ISSUE 022: Toronto FC's Technical Director, Sean Rubio

IN THIS ISSUE

• 👋 Introduction: First impressions

• ⭐️ Featured Job: Two open roles at the Columbus Crew

• 👨‍🎓 Soccer Thought Leader: Sean Rubio of Toronto FC

• 👥 Mentorship Opportunity: 1-on-1 with Sean Rubio

• ⚽️ Soccer Jobs: New + interesting jobs

• 🫵 Do This Now: Craft a standout first sentence for your cover letter

INTRODUCTION

Hello, Pathwayers! 👋

Often times a first impression is a lasting impression. A welcoming “hello,” a kind word or two, a thoughtful introduction, a well-constructed opinion.

Today, we want to encourage each of you to pause and give consideration to the many first impressions you make on a daily basis - and reflect on the simple idea that the sum of these impressions directly contributes to your ability to positively impact someone’s opinion of you.

To provide a concrete example, this week’s Do This Now is all about making a positive first impression by writing a killer opening sentence of your cover letter.

Additionally, in the Soccer Thought Leader interview, I am delighted to share the career journey and experiences of my former colleague, and current Toronto FC Technical Director, Sean Rubio. Sean is a thoughtful, hard-working, and introspective person. His honest and direct approach is one that I appreciate and respect.

Enjoy Issue 022!

-Nolan Sheldon, Co-Founder & CXO

Did you spot a job that we need to include or have feedback on the newsletter? Drop us an email!

SOCCER THOUGHT LEADER: SEAN RUBIO, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR OF TORONTO FC

“What I love about the sport is that there’s an openness with emotion.”

At the heart of any highly effective and successful sporting front office, there is an individual who is well-versed in roster building, salary cap, league rules, analytics, and player acquisitions - all done with the aim of building a balanced and talented roster, not only for the immediate season but to lay the foundation for the club’s future.

For many years, Sean Rubio has been that individual for both Austin FC and Toronto FC. Sean doesn’t allow one stone to be left unturned - he is constantly utilizing the best tools, resources, and methods to maximize roster value and has developed a reputation within MLS as being one of the best out there.

If you’re interested in pursuing a career in sporting leadership, Sean’s comments are packed full of practical and highly valuable take-home advice.

Get your highlighter and dig in.

-Nolan Sheldon, Co-Founder & CXO

Questions and answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity (and any emphasis below is ours).

PATHWAY: What was it about the sport of soccer that grabbed your imagination and eventually led to your pursuing a career in the sport?

SEAN: I think a good starting point is probably the first ever MLS game that I was at - D.C. United at San Jose Clash in April of 1996. I still have a trading card that I got from that game of me holding a ball. I think I was eight years old. We were season ticket holders from day one - I grew up with the league going to Clash and then Earthquakes games as a kid and being a super fan of sorts.

In eighth grade, you had to do a mini-project and the topic I chose was soccer in the United States. And part of the project was you had to conduct an interview, so I interviewed Jed Mettee who was at the time [and still is!] with the San Jose Earthquakes - he and I ended up staying in touch.

I was able to get some video analysis experience on the American football side at university, and parlay that into an internship with the Quakes through my relationship with Jed, parlay that into an internship at the MLS league office, and then full-time with the Quakes.

But I really look at it as an eighth grader, not that I necessarily knew what I was setting myself up for at that time, but hugely pivotal as far as my pathway.

PATHWAY: Did you always want to be on the sporting side or was it undecided for a period of time?

SEAN: I think it was unknown. My first internship was in media relations because I did a communications degree in undergrad. So at that time, I didn't necessarily see the pathway towards the sporting side, but the internship I had at the league office was in competition and game ops. And so that was actually my first taste of the sporting side within soccer.

Going back to the American football experience, as a video coordinator - that was a real eye-opener as far as what locker rooms can look like and how coaches talk and all this kind of stuff. I enjoyed the banter and the environment, but it still didn't click for me that that could be a possibility within soccer until I went to the league office and got to work with Ali Curtis, Tim Bezbatchenko, and Jeff Agoos. That was probably the turning point and I realized there were real opportunities out there.

I then went back to the Quakes in 2011 as their first video analyst. I would say it kicked into high gear because of how the Earthquakes were structured. I got to do a bunch of other stuff - work with the GM on the salary cap and do a lot of scouting. So, it was a video analyst plus type of role, which was amazing.

In 2014 I ended up taking a role with US Soccer in coaching education, leaving the MLS ecosystem, and at the time I thought that I was closing that chapter to be totally honest.

And then my first opportunity in Toronto effectively dropped out of the sky in 2016. Tim Bezbatchenko reached out to me with an opportunity. It was sort of a salary cap, plus scouting, with a bit of analytics - so, I decided to take that opportunity. So, it was an interesting pivot - that definitely stands out as far as being flexible with our ideas long-term of where you might be landing.

PATHWAY: If you reflect back on your career, what's one area of development you wish you had spent more time on?

SEAN: I think self-awareness. I was lucky that I had supervisors, leaders, and bosses that would call me on my shit, for lack of a better term, because I needed that. I think, at least for myself as a young man, I think there are feelings of invincibility, of knowing all the answers and willing to say that you know all the answers and giving that feedback when that feedback might not actually have anyone interested in it.

And so I was lucky that I had people who would check me on that. I think if I was able to do more of that work on my own, I would have stepped in it less often. But I think it really helped me over time to recognize those moments and be a little more calculated and adjust as needed.

PATHWAY: Think of talented colleagues that you've worked with - what is one characteristic that you believe is critical to being successful in one’s career?

SEAN: I think it's humility. First of all, the game humbles you. And if you don't think it does, then just give it a little more time - things are cyclical. Once you’re in this profession long enough, you have awful seasons, you have amazing seasons, and you have everything in between - the game itself is just ruthless.

And so you have to be able to sort of take a step back and understand where you can fit into that or maybe where you don't fit into certain things. So for me, the humility piece is there - towards coworkers and the working environment - just being open about the fact that we don't have all the answers, I think goes a really long way towards gaining trust from people.

PATHWAY: What's one piece of advice you would give someone who wants to pursue a career in sporting leadership?

SEAN: I think this is a pretty practical answer - you have to be willing to move. At least if I look at my trajectory, if I wasn't willing to pack up and move to a city I'd never been to before and didn't have any friends or family there - I wouldn't say I would have stagnated, but I just wouldn't have had the opportunities that I was able to sort of carve out for myself.

So, that doesn't mean it's easy and it doesn't mean it's for everyone, but it does require a willingness to pack up and move. You know, I've done it in a number of different cities at this point. And there are sacrifices that come along with that. But if you're not willing to do that, it is going to be more difficult for you. I do think it's actually that straightforward in some ways.

PATHWAY: What will be a prominent role in soccer in the future?

SEAN: I'm gonna cheat a little bit and say it's a role that we [at Toronto FC] do have that I don't think many others do.

We call it our Performance & Wellness Coach, which is Robyn Gayle. But some version of, I wouldn't say directly in the sports psychology lane, but maybe adjacent to that - a bit of monitoring the culture, the interactions that are happening on a day-to-day basis, as well as working one-on-one with players as far as their mental capacity and helping them with that.

It's a credit, I would say to John Herdman, that he's worked with Robyn for a long time. And it's clear the value that she brings on a day-to-day basis. And so I think that's going to become more normalized, not just across the league, but across the sport, to have an extension to the technical staff, but they are operating in a slightly different space versus some of the other assistant coaches.

PATHWAY: Think about a student who wants to pursue a similar career path as you. What is something that that individual can begin to do now as a student to prepare for that career outside of what they're studying?

SEAN: I think the sort of bullet point answer is networking, but I think that it's way more profound than that as far as having conversations with people that are in those places. And maybe in some ways that's obvious, but I actually think it's less about making the connection and it's more about understanding what that person is going through effectively. So, you can really try and have some empathy towards that and put yourself in those shoes.

Because you really don't know until you're in it. The more you can hear someone else's story, someone else's experiences, I think you can take that and work with it internally, reflect on that, and go, ‘okay, based on what I know, maybe I would have tried this.’

You can go back to that person and say, in my head, this could have made sense. Ultimately, that person is going to tell you, yeah, we thought of that, but we could not do that because of X, Y, or Z. So it just starts to snowball a little bit, and even without being in those roles, you can build a little bit of a knowledge base from those conversations.

PATHWAY: What do you love most about working in soccer?

SEAN: I think it's the emotions because, I mean, we're gonna go a little deep here, but that's an area of my life that I'm always constantly working on as sort of my own emotional compass and things like this. And what I love about the sport is that there's an openness to emotion. I think amongst men at least, for better or worse, we see the arena, so to speak, as a place of safety as far as emotions are concerned.

And I wish we actually had more of those arenas. But as we don't, the fact that soccer for me is the most emotional game, due to the low scoring - I think that every point is sort of such - the ecstasy and the agony and all these types of things that, yeah, the emotions of the game and sort of the people's openness to be emotional, it really just tickles something in the brain and the heart.

Ed. note: You can connect with Sean on LinkedIn.

PATHWAY MENTORSHIP OPPORTUNITY: 1-ON-1 WITH SEAN RUBIO

Sean has kindly offered to conduct two (2) 1-on-1 mentorship sessions. If you’re interested in speaking with Sean directly, click below to raise your hand for the opportunity. 🙋

• PATHWAY MENTORSHIP APPLICATION: Sean Rubio, Toronto FC [apply here!]

SOCCER JOBS: THE MOST INTERESTING NEW JOBS IN SOCCER

New soccer jobs get posted every week and we like to highlight a few of the roles that stand out to us. See below, please. ⬇️

• Manager, Events - NWSL

• Accountant - Rhode Island FC

• Director, Soccer Growth - U.S. Soccer

• Head Women’s Coach - Davis & Elkins College

• Sr. Coordinator, Ticket Operations - Inter Miami CF

• Director, Scouting & Roster Development - NJ/NY Gotham FC

Want to see all the soccer jobs in one place? Sign up for our weekly “Pathway Jobs Newsletter” where we aggregate as many as 100 new soccer job listings - and drop it into your inbox every Friday.

DO THIS NOW: WRITE THE FIRST SENTENCE OF YOUR COVER LETTER LIKE A PRO

If you don’t get this right, you don’t get the job. 🤷‍♂️

We’re in the midst of hiring for two roles at my soccer-specific marketing and creative agency, Name & Number. And the response has been overwhelming as nearly 250 candidates have applied.

That means that we’ve read 200+ cover letters (surprisingly, not every candidate includes one but that’s another topic!), and because we like to shoot you straight, soccer friends, I’m here to tell you - many of them are boring.

They lack creativity. They like personality. They lack wit.

Sometimes, it’s hard to get past the first sentence because it’s so… uninspired. 🥱

Here are a few examples of opening sentences we’ve seen recently:

• “I am writing to express my keen interest in your open Graphic Designer position”

• “I would like the opportunity to speak with you about the marketing position role at Name & Number.”

• “Upon reading the job description, I feel my experience in marketing makes me an ideal candidate.”

• “I am writing to express my enthusiasm for the open role at Name & Number.”

See what I mean?

In a very, very competitive marketplace it is absolutely imperative that you stand out in your cover letter - and, in particular, in your opening sentence.

It is not an exercise to go through the motions.

Writing your cover letter is a process that should see you do multiple versions - and multiple drafts of those versions.

You should ask trusted friends and family to read your cover letter drafts to provide critical feedback, to make them better.

You should write and rewrite until you feel like you’ve written something that will arrest the reader - who just happens to be the person who holds the keys to your future employment.

Refer back to Issue 006 for more on crafting a standout cover letter, but today we want to focus on your opening sentence.

• DO THIS NOW: Write a killer first sentence for your cover letter to grab attention and set yourself apart.

In the Pathway Resource linked below we lay out our 5-step process for crafting a opening sentence to your cover letter that’s sure to stand out.

• PATHWAY RESOURCE: Cover Letter First Sentence Guide

You’ll see in the guide that we use one of the first sentence examples referenced above to show an example of what the exercise should look like so you have something to compare to.

Click the link above, make a copy or download, and get going!

-Kyle Sheldon, Founder & CEO

PS - How was my opening sentence to this section? Did it grab your attention?

WHEN YOU’RE READY, HERE ARE A FEW WAYS WE CAN HELP:

1. If this email was forwarded to you, you can sign up here to ensure you get every issue (sent on Wednesdays!) directly in your inbox.

2. You can subscribe to our Pathway Jobs Newsletter, which hits inboxes every Friday and lists as many new soccer jobs in North America as we can find (usually 80+ per issue!).

3. And, if you’re a club or brand looking to hire the most ambitious talent in soccer, drop us a line and we can tell you about our process, our growing talent pool, and the services we offer.

GIVE US A FOLLOW.

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See you next time!

• John Bello

• Kyle Sheldon

• Nolan Sheldon