When Brooke Cooper started at the Worcester Red Sox as a merchandise intern in 2015, there were days where she’d go to work in the team store and leave without talking to a single person.
Because of how the team’s stadium, then in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, was set up, “the team store was so isolated,” the now 33-year-old general manager of the Triple-A minor league affiliate of the Boston Red Sox tells CNBC Make It. The store was physically separated from the ticket office and where the operations team sat, so on non-game days, Cooper says there were times where she would vacuum, fold clothes and manage inventory alone.
“Those days got pretty long and lonely,” Cooper says.
To stand out, Cooper says one of the first things she did as an intern was study the team’s program book. She memorized the names and faces of every single person in the front office, so when they did pass by, she could say hi and address them by their name, she says.
While she looks back on the experience “comically,” she says the strategy worked. Leaders in the front office began to know the then 23-year-old pursuing an MBA, with a concentration in marketing. That helped her land a full-time job with the team after the internship, Cooper says.
