Career in Bass Fishing Industry

[JamieA]

Good Morning folks!

I wanted to take a moment to get some ideas and/or advice on starting a career in the bass fishing industry...I would love to land a position with a tackle, rod, or boat company in Marketing or Sales. Being fully engulfed in all things fishing and even being a forum owner myself, I'm still finding it tough to get my foot in the door with any of these companies....

Any ideas or starting points?

I've bass fished for fun and for money for many years and even started my own online community of bass fisherman and women in Tennessee.

I have a strong background in Sales, Marketing, and Business Development and I'm currently Director of Operations for a company in Tennessee.

[NateFollmer]

Just handle it like you would any other industry. Keep plugging the resumes until someone bites. If you can, I would get your resume looked at by a professional. I was lucky enough to find a free seminar about resumes and it turned mine into gold.

I would also suggest using networking tools like facebook or even better - LinkedIn. LinkedIn is more business oriented and a lot more professional. I have had a few job offers on there just from having a profile (didn't take any though).

[JamieA]

Good stuff, but it's tough to find contacts....almost like a secret society ;D

I'll keep digging.

Thanks man!

[Nibbles]

Good Morning folks!

I wanted to take a moment to get some ideas and/or advice on starting a career in the bass fishing industry...I would love to land a position with a tackle, rod, or boat company in Marketing or Sales. Being fully engulfed in all things fishing and even being a forum owner myself, I'm still finding it tough to get my foot in the door with any of these companies....

Any ideas or starting points?

I've bass fished for fun and for money for many years and even started my own online community of bass fisherman and women in Tennessee.

I have a strong background in Sales, Marketing, and Business Development and I'm currently Director of Operations for a company in Tennessee.

Your background in Sales/Marketing/BusDev is a definite plus. Keep in mind that this experience is going to help you predominantly with tackle/lure/boat companies that already have their own in-house marketing/sales departments.

With your level of expertise, you're probably not looking for anything entry-level, and that may work against you as well. Anyone looking to hire will probably understand that they're going to have to pay you a certain amount because of your qualifications, and they may not be willing to at the time. There is such a thing as being overqualified. With that being said, you can mitigate this by showing them that you can bring things to the table that many others can't, thereby justifying a higher salary and position in any given company. If it's a position with responsibilities that anyone with marketing degrees and experience can handle, they're probably going to hire internally.

[NateFollmer]

Another thing you need to look out for it what companies are owned by who. You may try getting a job at a company that owns a fishing company, then migrating into the fishing end of things. For example, if you wanted to get in with Berkley, they are actually owned by Jarden, which owns a TON of different companies.

[oteymc]

Also, you may have success by finding out which ad and marketing companies have a fishing company's account. Some will have their own in house marketing, some will farm it out, and some do both. Instead of working directly for the tackle company, you may want to try and work for their ad agency.  Sometimes even their field reps don't work directly for the company, but another agency or marketing firm.