From Trainee to Full-Time: Elizabeth Brooks

The path to a full-time position in professional baseball is different for everyone. Long and winding with many teams and levels for some, short and direct with the same team for others.
For a few members of the Gwinnett Stripers' front office, their journeys to full-time status with the club started with a pivotal stint as a Trainee.
Trainees are employed each season from January through September, and work alongside a specific department head to ensure off-field success while also learning and developing important career skills. Previous Trainees have worked in Stadium Operations, Ticket Sales, Corporate Sales, Sports Turf Management, Creative Services, Media Relations, Community and Promotions, Social Media and more.
Part two of this Q&A series features Elizabeth Brooks, who joined Gwinnett as the Ticket Operations Trainee in 2017 and was promoted to Ticket Operations Coordinator in September 2017.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What were your responsibilities as the Ticket Operations Trainee?
I was responsible for processing payments, printing all season tickets and parking vouchers, running daily deposit and account executive sales reports, hiring and training gameday ticket sellers, etc.
Had you worked in sports before joining Gwinnett?
I worked at Charlotte Motor Speedway, primarily in their Operations department, but I also worked part-time on nights and weekends as a Ticket Sales Representative.
What were some of the biggest things you learned as a Trainee?
The biggest thing I learned was exactly what goes into building and managing a season from start to finish within our ticket system. I had only been able to experience pieces of it before, but was given the opportunity to see each step of the process here.
What were your favorite parts about being a Trainee?
My favorite part was being given actual responsibility rather than simply getting irrelevant busy-work. Of course not everything was exciting, but I felt like the work I was doing was contributing to the organization.
What was the biggest challenge you faced as a Trainee?
The biggest thing I had to get used to was learning how to teach other people. In that position, I had to train our gameday sellers and new account reps on how to use our ticket systems. That's not something I really had to do previously and I wasn't too comfortable with it at first, but I learned.
As a Trainee, what was your interaction with the full-time staff like?
I was able to attend our weekly staff meetings and hear what each staff member was working on within their departments. They were always available to answer any questions I may have had.
Moving up to the Ticket Operations Coordinator role, how much different or expanded are your responsibilities now?
I'm still doing a lot of the same things as before, but without someone else to check over what I've done. I'm also now responsible for all of the financial reporting within the Ticket Sales department, as well as serving as our primary liaison with Ticketmaster to create and manage our events.
How did your experience as a Trainee prepare you for your position?
It gave me the opportunity to get hands-on experience doing a lot of the things I've ended up being responsible for in my full-time role.
What advice would you give to someone applying for the Stripers' Trainee Program?
Be prepared to have more responsibility placed on you than you might expect in a similar position elsewhere. Our Trainees are essential to running our season smoothly, so we need candidates with strong attention to detail and willingness to learn. This will not only help the organization, but hopefully put each Trainee in a position to secure full-time employment by the end of their time here.
The Gwinnett Stripers are currently accepting applications for the 2019 Trainee Program. Submit your application via Teamwork Online.