10 Reasons We Throw Away Your Resume (for an NBA Internship)

Getting a job in the NBA

When you are applying for a job in the NBA, you are competing with thousands of other resumes, even for an unpaid internship. 

Human Resources and Operations staff are first looking to get that to a manageable number.  This happens through key words and qualifications and not mention, your network. 

Once it is in the manageable range, say 50-100, different Basketball Operations staffers will go through resumes, references, google you, etc. and then give their recommendations for which resumes to follow up with, around 15 total.

10 Reasons Yours Could Get Thrown Out

1 - Copy and Paste

When you are applying for 10’s if not 100’s of Internships, the easiest way to do that is to swap out team names and copy and paste.  The easiest way is often not the best option for you.  Copy and pastes are fairly easy to recognize and errors are common.  Your resume needs to stand out and a copy and paste resume is an easy way to get tossed aside.  Personalize each resume.

2 - Misspelling / Grammar

Mistakes happen.  But do your best to minimize them.  Run spellcheck.  Have others edit and review your resume and cover letter.  It not only needs to look professional, it needs to sound professional.  As an Intern, you will likely be doing a lot of database entry and you need to know how to read, write, and spell.  You need to be able to use Microsoft Word and Excel.  This all may seem really basic but don’t put into someone else’s mind that you may not be up for the task.

3 - No Skillset

If someone starts their resume with, “It’s my dream to work in the NBA,” that might be as far as I get in reading it.  It’s everyone’s dream (who is applying) to get an NBA Internship.  To me, saying it’s your dream tells me you don’t have the requisite skills and you are hoping to be hired on your passion to do anything.  Teams don’t hire you to do anything, they hire you to do something.

4 - Lack of Experience

Whatever level you are at, start getting experience.  It can be at the high school level, college, or even the YMCA.  The key is gaining experience, building your skillset and network and simply growing in the areas of basketball.  A resume with a lack of or no relevant experience will be immediately tossed.

5 - Irrelevant Job Experience

“I love basketball” isn’t enough.  “I love basketball” with a resume full of restaurant and service work is not going to get your resume looked at.  Yes, we all need to get jobs somewhere (my first job was at an Ice Cream Shop).  Working is part of life.  That work doesn’t necessarily need to go on your resume.  Keep your resume full of relevant basketball and operations experience.  Exceptions are for high level jobs with translatable skills. 

6 - Name Dropping

For some reason, people love to name drop those they know in the NBA without realizing this is a HUGE negative.  Why would it be a negative to already know people in the NBA? 

The first question that comes to mind for someone in the hiring process when you name drop is… why haven’t they hired you then?  You shouldn’t bring up anyone’s name, they (your reference) should be calling on your behalf and bringing up your name (and explaining why they aren’t hiring you).

7 - References

This goes along the same lines, but be careful with references.  Again, having several NBA references will only make the hiring manager question why none of these people have hired you.  Secondly, a lot of people in the NBA have beef with other teams, front offices, and personnel.  You may be bringing up someone’s name that someone in the hiring department doesn’t like (aka, our top applicant one year kept name dropping his family’s connection to another team’s GM so often that we not only moved him out of our top spot, we removed him from the process entirely.  We were not going to put this prospective Intern in front of our GM).

But on that note, you DO need to have basketball references.  Don’t simply have your managers, teachers, etc.  Those are great to have on their but make sure you have people who can also vouch for your basketball experience.