Colts reporter emphasizes preparation, offseason initiative
When Caroline Cann applied to work for the Indianapolis Colts, she didn’t do it for the job. She did it for the interview experience.
After a month went by without word from the Colts, she signed a lease to live near her alma mater in Columbia, South Carolina, for a year. The next day, the Colts called to see if she was still interested. Two weeks later, she was moving to Indianapolis.
Cann has been out of college for a year and a half and now works as a digital media and sideline reporter for the Indianapolis Colts. She came to The Media School on Tuesday night to talk with students interested in sports media about sacrifice, hustle and the lessons professional football has taught her. While in school, she worked hard to prepare for a career post-graduation.
“Focus on your career, because in about a year, six months, after you graduate, it’s you,” Cann urged students. “It’s nobody else.”
Cann graduated in 2015 from the University of South Carolina with a broadcast journalism degree. She started her work for the Colts in week three of the NFL preseason and has since gotten to know the players, interviewed famous coaches and even gone to London with the team.
“If I had not done the ‘hurry up’ part, there’s no way I would have been prepared for the wait and the job part,” Cann said. “In professional football, I was already ready for my position before the position was available because I had done the front-end stuff and now I was just waiting.”
Cann has been reporting on professional football for almost a year now, and she sees players in the gym working when they aren’t expected to be. She said it has made her realize the importance of the offseason, and she pays more attention to what she does in her own downtime. She is more adamant about preparing for interviews, getting stories right and the next steps in her career now.
Preparing for interviews is just as important as being yourself during them, she said. Interviewees are people too, and they want reporters to be as natural in their job as they are in their own. She reminisced about interviewing head coach Chuck Pagano for the first time, not believing she was experienced enough for the opportunity. She had simple questions to ask him, but she was so nervous that he told her to relax.
“Calm down,” Cann said. “Whether you believe it or not, you’re prepared for that opportunity.”
Julia Briano is a sophomore studying sports broadcasting at The Media School. She was invited to hear Cann speak through the Association for Women in Sports Media. She said she was impressed with how much Cann accomplished so young and was grateful to listen to her advice.
“It’s great to hear from young people,” Briano said. “She’s close to our age and was in our shoes recently.”
Cann also told the students to start paying closer attention to their peers. Don’t be overwhelmed by weighing their experience against yours, but know how to react to it and know why they are getting chosen for jobs, she said.
“You can think all these things about yourself, but if you’re not paying attention to people you think you’re comparable with and see the jobs they’re getting, then you don’t have any direction,” Cann said.
Cann ended her talk by addressing the upperclassmen in the room. The seniors in college have it figured out, she said. They know how to talk to the right professors and get the grades they need. Then, they graduate and become freshmen again in life. There are no seniors in life, she said, so she urged students to always reach out to superiors and mentors for help in landing their dream job. Her preparation and love of sports landed hers.
“I’m 25. (I was) where you (are) not that long ago,” Cann said. “This is completely doable.”
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