When I took my job as a 'Head Scout' at this company I could not have been more excited. I get to talk sports at home, for a job, make $100k, AND help kids get college scholarships? Sounds like the dream job! Then I worked there and this is where things went downhill. If you want to have no life at all but make a lot of money, maybe I haven't lost you yet. A typical day includes making calls to families who have been cold called by a 'Scout' (aka some kid fresh out of college who says anything to the family to take a meeting with a 'Head Scout' cause it's free). Your morning is filled with calling the families you have scheduled in your calendar for that night and the next to 'confirm' the meeting. Most of the time you don't get answers, they don't understand what the call is about, or ask if it costs money (because NCSA doesn't say it costs money, doesn't tell anyone their prices because they are very expensive, and the 'Scouts' tell the families its a 'free evaluation'. So besides trying to confirm your meetings you will be making follow up calls to families that said no on the phone during your 'evaluation' (we will get to the evaluation in a bit) but need to try and re-sell them on what the cost of recruiting will be without NCSA. Mix in some video conferencing meeting along with meetings with your micromanaging manager talking to you and reviewing your 'calls' and how you need to open your calendar up to hit more meetings. This happens OVER and OVER and OVER. That's your job for 3 hours in the morning. Since NCSA is based out of Chicago, that's typically from 9am to noon.
From noon until 430 you are 'free'. But make sure you're checking your phone constantly for e-mails that come through cause you need to make sure you're not missing anything. Typical amount of e-mails that come through per day are around 60-75. Now, starts the second half of your day. So from about 4:30-5 you are prepping for your calls, seeing what families cancelled their 'free evaluation' because they asked their coach, read reviews online, heard somewhere it costs money and are no longer interested. Your slots are an hour and 15 minutes long. So you work 5-6:15, 6:15-7:30, 7:30-8:45, 8:45-10, 10-11:15 and if you want to hit your numbers or work seven days a week, you will try and get your 11:15pm - 12:30am slot filled also. That is your typical day Monday - Thursday. Friday lots of people will work cause they are under pressure to get more meetings or hit certain sales numbers so they will add in a couple meetings as well. Then the fun and exciting weekend. Now on Saturday and Sunday, you are expected to work both days technically your actual 'day off' is Friday. So wake up and do meetings from 8am to 1pm on Saturday and then on Sunday, some guys will do anywhere from 5-10 meetings. Well, at least open up their calendars for that many. Many will fall out because families usually have lives on weekends and are doing things with their family and friends. But can you leave to go do something if a family doesn't show up? Nope. Because your next call is only an hour from then and theres not enough time to do anything but sit and maybe grab a snack and catch a bit of Sportscenter. You want time with your family? Your kids? Your friends? Go to sporting events? Watch your nephews mid-week game? Go out to eat with people? Have a social life? Well that all goes out the window with this job. I can't call it a career because there is no career advancement what so ever. The "VP's" for the most part are people that do a whole lot of nothing but micromanage, sit on meetings, and talk about how to improve your call and get more meetings set up.
Now during your 'evaluations' with the family you will deal with people that have no money to pay for such an expensive service for something they can do on their own, people that thought the call was a 'free evaluation', questions on how do we work specifically with college coaches (ask around, I would honestly say the majority don't use or like information that NCSA sends the coaches), how do we evaluate their kid besides talking to them on the phone (most kids have no video at all and no varsity experience but as long as they'll pay, we will take them). Now during your call, your first 10-20 minutes is to build rapport with the family to get them to 'trust you' and then you begin your hard sell. Covering the same exact talk track family after family after family, day after day after day. You have to show them the webpage, how it works and how it will be beneficial to their needs. So just do a quick favor, go to Best Buy or ESPN or whatever site you want, and now imagine you have to explain how to use that site for 5-6 hours a night, day in and day out. The site doesn't change, just the person you're talking to does. Sounds new and exciting every night right? This has to be the most monotonous job in the world.
Everything on the NCSA site can be done for free if you do a simple Google search but it is nice for families to have in one place. The software is definitely above average and fairly simple to use. But that's not why families enroll. They enroll because the messaging is we will help their student athlete find the college of their dreams and get recruited to PLAY at that school because of our connections, our knowledge and our guidance. What would you say one 'Recruiting Coach' could handle in getting to know each student athlete and their families, following up how their season is going, help them make better videos, talk about whats been new, what schools they have been talking to, how to follow up with them, how to negotiate scholarships, how to get financial aid, etc etc etc? 10? 50? 100 student athletes and families at once? Actually, when you enroll a family, you NEVER speak to them ever again cause they all get sent to a recruiting coach who has on average of OVER 1,000 different student athletes to manage and keep track of. You think your high dollar investment would get you a little more personal attention, but unfortunately for the families and the student athlete, it doesn't.
If you want to work 6-7 days a week from home, sell a product that doesn't live up to its messaging, live in a bubble, miss out of life but make a lot of money, then NCSA is your job. The turnover is ridiculously high for a reason but for some, all the above is worth it. This is the 100% reality of this job and if someone tells you any different, they are flat out being dishonest. Best of luck to anyone reading this. I hope it helps one way or another.
