Gen. Zeer washed dirty university basketball and fallen floors to prove his passion – now he is one of the youngest trainees ever in the American Professional League

In an industry like professional sport, where competition for unpaid roles is often, the collapse often requires more creativity and sometimes, in preparation for the jobs that no one else wants.

For this reason, Daniel Song resorted to cleaning the washing of the university basketball team and clearing the court floors to emerge – and ended up securing a seat in the stadiums to succeed as one of the youngest trainees in the history of the American Professional League at the age of only 19 years.

“When I was touching the floors, people will come to take pictures of me and call me” a wiped boy. “I am a human being. luck.

Song spent a year for volunteering as director of the distinguished College The basketball team was unabated.

“Even my friends will be like,” Souh, you are a guard. ”

From advanced floors to multiple job offers rolling

Sun’s Drive was formed early through the experience of his family, who immigrated from South Korea to San Bernardino, opened 7-Eleven and then Mexican Restaurant to meet their needs. Without any personal contacts in the sports industry, Song knew that he would have to open his doors.

“Inside the sport world, you can survive either by being a fraud, or you have people who open your doors – with my background, I have no one who can open those doors for me, the only person who can open those doors like me.” “I knew that work in sports first would give me the land I need.”

“I was expected to do between 30 to 40 hours of unpaid work, and the work that I was doing was washing washing for basketball players with a length of 6 feet and 8 who have just finished from hours of training. So I wash them until one in the morning, and pass the ball to them during the game days.

Internal training in the American Professional League is usually allocated to university children or the elderly – from 20 to 22 years. This year, the basketball league received more 19,000 requests For the summer training program 2025. Although he is smaller than competition, Song says his request to join La Clippers because of his college peer experience.

“After my interview, someone said that my story was not reasonable because many people enter sport and only say, they want to work in sports because he is really wonderful or love basketball,” Sung added. “But I literally built last year for that. I was not there to remove.”

Last week was the last week of his marketing training. Sung was publishing updates about his experience LinkedInIn detail the challenges he faced and the lessons he learned along the way.

“Since I started publishing on LinkedIn, which was about four weeks ago, many people have already noticed my story – and this already opens the door to a lot of opportunities.”

Online interest has already translated into thousands of followers and concrete work offers. Sung now works with two startups: one, job application platform with a focus on artificial intelligence, as it helped launch a new group program; And the other, the LinkedIn pages of the big companies. Later this year, he will also get a marketing role to lined up Red Ball In Nashville – who will have success with the college.

“I actually got these offers only from a month of publication,” Song says. “The thing that really opened my eyes after working in this training is that you should be really innovative, you have to think differently and you have to get out of there.”

“You also taught me how I needed to expand my personal brand – hence LinkedIn’s posts. While I was publishing, I got a lot of opportunities and doors that I thought had never opened, so it was one in the summer, and this is certain.”

Advice for Gen Z for their dreams of training

Instead of applying for jobs that suit your experience after graduation, Sung recommends his colleague Gen Zers to think first of their final career goal – and align each experience with that, regardless of how small.

“When you think about work applications, it is extremely important to tell your life a story,” the teenager explains. “My story was that I wanted to work with La Clippers, right? And so I did some kind of there. If I wanted to work in La Clippers, I knew I needed to work in sports.”

Knowing that you need experience for experience, calculate Sung’s best options to start his university sports team.

“So I think that if you want to put your foot in the door, you just have to be very clear Why“You have to start very small,” he says.

In the end, one year gave him more of Drdge’s works more than just entering a relevant CV – as he gave him access.

“Even if the unaccounted and unprecedented work is with the invisible vision, as the presence of professionals in this industry gives you this exposure,” Song says, adding that he was able to obtain a professional advice from coaches and college director in basketball operations. Whenever they were going through, he was throwing quick questions on their way.

“It is difficult for the ordinary student to do so.” “So, in that environment, you are surrounded by people who have done it, and therefore you just have to enter there. But first, you just have to know the reason, and this guidance should be through all of this.”

Fortune wants to hear about unusual methods and creative strategies that led to your first role. Contact: [email protected]