes to show that there’s still not a lot of education around that you can actually work in these industries. And that’s kind of why it took me a long time to find it, but the passion was always there. And that’s what I always tell other people when I coach them is like, what are you passionate about? Maybe you didn’t figure it out in college, but that doesn’t mean you can’t figure it out after college or at any point in your career that you can’t go pursue your passion.

Mary (06:05.338)
Yeah.

100 % at any point in your career, you can step out and pursue a passion. You can change your mind. You can go a completely different direction. I totally agree with you. With your extensive background, both as a recruiter and in DEI, I mean, those top organizations that I discussed, the NHL, the NFL, Disney, you know, I’m sure you have a ton of just super crazy stories.

And I also saw a recent LinkedIn post that said you ran into a lot of issues in the recruiting process, like lots of candidates, but very little quality, a serious lack of diversity in the candidate pool. I mean, days and days of reviewing applications for one role, hours of sourcing on LinkedIn, outdated profiles, repeat applications, and it goes on and on, I’m sure. So how do you think the hiring process in the sports media and entertainment?

Parul Khosla (06:56.75)
Yeah.

Mary (07:03.671)
differs from other industries.

Parul Khosla (07:06.318)
Yeah, my God, so many ways. I always tell this to people like sports, media and entertainment inherently as industries are different than other industries. If you’re thinking about tech or healthcare or finance, like the scope of work that you do in these industries are just like vastly different and also at such a higher kind of. What’s the word I’m looking for? Sorry.

We can, well, we do this. I’m trying to think of the word that I’m looking for.

Mary (07:36.95)
Yeah, that’s fine.

Parul Khosla (07:43.15)
like.

Like they’re more famous, but like not that, like that they’re…

more recognizable maybe. Okay, sorry, we’ll redo that. Okay, okay, sounds good.

Mary (07:56.533)
That’s okay. Yeah. I’m like, here, I’ll just ask the question over again and we’ll start over. Cause I kind of biffed the question anyway. How do you think the hiring process in sports media and entertainment differs from other industries?

Parul Khosla (08:03.278)
Yeah.

Parul Khosla (08:12.366)
Yeah, so inherently sports, media and entertainment, the scope of work that you do in these industries is extremely different if you’re thinking about other industries like tech or healthcare or finance.

And also inherently the companies within sports media and entertainment are like at another level, like they’re way more recognizable, like their households, names, brands, like that everybody kind of looks at as like elite and kind of the top of the top. And so because of that inherently you find a lot more competition for jobs in these spaces and in these industries. Cause also, you know, if you think about it, like we were talking about passions, like almost everybody is passionate.

Mary (08:44.146)
Yeah, I would imagine.

Parul Khosla (08:54.048)
about some sort of entertainment sports like thing, whether it’s you know gaming or music or film or tv or sports like there’s something for everyone in there and we all kind of have hobbies and passions in these spaces so…

there’s like a lot of demand for people to want to like marry their professional skills with their passions and their hobbies and the things that they enjoy. So that creates like kind of the large demand for all of these roles. So I mean, as a job seeker, as a candidate, like you’re up against at a minimum like…

three to five to seven hundred like other candidates that are applying for the same roles that you’re applying for. It almost like doesn’t matter what the role is like any role at a company is going to get like hundreds of applications like no matter what it is. And like you said kind of my LinkedIn post earlier was talking about this like.

Mary (09:56.046)
Yeah.

Parul Khosla (09:57.806)
Most of those candidates that are applying for those roles are not actually qualified. They just like really want to be in the space or work for specifically for that company.

So that makes it really hard because on the recruiter’s end, you’re just inundated with resumes and you have to go through all of them and you have to filter out which ones are relevant and which ones are not. And that takes a long time and sometimes recruiters don’t have the time to do that. So that inherently makes it really challenging for job seekers to get into the space at all and to get through the application process.

Mary (10:23.34)
Yeah.

Mary (10:33.068)
Yeah.

Parul Khosla (10:37.582)
for these industries. So I think that that’s what really makes the space that we’re in really unique. Because I think it’s like a lot more competitive than a lot of other industries are.

Mary (10:49.931)
Is there one or two candidates that really stand out to you? You know, let me start that over.

Parul Khosla (10:58.798)
Yes.

Mary (11:01.545)
So you said that it’s super competitive. So there are a lot of people that are applying to these positions because they have a passion for sports. They want to somehow break in to the company because it’s a big name company. It sounds like a really cool position. Some of our job seekers may be interested into breaking into these industries. Some of our listeners today, what advice would you have for them?

Parul Khosla (11:27.31)
my gosh, so much. So much advice. I think a big reason why people don’t find success applying for roles in this space is because they don’t understand exactly what their value proposition is and what types of roles are really a good fit for them. That also leads to the issues of having too many people applying for roles and recruiters having to spend too much time going through them.

Mary (11:28.616)
Hehehehe

Parul Khosla (11:56.878)
People are so fixated on wanting to work in sports and entertainment and they’re less like thinking about, you know, what roles are actually the right ones for them. I think a lot of times people are like looking at job descriptions and they’re like, like I could do that role or like I meet, you know, most of those requirements and whatever experiences that I have. and then they’re just like, I’ll apply for it and see what happens. And that happens a lot in this industry. and it’s in my.

opinion like not the best strategy for you as a child seeker to be pursuing what you really want to do because ultimately the people that

companies really want to hire are the ones that like know who they are and what they bring to the table and what value they’re going to provide to the organization. Regardless of the industry that you’re in, like those are the people that anybody would want to hire for any company. So you really have to know that for yourself as a job seeker. And even more importantly, if you’re someone in a different industry that wants to switch into the sports or in an entertainment space. A lot of, I talked to a lot of people that are like career

Transitioners that they have experience in other industries and they want to convert that into this industry You have to have like your story Downpatched like you need to know who you are what your top skills are your top strengths?

Mary (13:16.707)
Yeah, yeah.

Parul Khosla (13:22.638)
And you need to know exactly what roles in the industry align with those skills and strengths that you have. The best way to do that is just to research. Like go on LinkedIn, go to those companies that are like your top like dream companies that you would want to work for and just scroll through all the people that work there and start, you know, reading about their job descriptions and what the work they do is and start understanding, you know, whether that is

is a good fit for you, whether you meet a lot of those skills or you do the same thing, but it’s like worded slightly differently in whatever industry you work in.

That’s how you’re really gonna start narrowing down the job titles that you need to be looking at. And then only apply for those jobs. Don’t apply for other jobs where you’re like, I might be able to do this or maybe I could finagle my way into that because you won’t even get the chance to tell them those things. You’re just not gonna get an interview for those jobs at all. So applying for them is a waste of your time and also your mental wellness. Like a lot of these, getting all these…

is hard like on our mental health so it’ll even save you like some of that frustration if you are able to just kind of like sit down for a couple of hours and really figure out like which roles are the right ones for you and then go after those specifically and then kind of follow up advice to that is like make sure that you are

Mary (14:32.767)
Yeah.

Parul Khosla (14:54.446)
presenting yourself appropriately for those roles and also speaking the language of the people that you want to be reading your resume. A lot of times, like the sports and entertainment, like the way that they talk and the language and stuff like that is like a little bit different, a little bit less formal than some other industries. And so like really reading the job description and like understanding like how they’re wording things on the job description and the type of language they’re using and inserting that into your resume and your application material.

your cover letter, like all of that is super important because that’s what’s gonna really build the bridges between you and what they’re looking for. Recruiters have like zero time to do anything so they’re not gonna sit there and like try to connect the dots between like your experience in a different industry and what they’re looking for. That’s how people end up getting like…

Mary (15:40.06)
Yeah.

Parul Khosla (15:47.406)
unnecessarily weeded out of the process when they should actually be considered, but recruiters are not going to know that because they’re going to be like, I don’t understand how your experience in like the healthcare space like is the same thing as what I’m looking for. So you have to make those connections yourself on your resume and like write your bullet points and like everything in the language that

Mary (15:53.238)
Yeah.

Parul Khosla (16:13.198)
you know, sports recruiters are going to understand. So like not getting too technical in your field that you’re in now and just writing it in the same way that it’s written on the job description so that they understand like, yeah, like they did this, which is exactly what I’m looking for, if that makes sense.

Mary (16:31.544)
Yeah. And I think that that could apply to just about any industry as well. If you’re just firing off hundreds, thousands of resumes to a lot of different positions and you’re not really taking the time to do the research and really connect your skills, your experience, your background with the target position, you’re just not going to get a whole lot of traction. And I have this conversation with clients a lot because, you know, especially with those that are trying to make a

Parul Khosla (16:35.726)
Mm -hmm.

Parul Khosla (16:40.558)
Okay.

Mary (17:01.335)
pivot, they failed to or they even just have a hard time writing their resume in a way that makes sense for that new industry. So I really like how you said, pull in some of that language that’s used in the sports and entertainment industry. And the same would go if you’re applying to a position in tech sales or in finance, take your background and write it in a way that makes sense for that industry. And then your

Like you said, you’re connecting the dots for the reader because the hiring manager is not going to take, you know, 10 minutes even to be like, yeah, okay, this makes sense. You know, they’ve done something really similar in the past. Write it in a way that really is completely clear and understandable and something that they’ll see right away in that five second scan. And your chances of getting that interview will increase dramatically.

Parul Khosla (17:55.63)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you got to speak their language if you want to work in the space.

Mary (17:58.612)
Yeah, yeah. So you’ve created a tool to fix some of these problems with Arena, or you’re working on that currently as we record this. Can you tell us more about this tool and how it solves these issues?

Parul Khosla (18:13.646)
Yeah, 100%. So, Arena is currently in production as we’re recording this, like you said, but hopefully by the time you guys are all listening to this, it is fully launched. So definitely go check it out. It’s the website’s arenatalent .com. Basically, we’re building a…

AI powered recruitment platform for specifically the sports media and entertainment industries. And what’s different about this platform is that we’re using our AI to really foster more transparency and equity throughout the hiring process.

What that means is that the current problems, right, that exist in the industry is on the job seeker side, they’re finding it really hard to break through that competition and stand out in those hundreds of applications that are coming through all of these different roles. And then on the employer side, their issue is really actually identifying the top talent for the roles that they have open because they’re getting so many resumes and applications that are not

actually the types of people that they’re looking for, the skills or experience that they’re looking for, so they’re having to spend a lot of their time sifting through candidates that are not actually qualified and doing all this work that is kind of counterproductive to what they should be doing. So inherently that…

makes the process a little bit less equitable and it increases room for bias in the candidate selection process because then since they have so many applications they might be putting in like filters to filter resumes out through their ATS system. Those filters

Mary (19:43.086)
Yeah.

Parul Khosla (19:58.766)
don’t understand like humans and transferable skills so they might be like putting people in the rejected pile that are actually good and qualified for the role and people that they should be considering. And then also human error and human bias that exists in the recruitment process both for recruiters and hiring managers. A lot of times,

Mary (20:14.825)
Yeah. Mm -hmm.

Parul Khosla (20:21.774)
recruiters and hiring managers in this industry are biased towards people that also have experience in this industry. So they like want people that have worked in sports, so they want people that have worked in entertainment or media, and that’s excluding, you know, people that have transferable skills that are actually qualified for the role that could be like a great candidate.

And also just generally to increase the diversity and inclusion of these industries as a whole. You have to branch out to people that are in these other industries because just sticking with the people that are already here is like not going to do anything for like increasing any of that representation.

Mary (20:56.204)
Yeah.

Parul Khosla (20:59.886)
But again, because of like time constraints and also because they get so many people that want the role, like they’re kind of able to be picky about that kind of stuff. And then again, it causes those inequities. So what we’re building at arena is really the connector between the top talent and the employers getting exactly what they’re looking for, but also in an inclusive and equitable way where we’re kind of counteracting that bias that typically happens. How that’s

Mary (21:20.873)
Mm -hmm.

Parul Khosla (21:29.792)
going to look is our AI that we are building ourselves and training ourselves between me and my two other co -founders, Adrian and Olivia. We are building it to really be able to identify.

top talent based solely on their skills, their qualifications, and their unique qualities that they bring to the table, regardless of industry, kind of taking that out of the equation. And then on the employer side, we’re working specifically with companies in sports, media and entertainment, understanding what their hiring needs are, and then connecting them through the AI and matching them with the talent that most closely aligns to what their hiring goals are and the type of

of candidates that they’re looking for. So kind of getting rid of all of that sifting through applications and looking for candidates and all the time and efficiencies that go on with that and really getting them directly in front of the people they should be talking to, but also introducing them to people that they might not have otherwise looked at based on their resumes looking a little bit untraditional or not like what they think they are looking for for the role and helping to introduce them to like new fresh talent.

Mary (22:33.446)
Yeah.

Mary (22:40.613)
Yeah.

Parul Khosla (22:44.112)
that is qualified and is a good match for what they’re looking for.

And then also on the job seeker side, our AI is also going to act as a bit of a career coach for them. So as they are going through the platform, looking at jobs, looking at companies, putting in what their preferences are and their passions and the types of roles that they’re looking for. Our AI will be kind of watching them do all of that and then giving them real time advice, like career coaching type of advice on how they could be doing things better. So it’ll help them tailor their resumes, their cover letters, their LinkedIn, help them prep for interviews.

give them salary insights throughout the industry. And then as they’re applying for jobs, it’ll say like, hey, like you are…

you know, 23 % match for this job. Like these are the reasons why we feel that you’re not the most qualified for this position so that it gives the job seeker real time feedback on like, okay, maybe I shouldn’t apply for that job. Like I didn’t know that I wasn’t like the best candidate for this type of role, but now I do and that information is helpful and I can take that and kind of adjust my strategy. or it’ll tell you like, Hey, you are like 93 % match for this role. Like you should definitely apply for it. And he,

Mary (23:42.401)
Yeah.

Parul Khosla (23:58.176)
here is why and here’s where you have transferable skills so that it also informs you if you do make it to the interview round for that role, like what specific skills you should be highlighting in that interview because we’ve told you like exactly where you transfer. So really like trying to also.

save a lot of time on the job seeker side and also maximize efficiency and hopefully interviews and success in the recruiting process by that kind of unbiased AI, like really looking at your experience and telling you exactly where you fall and what you need to be doing in your job search. So yeah, that’s what we’re doing.

Mary (24:24.831)
Yeah.

Mary (24:40.317)
Very cool. Yeah, I mean, I could see a lot of benefits, both from the job seeker perspective as well as the company’s perspective. I mean, from a job seeker, it could save you literally hours of time, I would imagine, you know, because you’re not going to be applying to these positions where it’s like, look, you’re not even going, your resume is not going to be looked at for this position. You have no experience in the area, but here’s a position that you could look at and here’s exactly XYZ what you could do.

Parul Khosla (24:53.71)
Yeah.

Mary (25:08.7)
to make yourself one of the top candidates for that specific position. So it would help them save a ton of time, but also increase their chances of getting noticed. And then on the employer’s side, it’s like, well, geez, they may find some candidates that they wouldn’t have even thought of before, right? And I mean, because, I mean, even if somebody doesn’t have experience in the sports or entertainment industry, it doesn’t mean that they’re not going to be.

bringing an incredible perspective for that position because they could be coming from finance and have this really great analytical mindset where it’s like they’re kind of diversifying what they’re bringing to the position or bringing, you know, maybe a diverse perspective for that role and something that could be really, really beneficial for that company. And so, you know, and something that the employer never thought of before. So that’s really cool. Yeah. Yeah.

Parul Khosla (26:00.206)
Yeah, thank you. I know I’m very excited about it.

Mary (26:05.37)
And is it specifically going to be for the sports and entertainment industry or do you plan on branching out specifically? Yeah. I think that’s smart to niche it down like that. Yeah. That’s really smart. Yeah.

Parul Khosla (26:10.51)
Yes. Yeah, it’s specifically, yeah, for sports, media, and entertainment, like we said already, like this sector needs a lot of work, and it’s very different than a lot of other sectors.

Mary (26:21.785)
Yeah. Yeah. For sure.

Parul Khosla (26:24.558)
And also from the recruiter perspective, like, it’s kind of hard to find people on if you’re looking on LinkedIn or Indeed, like all of these, they operate across, you know, all industries. It’s hard to identify like who actually wants to work in sports and entertainment because it is different. The salaries are different in this space. Like there’s a lot of things to consider on the candidate side. So you end up wasting time, like chasing candidates that don’t actually want to work for you. So we need something that’s just for us.

awesome.

Mary (26:55.223)
Yeah, absolutely. I would totally agree. You know, and we’ve also, we’ve talked a little bit about, you know, advice that you would give job seekers and how they can really align their background, their skills with some of those positions within the sports media and entertainment industry. And I think another really important piece of the puzzle is personal branding, you know, and establishing a really great personal brand. And it can really help job seekers stand out in all sorts of industries.

So let’s say that I’m trying to break into the sports media and entertainment space. What should I do today to start building my personal brand for that space?

Parul Khosla (27:36.526)
Yeah, that’s a great question. Your personal brand is huge in this space. Because again, like anything you can do to differentiate yourself from everybody else that’s applying for these roles, like that’s what you need to be doing. Like that’s what’s super important. I would say if you’re brand new, if you’re looking to get into this space, like first it’s like making sure that you’re…

online presence is tailored to the sports and entertainment space. So your LinkedIn, if your social media channels are public, particularly if you’re like a creative or a social type of candidate, making sure that all of those profiles are optimized for the sports and entertainment space. And you can do that, you know, very quickly. Like it’s as easy as on LinkedIn, like changing your industry on your profile, like to sports or entertainment.

or like changing your headline or just taking out like some of the skills on your profile that are maybe more specific to your industry and adding in skills that are a little bit more transferable to sports and entertainment. Like those things will go a long way. changing your banner photo is a good one too. Like just that first impression that people get when they go to your profile is really important. So if it’s completely irrelevant, then they’re not going to look at your profile the same way as they would.

Mary (28:47.507)
Yeah.

Parul Khosla (28:59.056)
would if you had like literally just a picture of a sports stadium or like something like that as your banner. It just changes like the whole way that people are going to view you so that’s also like a really important aspect. And then on your other social channels if they are public like just making sure that…

Again, like your photos and your bios and anything that’s associated with those accounts are like a little bit more tailored to what you’re trying to do. If you are creative and you have a portfolio or a demo reel or a YouTube channel or like whatever it is, start adding like sports specific stuff on there. Even if you don’t have particularly like sports and entertainment type of experience on there like.

create it, like make up your own mock -ups or demos or whatever you can, like create your own experiences and put them on your portfolio that might be more relevant to the space. That is going to go a long way as far as helping to connect the dots between you and the industry and the other people that are applying.

And then there’s the actual like networking and branding yourself in real life in person and talking to people. So a lot of that is getting your elevator pitch down. Really again, going back to your value like proposition, like really understanding like what your…

value is and what you bring to the table. A lot of times it’s obviously your top transferable skills, but it can also be the fact that you have experience in other industries. That’s like a value add for a lot of positions. So really being able to talk about what you did in your previous life that…

Parul Khosla (30:43.886)
is also again like in the language of what sports and entertainment people will understand and really using that to your advantage and like showcasing yourself as someone that actually has a competitive advantage over people that might have only been in sports and entertainment. They won’t have the perspective that you have in whatever industry that you are coming from. So really using that as the kind of the basis of your elevator pitch and then saying how

where your passions lie in the space and what kind of impact do you want to have. And that should be your elevator pitch, in my opinion. Those are the things that you need to highlight.

So getting that down, writing it out, practicing it, practicing it by yourself, in front of other people, with your family, with your friends, like whatever you want to do. Just make sure that you’re just like talking about it all the time so that when you do get to the place where you’re in front of somebody in the industry, it starts naturally kind of flowing out instead of sounding like something that you like memorized and like need to robotically rehearse.

Mary (31:37.927)
Yeah.

Mary (31:42.767)
You

Parul Khosla (31:44.942)
And then it’s finding those opportunities to connect with people in the industry because like networking is about like half the battle I say is in the recruitment process in this industry. It’s a huge way to get past the application system and the hundreds of applicants and actually get seen. And it’s also part of your personal branding. It’s like what events you’re going to, what industry networking groups you’re joining, what types of people you’re reaching.

out to, really figure that out. And a lot of people think networking is like, I just have to blindly message people on LinkedIn, but it’s not. Like find the industry conferences that you’re interested in, go to them, like find networking groups in your area. There’s like literally hundreds of them that exist. Like do some research and find them. Tap into your alumni network, find people that work in this space. If you have any connections in this space, ask them for introductions to people that they know.

like these are all ways that you can expand your network and it’ll help you continue to brand yourself as a candidate to those people and then those people will talk about you to other people and then that’s how your brand kind of spreads organically and hopefully you find success from there.

Mary (33:01.667)
Yeah, those are great tips. And I think when people think of personal brand, whether in your own space or you’re trying to branch out into a different space, like sports, media and entertainment, it’s really an intimidating idea for a lot of people where, like you said, it doesn’t necessarily have to be. So one step that you could take today, if you’re thinking about pivoting into the space, like Paul said, simply go to your LinkedIn profile, change your industry.

change your headline to align with that specific position and industry that you’re applying to, and then swap in some keywords that are pulled directly from that industry. You know, that could take five minutes and it could really start to resonate with recruiters and hiring managers that are in the space that you’re trying to break into.

Parul Khosla (33:51.374)
Yeah, I literally just before this, before we started recording this, I got an email from one of my previous clients. and as part of the coaching package that I did with him, I optimized his LinkedIn profile for him. and he is a career transition or he has like 15 years of experience in a completely different industry and is now looking to transition into sports. and that has been maybe like two weeks since I did that optimization. And he just told me today that someone from major league baseball.

and someone from an NFL team connected with him on LinkedIn. Like, he didn’t go out and find them. Like, they asked, they requested to connect with him, and that’s never happened to him before, and he was really excited. And literally, it’s all because we just changed his profile. He doesn’t even post on LinkedIn. Like, obviously, if you post, like, you’ll get way more, like, engagement and stuff, but some people are comfortable with that, some people are not. So he doesn’t even post as of right now, but just changing those things.

Mary (34:28.061)
Wow.

Mary (34:39.453)
Wow.

Yeah.

Parul Khosla (34:50.958)
changed the algorithm on LinkedIn and he started to get in front of people, the people that he wants to get in front of and then they started requesting him. So really it is that simple just to get like baseline started in the space.

Mary (35:05.629)
That’s amazing. What do you think the five -year outlook is in the recruiting space in this industry? And then secondly, in an alien universe, what do you think 25 years from now it might look like?

Parul Khosla (35:13.742)
Mm.

Parul Khosla (35:19.214)
Yeah.

Parul Khosla (35:22.842)
that’s a good question. I think that everybody knows that right now, as of today, the recruiting space is not great. The job market is not popping like it normally is. And there’s a lot going on. There’s a lack of roles being posted. There’s a lot of companies still doing layoffs. And…

Mary (35:35.421)
Yeah.

Parul Khosla (35:47.31)
yada yada. So that is where we are currently. So hopefully within the next five years things will be a lot better. In my experience, people come to me all the time and they’re like, my god, the market is horrible. When is it going to change? It is going to change. You got to trust the process. It fluctuates. The economy fluctuates. It’ll be good. It’ll be bad. It’ll be good. It’ll be bad. So we’re just in the bad part right now, which means that the good part is going to come within the next, I think, year.

Mary (36:06.909)
Yep. Yep.

Parul Khosla (36:17.518)
There’s also a lot going on specifically in sports and entertainment that’s going to affect the hiring that goes on in the space. In 2026, we’re hosting the FIFA World Cup in North America, across Canada, the US, and Mexico. Tons of hiring is going to start happening around that. In 2028, we have the Olympics coming to the US. So…

Mary (36:37.725)
Hmm?

Parul Khosla (36:39.694)
As on the sports and entertainment side, like so much is going to boom over the next couple of years. I mean, 2026 is only two years from now. So much hiring is going to happen leading up to those major events. And then also across the industry at agencies, marketing firms, partners, sponsors, like they’re all going to be hiring people leading up to these major events as well. So I really foresee that the hiring is going to rapidly increase like as soon as like.

as soon as we hit maybe like fall of 2024 or even like the new year of 2025, like we’re gonna start seeing like so many opportunities coming out just because of those things that are happening. Also just more generally, like we’re in a presidential election year right now, like typically economies tend to be lower during that time and then they kind of go up after the election. So the job market.

kind of follows that same trend because when economies are good then companies have more money and they hire more people. When economies are bad they have less money, they do layoffs and stuff like that. So just inherently as far as like how the market tends to progress like we will see it go up but we’ll see it in this industry go way more up because of some of these like major things that are about to hit us over the next four years. And then in our

Alien universe of 25 years from now. God, I have no idea. I really think that as far as trends that I’m seeing in entertainment and sports and media is like.

Innovation and growth is huge, right? It’s probably in all industries, but I just only care about sports and entertainment. But innovation and growth is huge. Obviously we’re seeing AI, we’re hearing about things like future of work and all kinds of stuff that is just like in the baby stages right now. And like in 25 years, we’ll probably be like in a whole other dimension as far as all of that.

Mary (38:41.97)
Mm -hmm.

Parul Khosla (38:44.142)
But with that, there’s gonna be a lot more, I think, unique opportunities for people to work in these spaces. People that maybe never traditionally would have found themselves in this space because companies are…

really looking to evolve and innovate and grow as a brand into a new generation basically. And so they’re going to be looking to hire a lot of people with a lot of different skill sets, primarily in tech, in data, in even strategy, operations, finance, things like crypto and blockchain and all types of these spaces we’re already starting to see a little bit.

Mary (39:22.61)
Yeah.

Parul Khosla (39:29.296)
It’s gonna boom like obviously over the next 25 years will be like somewhere else entirely but like all of those sectors are gonna like skyrocket probably across like most organizations in the space whereas like sports and entertainment entities are very large and very old and very established and they they’ve kind of been slower to innovate than other industries and now they’re really feeling the pressure and they’re gonna have to like kind of follow that trend so I

think we’re going to see a lot more opportunities in those types of spaces as well.

Mary (40:04.077)
Very cool. So what are you up to now and where can we find you on social media?

Parul Khosla (40:09.582)
Yeah, so right now I’m working really hard on getting Arena out to the public. So right now we have a wait list currently as today as we’re filming it. But within the next like one to two months, we should be launched in public and people should be able to use the platform. So hopefully as you are watching this or listening to this, you can go and sign up for Arena and create your profile and start finding your dream job. So that’s what I’m doing right now.

As far as finding me on social, I’m most active on LinkedIn, so just type in my name, Poro Kosla on LinkedIn. You should find me, you can follow me, you can connect with me. You can message me, whatever you want. I do read all of my messages, so I like to tell people that in advance. I’m not one of those people that ignores and ghosts others, I don’t believe in that. But as long as your message is genuine and authentic, then I will respond to it.

Mary (41:00.077)
Hehehe

Parul Khosla (41:09.998)
So you could find me there and yeah, that’s basically what I’m doing. I also have, like you mentioned, Elevate Sports Talent, which is a career coaching company. I do have right now limited spaces for me to take on clients one -on -one for myself, but I do also have a team of career coaches throughout the sports and entertainment industry that are on that platform as well. So you can find a career coach. You can find someone to work with you one -on -one to really help.

figure out like how you’re going to pivot into sports and entertainment or how you should be best positioning yourself for the job search. So you can definitely go there to elevate sports talent .com to find the resources I have there or if you’re ready to start applying and finding those opportunities you can find us at arena talent .com to get started.

Mary (42:02.152)
Amazing, you’re working on some exciting stuff. Yeah, yeah. Thanks for coming on today.

Parul Khosla (42:04.718)
Yeah, thank you. I know I’m really excited. Yeah, thank you for having me.