By Dan Bourque at Emmanuel College
Finding a job fresh out of college is difficult enough these days. Finding one in your desired field, though, and one that you really love – that’s another story altogether. But for one local college senior, an internship with NESN just might get him there.
“It’s cool to get emails from Don Orsillo, Jim Rice and Heidi Watney,” said Emmanuel College senior Jon Hardacker. His new gig puts him right on the front lines of NESN.com, the website of the New England Sports Network.
As a native of Cromwell, Connecticut, Hardacker has been an avid follower of the network, and Boston sports in general, for his entire life. He works as a greeter for the Boston Red Sox during baseball season, and wastes no time gearing up for the Bruins campaign soon after. Working and writing for NESN, for him, is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
The work isn’t exactly the glamorous, eye-catching reporting that you may think, though.
Photo Cred: The Systems Group
“Its stuff I would most likely be doing in my free time anyway,” he said of his daily job duties. He works for NESN’s “new media” department, which deals entirely with the website. He spends his afternoons surfing the web for sports stories to publish on NESN.com and editing other writers’ posts. He even writes his own original work that gets posted right to the site, complete with his own byline.
As a communications major and an aspiring journalist, Hardacker is living out a lifelong dream writing articles about the Red Sox and Bruins. He goes into work three days a week – Tuesday and Thursday mornings and Saturday afternoons. Every day is a personal challenge to practice his trade and make a name for himself in the business.
Still, his biggest aim at the moment is to help the company.
“The main goal is to find content that will attract people and drive up our page views and clicks,” Hardacker said.
Hardacker is just the latest in a line of several Emmanuel students who have interned with NESN in the past. He was told about the opportunity by a former Emmanuel student, Bryan Quinlan.
“He had the same internship I have now. He talked me up to my now supervisor, John Beattie, and left a good impression for me to follow through on. I went in to my interview on a Friday morning, and got an e-mail Friday afternoon offering me the spot.”
As a 21 year old Bostonian, Hardacker has witnessed a new era of success in this city’s sports world. In his lifetime, Boston has seen two World Series trophies (the first since 1918), three Patriots Superbowls, an 18th NBA title and a long-awaited Stanley Cup. This recent success makes working at NESN even more exciting for a young sports fanatic.
Still, as important and fascinating as the new internship is for Hardacker, he remains grounded enough to appreciate the simpler things about the job.
“There are two vending machines for soda and snacks – everything is worth a quarter!”
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