School of Journalism alumnus Gordon Weigers, who graduated with an undergraduate degree last spring, is now working as Digital Content Coordinator for the Vegas Golden Knights hockey team. His duties include writing and posting the bulk of the Vegas Golden Knights’ content on social media and writing articles for its website. We had the opportunity to catch up with Gordon and hear all about his role! Check it out below.

What does a typical day look like for you during the season?

On a game day, I get to our practice rink in the morning, usually 45 minutes to an hour before the team hits the ice for their morning skate. The team has a loose practice and I stand on the bench gathering photos and videos on my phone to use on Twitter, Instagram story, and Snapchat. Following practice, the team has media availability in the locker room. I usually talk with a couple of players about their expectations for the game and keep those in mind as we post things leading up to puck drop. Then, our head coach talks to the media and I sit in ready to tweet any big news that he announces, such as a player’s injury status or the game’s starting goalie.

After coach is done with his press conference, I post videos of his interview and other player interviews to our Twitter before I leave our practice facility to head to our arena on the Vegas Strip. Leading up to the game, we look for little bits of content to feature on our social channels to add color before the start of the game, such as well-dressed fans or our giveaway. When the players arrive, I get photos and video of them arriving out and then wait for their pregame soccer match to get more content from that. The team heads out on the ice for warmups half an hour before the game and I head up to the press box. We announce our lineup using emojis for most of the players and post any last notes leading up to game time. When the game starts, I’m posting to our pages throughout the game. Postgame, I write a recap about the game that goes on our website and social channels.

Home games make for a long day, but the entire day I’m constantly doing things that I’ve always wanted to do. It never feels like work. For road games that I’m attending, we fly out as a team the day before to the city we’re playing in. We settle into wherever we’re playing, then have practice in the morning before an evening game. The content strategy remains pretty consistent for home and away games.

What do you love about your job?

We like doing things differently here than any other teams in the NHL. We stay away from the boring, easy ways to do things. Everyone here is an all-star in their respective field. People are always challenging each other to be better and that kind of environment gets the best out of everyone.

Why did you want to go into this field?

I’ve always enjoyed writing, especially about sports. Hockey has always been my passion, so this was exactly what I wanted to be doing professionally.

How did Northeastern prepare you for this kind of work?

While I was at Northeastern, I took advantage of multiple opportunities that helped get me where I am today. The first of those was covering the men’s hockey team for the Huntington News. Next, I did a co-op with Northeastern Athletics where the staff gave me endless opportunities to write, run social media, and help make content plans. While many students will leave their coo-op when the six months there are done, I stayed in the athletics department for three years and kept developing skills that helped me get hired here in Vegas.

Any advice for current students?

My advice for current students is this: I sacrificed a lot of Friday and Saturday nights to work hockey games because that’s what I loved to do. It led to missing some nights out with friends, but I was doing what I loved. It put me in a position to succeed that I didn’t think I’d be in right out of school. Put the work in while you’re at Northeastern. There are people at NU and all around Boston that want to see students succeed when they leave school. Find those people, develop relationships with them and ask for their help and advice as you go through school.