This Gen Zer didn’t have industry connections or an NBA pedigree—just a willingness to mop floors and do laundry for his college basketball team. That grit not only landed Daniel Sung a coveted internship with one of the league’s most innovative franchises—while millions in his generation are stuck unemployed—it also put him face-to-face with LA Clippers C-suite.
While most interns were content with group “lunch and learn”, the 19-year-old marketing intern decided to shoot his shot and directly cold-emailed his division’s CEO for a private one-to-one conversation.
“I really wanted to learn from her,” Sung told Fortune. Every week, the entire cohort of interns would have weekly meet-and-greets with LA Clippers’ senior leadership team—and Sung made it his personal mission to corner every single one for a personal catch up before his internship was up.
“I actually got in a little bit of trouble from HR,” he laughed. “But I knew I needed to talk to all of our C-suite before I left, because when else are you going to be just in that close of a proximity? It’s also hard to be more vulnerable and get really tailored advice otherwise.”
“I was very strategic, so that they could always see me passing them,” Sung said.
