Career advice, a Q and A, networking opportunities, and much more were made available to Pace students this past Wednesday at an event hosted by the Lubin Business Association (LBA), which featured Pace alumni who relayed information to students about working in the sports industry, anywhere from sales and promotion to writing and communication.

The session was hosted and mediated by Kyle Coimbra, vice-president of Lubin Business Association and a junior at Pace, and the panel consisted of 2017 graduate Joe Casarella, sales account executive for the New York Mets, and 2018 graduate James Best, digital sports editor for NBC Sports Regional Networks.

When the panel began, both men explained how they got the jobs that they have today, and what it took to get them.

“It was a Friday when I did my first phone interview from my future boss,” Casarella explained. “While I was on the phone, he asked me if I could come down to the park for an in-person interview. The next thing I knew, I was in the Mets board room, in front of ten directors. This was all 90 minutes after my phone interview. The next day, I get an email from them, and I was offered the final spot for their inside sales program.”

Even though Casarella got the final spot in the program, he was the first one in the program promoted within six months, and he got the position that he has now.

“During the fall and spring semesters of my senior year, I had internships with both NBC sports and NBC new and affiliates,” Best said. “And a few days after I graduated, I got an email from the director of NBC Sports-regional networks to come in for an interview. When I went into the interview, I was confident, I knew that I had been in the business before, and the director told me that ‘we’ll see in a couple of months.’”

Two months after that interview, Best received a call from the director, informing him that they wanted him to work at NBC Sports full-time, and that he was the first person that they called.

Both men during the panel strongly emphasized the importance of internships and the helpfulness of Pace’s Career Services. However, both advised students to enjoy their college experience to the fullest, because it’s truly a one-of-a-kind experience.

Students got a lot out of the panel, including how useful Career Services can actually be.

“I learned from this panel how much Career Services helped out these two speakers while at Pace,” Pace junior Jared Bolden said. “Because of that, I’m definitely going to be utilizing career services more in the future.”

Best hopes that what students got the most of from this event was that they could reach out to him and Casarella—or any Pace alumni for that matter— for advice, job connections, or anything else.

“I respect Joe and what he does for the Mets a lot, and I feel like students are generally going to reach out to him [more than me], because he really cares and wants to give back to Pace,” Best said. “For the students who want to do business, he’s a really good and powerful connection.”