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Former ESPN Dude Here. Who Is Norby Williamson, And Why Should You Care?
I worked at ESPN from about June 2005 to early 2012, if I recall the dates correctly. It is still the longest single W-2 job I’ve had. I was in Bristol for a while, doing Studio Production, and then I was in NYC working for The Magazine and ESPN.com. I loved this job for about 1.5 years, and the remainder of the time I was there, I either kinda liked it, outright hated it, or wanted to plunge my head into a toilet when I needed to move Heaven and Earth in order to attend a friend’s wedding for 22 hours across a weekend. (It’s hard to get weekends off, because that’s when sports happens.)
The most notable thing that happened to me during my Bristol time was that I got promoted from “PA” (Production Assistant) to “AP” (Associate Producer) in 11 months. It normally takes about 35 months. This was a big deal for all of two to three days in Bristol, and I only got that quick bump because I set a “story idea” record. To avoid belaboring the point, “story ideas” are these things you send to Executive Producers and executives, and across a 24-week probationary period, they expect you to send 24. I sent 135. Go me. Then I worked well on a few Sports Center shows and got promoted. Nice.
