A Hampton University graduate just landed a role with ESPN’s Next Program in Bristol, Connecticut after a year long job search.

Roderick McLean is a member of Digital Career Opportunities Worldwide, a professional development program geared to help media professional excel in their career. He became a member of the Global Facebook Community in 2018 with over 5,800 members and stood out as an upcoming sports journalist.

He told us about his journey, the ups-and downs and really how to push forward while looking for a job. “I’ve always had the picture about what I wanted to do whether it’s sideline reporting, announcing and now more off-camera work,” McLean said during his Facebook Live interview.

He attributes a great deal of his success to Hampton University, which is also a Historically Black College and University based in Virginia.

“The one thing about [attending] an HBCU it’s always great having people who look like you and just great people who achieve great things. One thing about attending HBCU’s, coming from Hampton, even though we were competing – we were helping each other at the same time,” he said.

In Mid-July, McLean was accepted into the ESPN Next Program, which promotes leadership, exploration, and diversity. It’s the 18-month program will expose production assistants to different areas of content through two rotations in the program’s seven pods.

Each pod is home to various studio shows and live events. Production assistants will learn everything they need to know in order to grow as storytellers and leaders. In addition, they’ll be exposed to the larger business through workshops and a project focusing on ESPN priorities, according to ESPNNextProgram.com

During his journey he hosted podcasts, interviewed sports journalists on Instagram TV and kept pushing towards his dream of landing a job at ESPN.

McLean told job seekers toward the end of his interview “…Hold yourself accountable and don’t be scared to [try something new].