Career's for Officiating

[Rich]

Originally Posted by doubleringer

I couldn't agree more with this statement. Also, I make it a practice to be very upfront with employers about my commitments to officiating every season. I would do the same during an interview. It will help you out with some employers, but may hurt you with others, but to me, you're better off being honest and upfront about it.

Officiating doesn't pay the bills for most people. At some point, you'll have to worry about paying rent or a mortgage and I know my officiating income wouldn't come close to covering even this expense and doesn't pay anything near what my day job pays.

I'm not sure that an interview is a place, especially in this economy (I know I'm using a cliche here, but there is truth to it) where you give excuses to why you won't be able to work at certain times for a company. It's a matter of give and take. You'll be able to officiate with a job, but maybe not the same number of days a week you can while you're in school. When I thought about changing jobs 7 years ago, I did bring it up -- mainly because I wasn't sold on the idea of moving to a new job *and* because I already had a good job (albeit with some problems at the time).

The best jobs for officials (at the HS level) are ones where work starts early in the day and finishes early in the day. Teaching is a good example. I worked with a prison guard last week. Many white collar jobs, however, have higher expectations for employees and until you prove you're a valued (and hard-to-replace) employee, you'll probably have to be a lot more flexible than your employer.