RealGM

Jay Sartori drove from Washington to Toronto late last summer with a resumé that could have landed him on Bay Street with an office overlooking the waterfront.

The job he did settle for was that of assistant GM with the Blue Jays. It was a quick hire, too, since the Jays realized that people like Sartori normally run banks or develop software for NASA.

Sartori can analyze baseball statistics with the best of them. He did the numbers on Stephen Strasburg and Jose Bautista. He developed software for the commissioner’s office and helped construct the current Basic Agreement between players and owners.

And all of that was after he worked for two investment banks in Boston.

Sartori, who grew up in Lynnfield, Mass., earned a degree at Boston College in finance and management information systems while holding down a full-time job as well. Even as a recent graduate, he turned heads and prompted bosses making huge salaries to throw job offers at him in rapid succession.

Then two friends, Peter Woodfork and David Force, passed his resumé around MLB’s labour relations office. Both played baseball at Harvard at the time, and Sartori, by networking, was able to make the connection that would ultimately land him in baseball.

“I didn’t know if there were any entry-level jobs,” Sartori, 32, says of his first foray into major league baseball, as a salary and contract co-ordinator in the labour relations office back in 2005.

Duffman100 wrote:Depressing that he is where he is by 32. I'm 28 and won't be anywhere near that.

Damn smart people.

Callaway wrote:Something to learn when coming out of school and looking for full time work.

Network, Network, Network.

That's what I did, and although i'm not working in a field related to my degree, i'm doing something that I truly have interest in and enjoy...