Critique My Resume

[Jason Short]

Here it is. Feel free to tell me I'm an idiot for wanting sponsors at this age or whatever it is you guys do. But if you say anything please include what I can do to make it better.

About Me

I was born in Kidron, Ohio and now live in Apple Creek, Ohio. I have been outdoors my whole life fishing, hunting, and just running around. I am now 15 years old and fish tournaments and fun fish. I am a member of the Tri-County Jr. Bassmasters which I joined this spring, and have fished all the jr. tournaments and one adult tournament. Our club tournaments are over for the year and I ended up in first place in the scoring for the jr club. I won one of the tournaments and finished 2^nd in the others. I will be fishing the Ohio Jr. State Championship on August 25^th, and I hope to finish in the top five. I fish as often as I can, normally 4-7 days a week. I fish ponds from shore and local lakes from a boat. I may be fishing the High School Fishing State Championship next year as a sophmore. I am on the promotional staff for The Bass College. I am also the technical staff for their website and help many members out through private messages and even phone calls if necessary.

Education

I go to school at Waynedale High School and get all A's and B's. I take all the required classes along with Spanish and computer classes. I know a lot about using computers so I can promote your company all over the internet. I have never gotten worse than a “B” in any of my classes all of my 8 years of school.

How can I help you?

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  When I get a jersey your logo will be on it and I will wear it to lakes and tournaments.
  
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  I have over 500 friends on facebook that are fishermen. They see every post I make and I can promote your company by mentioning them in status updates. When I catch big fish using your product I will also post a picture of it and tell them that I used your product.
  
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  I am a member of multiple fishing forums where I can promote your product through posts and private messages.
  
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  I have a youtube channel where I can make videos of me catching fish with your product. I can also make promotional videos telling people about your company.
  
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  When I go fishing I meet lots of new people that I can potentially get to buy your product.
  
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  I can hand out business cards to people at lakes and ponds as well.
  
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  I am also available for any other suggestions you may have and will do whatever you ask to promote your company.
  

[MarkH024]

Jason,

Go back through this forum of resumes and find the ones of the guys who are not in College yet, and read the advice given to them. There is a lot of great responses and "eye opening" advice given.

My short response is keep your love and ambition for fishing, but focus on College first. Collegiate Bass Fishing should be a goal for you right now if you're very serious about making a career out of it.

If you're simply looking for sponsorship right now to fish your local tournaments, you're in a list of 1000's of others. Find a way to make yourself stand out from the rest. It's up to you to figure that out. You need to sell yourself to a company so they become interested in using you as a sales tool. Nothing stated from the above stands out other than you're a young tournament bound fisherman.

Seriously, think about college bass fishing. It's something I wish I could go back in time and pursue. I'd give a lot to get that chance again.

[SirSnookalot]

I would suggest giving it up, at least for the present. How many H.S. kids watch tv and think they can be a professional fisherman? It isn't that easy ! In today's world A's & B's don't cut it, only A's do and college is extremely important, that should be the focus for the near term. Not saying that many technical non college related careers should be overlooked, some are quite good.

Not critiquing your resume, only the intent, establish your life first. Quite honestly I am not a fan of H.S. or college fishing, I am big fan of getting a quality education before anything.

[etommy28]

Unlike Sir Snook I am a big fan and propenent for High school and college fishing. so.....

Go to school, get A's, Fish, get a job, fish for your high school, get a boat, go tocollege and fish for your college, people will come begging for you to work with them.

This will not get you in the door any where and it is a tight knit community(Trust me) if a couple people get this every one will know about it.

[Sniffles]

I doubt at your age any company would be willing to take the chance that you are going to be mature and responsible enough to represent them. Reguardless of your fishing ability.

I would put your focus on school. Get on a College fishing team. Take some courses related to the field.

If your looking for money to help pay for tackle. and entry fee's. Get a part time job. It will probaly be less work/time than being sponsored.

[Ramyot]

To find out if you got what it takes to get the eyes and ears of sponsors you have to be able to sell product as well as educated, go to your local tackle shop offer to work a sale promotion they might be having, usually on weekends, wont interfere with school, it will give you a chance to see what kind of salesman you are and also the store can give you a good reference, word of mouth goes along way when its good.give it some thought when talking to the store manager you have to be able to sell yourself first, be professional, and set goals so high you can't reach them.

good luck

[flyfisher]

I am not sure of the rules for college fishing if they are the same as other NCAA sports but be careful of sponsorships as you could lose eligibility. I know I couldn't even take a prize pack from hoop it up tournaments if it was over a certain amount or I would risk losing eligibility to play college ball.

The other thing is say you find a sponsor like st croix and things are great and you head to college and join their fishing team but the school is sponsored by kistler. All of the sudden you have to drop st croix after they helped you get started.

I would say work on getting straight A's fish all you can and even fish tournaments. Read all you can and figure out what you want to go to college for, marketing, fisheries biology, IT etc... Sponsors will come with time if that is what you want to pursue but if they don't you don't want to be that guy with a bass boat who lives with their parents at 40 years old because you didn't prepare for the long haul.

[etommy28]

The rules of college fishing are not like NCAA, you really have to have sponsors in college fishing.

[Hanover_Yakker]

School has to be the priority - college teaches you more than just how to study and pass a class.  It teaches you social skills, business accumen, time management, money management and how to "promote" your skills in obtaining leadership opportunities.  With that said, your focus should be school for the first year or two, because your foundation classes will set your baseline GPA for your entire college career.  Once you enter your designated major (JR year), your GPA is very difficult to raise significantly if you are in the lower ranges.  Simply because your core classes the first two and a half years typically out number your major classes.

 

As far as the fishing goes, I would ask around and see if you can find any regular fishing partners while at school.  Eventually, any success or skills you have will find there way back to the Fishing Team.  You can also reach out to a current member of the team and ask if they would mind if you joined them while they practiced.  If you have skills, it will show pretty quickly.  When that happens, they will approach you! 

[flyfisher]

The rules of college fishing are not like NCAA, you really have to have sponsors in college fishing.

Is it the school or the individual that has sponsrs though?  That is the big difference.  My basketball team was sponsored by Nike for all of our shoes and uniforms but i oculd not get any personal sponsors (not that i was good enough to do that most likely).

[etommy28]

It depends, For instance, when Im representing my school I wear certain sponsors when im fishing as an individual I wear my sponsors. it depends on the school, some clubs dont allow anglers to have outside sponsors but most dont care.

[Jason Short]

Guys I've taken some people's advice and stopped trying to get sponsored by companies for now. I'll still be working on my promotional skills by promoting companies I believe in whether even though I am not sponsored by them. I'm looking for a summer job and will be saving for a boat and truck once I find one. I'm fishing tournaments from the back of the boat with a partner, and am fishing Jr. tournaments with TBF. I might fish the Ohio HS state championship and in a few years will be looking into college fishing. So basically I'm not worried about sponsors for now.

[tbone1993]

Is it the school or the individual that has sponsrs though?  That is the big difference.  My basketball team was sponsored by Nike for all of our shoes and uniforms but i oculd not get any personal sponsors (not that i was good enough to do that most likely).

College angler here, sponsors work on a team basis generally.  Most companies sponsor the teams rather than individuals. The guys that are really good have their own sponsors and fish against other pro anglers and not just collegiate athletes. Keep in mind your stud high school angler in many cases is your average college angler. Some of the best guys in high school do not even compare to most college anglers.

[tbone1993]

Guys I've taken some people's advice and stopped trying to get sponsored by companies for now. I'll still be working on my promotional skills by promoting companies I believe in whether even though I am not sponsored by them. I'm looking for a summer job and will be saving for a boat and truck once I find one. I'm fishing tournaments from the back of the boat with a partner, and am fishing Jr. tournaments with TBF. I might fish the Ohio HS state championship and in a few years will be looking into college fishing. So basically I'm not worried about sponsors for now.

Find sponsors for your club rather than you yourself. Companies will sponsor hs clubs before they sponsor a young kid. I only know of one angler that is "sponsored" by a few small bait companies and he is only 17. 

[flyfisher]

So,I guess college fishing isn't a NCAA sanctioned sport and is more of a club deal? Makes sense since people can have individual sponsors.

[tbone1993]

So,I guess college fishing isn't a NCAA sanctioned sport and is more of a club deal? Makes sense since people can have individual sponsors.

Nope. We get 0 funding from our university. Some schools have $1,000 scholarships which is practically nothing. We are recognized as an RSO (registered student organization) but not a team.  We do get money sometimes for travel expenses because we are an RSO but those funds can be received by any RSO on campus ( we have hundreds).  Also a committee decides how much we get after we apply. Some schools do treat it like a full fledged sport though. I wish my school did because we represent them across the country, but that is not my decision.

[SudburyBasser]

Guys I've taken some people's advice and stopped trying to get sponsored by companies for now. I'll still be working on my promotional skills by promoting companies I believe in whether even though I am not sponsored by them. I'm looking for a summer job and will be saving for a boat and truck once I find one. I'm fishing tournaments from the back of the boat with a partner, and am fishing Jr. tournaments with TBF. I might fish the Ohio HS state championship and in a few years will be looking into college fishing. So basically I'm not worried about sponsors for now.

 

Don't give up your dream though. Kick butt in school and get an education so you have a backup plan. Have a five- and ten-year plan for how you want to end up being a professional with sponsorships. Even Kevin Van Dam had to start from the beginning. In ten years we'll be reading about you as Rookie of the Year in FLW or BASS. Then you can tell us that you told us so

 

Just be sure to send some lures from your sponsors our way!

[BassCats]

I would suggest fishing as many events as you can. Go to School and join the team at whatever University you go to. Fish as many of those tournaments as you can afford and network. Talk to everybody and get to know them. Join FLW, B.A.S.S., P.A.A.  Start signing up to be a marshal on the circuits. This is a great way to meet some of the pros and network with them. Getting sponsored is about marketing and about networking. The more people you know and become friends with the easier it is for them to help you out. 

[Siebert Outdoors]

Honestly,  it does not make you stick out.  You need to revamp the resume.  You must shine and be above the standard.

 

Keep working at it. 

[bmlum415]

Guys I've taken some people's advice and stopped trying to get sponsored by companies for now. I'll still be working on my promotional skills by promoting companies I believe in whether even though I am not sponsored by them. I'm looking for a summer job and will be saving for a boat and truck once I find one. I'm fishing tournaments from the back of the boat with a partner, and am fishing Jr. tournaments with TBF. I might fish the Ohio HS state championship and in a few years will be looking into college fishing. So basically I'm not worried about sponsors for now.

I'm in a similar situation as you but ill be fishing the ca state championship and im winning the local hs tournaments often, I'm not looking for sponsors but I do always promote my dobyns rods since IMO they're the best, I even like them more than all the loomis rods besides their nrx

[jbsoonerfan]

So,I guess college fishing isn't a NCAA sanctioned sport and is more of a club deal? Makes sense since people can have individual sponsors.

 

I believe that is the case. NCAA anglers can win prize money and we all know about players reeiving money in the major sports.

 

Well, as an Oklahoma fan, I wouldn't know anything about that