Carrie Oehm discovered her interest in pursuing a career in sports during her time in university. For this Toronto, Ontario native, this was a world she had been immersed in and surrounded by since a young age. Initially, Carrie dreamed of becoming a player agent and planned to enroll in law school to earn her degree in this area. During her time in college though, she began to become more and more passionate about the creative side of the industry, and wanted to explore opportunities in sports broadcasting and media. After making a sports video that went viral on YouTube, Carrie discovered that this was a world she was intrigued about, and solidified her commitment to embarking on a career in sports media. This was only the beginning. Not only did she return to school and enroll in a sports broadcasting/media program, but she also continued to seek out opportunities in the industry to build up her network and strengthen her experience in the space. After graduating from college, Carrie worked with a series of sports networks, teams, and organizations covering events as well as creating content. She hasn’t looked back since. Currently, Carrie is the Social Media Manager of The GIST—a sports media platform that creates content and experiences focused on women in sports—as well as a Video Host for blogTO—a digital platform that covers the food, entertainment, and event scene in Toronto. Talk about impressive!
How was the transition of going from college into the sports broadcasting and media space like?
For me, I was always super active in the industry while going to school. I worked at a bar on (the) weekends, and my classes in school were not during typical hours—for instance, sometimes I would have class until 1 a.m. because we would be producing like a SportsCenter show. My hours were all over the place. So every second that I had free, I would be volunteering at a local cable station covering their junior hockey team and any of the university or college sports—basketball, volleyball, hockey, football, just anything that I could get my hands on. I completely shut out my social life. It's funny because in university, I was like a social queen. I was at every party, everyone knew me, and all of a sudden, it was like I went off the face of the Earth. It was just all hands on deck focusing on my career. Once I graduated, I kind of already made all of the connections that I needed to to get my first job out of school. I was really lucky that the Pan American Games (Pan Am) games were in Toronto in 2015—which was the year that I graduated. My first job was as a Floor Director of the Pan Am games for boxing and weightlifting. From there, I got hired as a freelancer at TSN SportsCentre—which would be the equal to ESPN in Canada.
What were some of the challenges that you faced early on?
I faced endless challenges. Now that I can look back and reflect on it, I feel like back then I thought I was ready for other positions that I was not ready for (at that time). I wanted to be on-air, I wanted to work in social, I wanted to do a million different things, and I don't think I had the experience to take on those positions. For me, I think the biggest challenge was just being really patient. I would get extremely down on myself, would compare myself a lot in the industry, and would just get really discouraged. I never just had one job. I was still volunteering with organizations three years out of college just to get more experience. I feel like the biggest hurdle that I've had to overcome is just being patient. Now, I am finally in a position to be able to do everything that I dreamed of doing for the last five to eight years. It took my willingness to put my head down and work through it, but I'm very grateful for the fact that I just stuck with it regardless of (the adversities) I faced along the way.
In addition to that, you have also built your personal brand throughout this process. How did you get started building your personal brand in the space?
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