Landing a Job in Sports with Justin Winters

Meet Justin Winters.

You may already know Justin, even if you’ve never met him.

If you’ve spent any amount of time on LinkedIn searching for jobs in sports, there’s a good chance you’ve come across his weekly job board. Every week, Justin curates opportunities across teams, leagues, and departments and shares them publicly - for free and with no expectation of anything in return.

Over the last few years, he’s helped more than 18,000 students and young professionals navigate their sports career journeys through resume reviews, phone calls, late-night messages, and honest advice. He pours himself into the sports community and it’s become a defining part of his presence in the industry. What makes that impact more impressive is that it wasn’t something Justin set out to brand or scale. It’s simply an extension of how he’s always approached his career.

Justin’s original dream wasn’t working behind the scenes. Like many people drawn to sports, he grew up wanting to be on camera. SportsCenter. Broadcasting. Telling the stories. That goal followed him all the way through college, until a senior-year internship forced a hard realization. He didn’t enjoy the work, and more importantly, he didn’t enjoy the environment.

Rather than forcing himself down a path that no longer fit, Justin pivoted. Not away from sports, but toward a different role within it. He realized he would rather be where the story was happening than reporting on it after the fact.

After graduation, while he was figuring this all out, he took a job outside the industry, quickly learned it definitely was not the answer, and made the leap to go all in on his career in sports. He cold-emailed more than 1,000 colleges and universities across the country asking for any opportunity available. Full-time, internship, graduate assistant. Anything.

Three schools responded.

One of them was the University of New Haven, which offered him the chance to work in the athletic department while earning his master’s degree. The next year was a grind. Long days in the office, nights in class, and weekends at games. On top of his role at New Haven, in the summer Justin also interned at Yale, covering events, writing recaps, shooting content, and doing whatever was needed to support the athletic program.

The workload was intense and the compensation minimal, but the experience paid off when he landed his first role after graduation with the Kansas City Chiefs, where he joined the community relations team. The role placed him at the intersection of players, staff, and the local community, supporting youth programs, hospital visits, and outreach initiatives. It was in this role where Justin began to understand the power of creating experiences that actually mattered to people.

That understanding deepened when Justin joined Make-A-Wish, a move he intentionally pursued because of the organization’s personal significance to him. As a child, Justin had been a wish recipient himself. Years later, he was presented with the opportunity to return to the organization as a professional. In the role, Justin coordinated complex wishes in New York City for children and families traveling in from around the world, often managing high-pressure logistics under tight timelines. He was frequently on call, balancing communication, planning, and execution while ensuring every detail was handled with care.

The position demanded a high level of emotional intelligence. Justin worked closely with families navigating incredibly difficult circumstances, learning how to communicate with empathy, remain composed under pressure, and solve problems in real time when there was little margin for error.

Those experiences accelerated his development, but more importantly, gave him the opportunity to create more impact in a year and a half than many will have in a lifetime. He helped to grant over 350 wishes and left knowing that he had changed the lives of the kids and their families he had the opportunity to work with.

Justin’s next stop was with Madison Square Garden Entertainment as a VIP Services Coordinator. Shortly after being hired, COVID shut down the industry, which made this an interesting stop in Justin’s career. The majority of the organizations staff was laid off as the pandemic extended, including Justin, but he was almost immediately hired back as a contracted employee, and found himself supporting recruiting, HR, ticketing, community engagement, and internal operations simultaneously.

When COVID and his contracted role came to an end, Justin chose to pursue a role elsewhere rather than return to Madison Square Garden in a full-time capacity. His search led him to the Washington Nationals, where he reimagined what HR could look like inside a sports organization. Rather than focusing solely on process and compliance, he emphasized employee engagement, building connection through small but intentional efforts that made people feel valued at work.

Guest experience focuses on how fans and attendees feel before, during, and after an event. The role is responsible for designing, managing, and improving every touchpoint of the live experience, from entry and seating to staff interactions, accessibility, and issue resolution. Guest experience leaders work across operations, fan engagement, ticketing, security, and venue teams to ensure events run smoothly and guests feel supported.

The work is fast-paced and highly situational. One day may involve training and managing large part-time staffs, while another requires handling real-time guest concerns, coordinating across departments, or evaluating feedback to improve future events. Success in guest experience requires adaptability, emotional intelligence, and the ability to lead calmly in high-pressure environments where expectations are high and no two days look the same.

After a little more than a year with the Nationals, Justin was approached about a role with the Houston Dynamo, who were in the process of building out a fan engagement department. The call came from a LinkedIn connection Justin had originally reached out to years earlier for an informational conversation. Justin had contacted her simply to learn about her day-to-day work while she was working at the Denver Nuggets, and how she had built her career, but they had stayed in touch over time. When a new fan engagement role opened with her new team, she thought of Justin and reached out. His background across community relations, HR, and experiential roles made him a strong fit for a team defining its identity.

Justin relocated to Houston and joined the organization at a formative moment. Across two seasons, he worked across both the Dynamo and Dash, managing community programs, theme nights, and in-game activations.

After two years in Houston, Justin found and applied for his current position with the Charlotte Hornets working as a Guest Experience Manager, a role that feels like a natural convergence of everything he’s done before. In his role he oversees hundreds of part-time employees who are responsible for making sure that every guest who enters the arena has an incredible experience. He spends game days out in the concourse, supporting his staff and doing the little things to make his own impact on every person who walks through the doors.

On paper, Justin’s career path doesn’t follow a traditional arc. NFL. MLB. MLS. NBA. Nonprofit work. HR. Fan engagement. Guest experience. Education. Online mentorship. But when viewed through the lens of progression, the path becomes clear.

At each stage, Justin pursued roles that expanded his responsibility, sharpened his people skills, and most importantly, allowed him to serve others more effectively. He built credibility through execution, leveraged each opportunity to grow his scope, and made decisions that aligned with his values rather than a traditional, linear climb.

His LinkedIn job board and the support he offers to others pursuing a career in the industry reflects the same approach. It is the continuation of a career built on serving and impacting others.

Justin’s story is a reminder that there is no single blueprint for advancement in sports. Progress does not always come from chasing the next title. Sometimes it comes from doing the work well, showing up for others, and trusting that the right opportunities will follow.

Q. You have now advised over 18,000 people on their sports career journeys. What is the most impactful piece of advice that you find yourself giving regularly?

A. Say yes to every opportunity that’s put in front of you. I’ve learned so much from volunteering at 5K’s, marathons, golf tournaments, galas, and more. Although there is numerous steps, we have to take in a career to be successful, a lot of them can be under our control, you just have to take the first step and identify what you want to do and how you’re going to get better at it.

Q. You are no stranger to moving for work. What impact has your willingness to relocate had on your career opportunities?

A. Being flexible in your career location will open up so many more doors for folks within the industry. If you keep waiting for the perfect job to open up at the perfect team, you may be waiting forever. Take a job that interests you if the opportunity presents itself and let everything else fall into place. I’ve seen so many people who are afraid to try something new or take a leap of faith but in this industry, that’s typically necessary if you want to move up!

Q. No matter where you have worked or what your title has been, people have always been at the forefront for you. How have you seen your commitment to others elevate the impact you have been able to have within the sports industry?

A. My goal has always been to impact people and ensure that I’m doing everything I can to help them succeed. I don’t view myself as an expert or savior in any capacity, but I do always hope that someone leaves a conversation with me knowing that someone has their back and cares about their success. Going through different job searches can be incredibly frustrating and depressing but I hope that folks knowing I’m here to help at least gives them some sense of hope that they’ll find the job of their dreams.

1. Don’t be afraid of the next opportunity.
Justin’s career progressed because he was willing to move departments, cities, teams, and even sports. Each transition added experience and perspective that ultimately led him to where he is today.

2. Keep people first.
Putting people at the center of his work has been the defining throughline of Justin’s career. That mindset applies across every role in sports, regardless of function or level.

3. Titles aren’t everything.
If a role moves you closer to your goals and you find the work fulfilling, it is serving a purpose, even if the title isn’t the one you imagined

Every week, Justin compiles open jobs across the industry and includes them on his free job board. This week’s list contains 253 jobs!! Check them out below and make sure to connect with Justin on LinkedIn to get the list each week.

Thank you for reading this week’s edition of So You Want to Work in Sports. I appreciate you being part of this community.

If you have ideas, feedback, or future guest suggestions, feel free to reach out at [email protected].

If you want more hands-on support as you navigate the start of your career within sports, book a 1:1 session with me here. The sooner you start preparing, the more confident you will feel when opportunities come your way.

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