After Days of Reassurance, I Started to Get Excited — Then the Recruiter Realized She Emailed the Wrong Cierra

Anybody that knows me knows how hard it has been for me to find a job in sports. I have a degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor — you’d think that would make it easy, right? Yeah… not quite.

After graduation, I had a summer internship with the Detroit Tigers, and since then, I’ve been chasing shadow experiences, applying to every opportunity I could find, and holding out hope that something would eventually stick. There’s a website called TeamWork Online that lists pretty much every job opening in the sports world. It’s great… but also EXTREMELY humbling. It keeps a running tally of how many applications you’ve submitted — and yeah, the reminder really sucks.

So, Thursday, July 10th roles around. I get an email… but didn’t see it until 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Which meant I had to wait all weekend for a responsel. And if you know me, you know patience is not my strong suit — especially with something like this.

Here’s what it said:

Hi,

Congratulations on being selected for the Game Presentation Manager position with us! Your offer letter can be found in your Workday home portal. Attached to this email are the following documentation:

– Benefits Summary
– Contribution Rates
– 401k Summary
– Holiday Calendar
– Colleague Handbook

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns. We look forward to welcoming you to the team! 😊

Thanks,
[Name Redacted]
Corporate Recruiter
Ilitch Sports + Entertainment
2525 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, MI 48201

So, after getting that unexpected email congratulating me on a management position (that I didn’t even apply for), I decided to do some digging into the positions I had applied for. Because… I definitely didn’t apply for a management role, and I definitely never interviewed for one.

Turns out — shocker — I hadn’t.

What I had applied for was a Game Presentation Coordinator position, so I figured maybe they saw the experience I had gained since working for them in 2022, got some feedback from my old boss on my character and work ethic, and thought I’d be a good fit for the higher role. That was the only way it made sense, right?

So I quietly spiraled all weekend—full stress-ball mode. I didn’t say anything publicly, only told a few people I trusted who wouldn’t add to the pressure by congratulating me before I had confirmation. I promised to share the news once I heard back from the recruiter on Monday.

Fast forward to Monday: the Corporate Recruiter and I go back and forth via email. She says my offer letter should be in my Workday portal. I check. It’s not there. She insists it should be. I send her screenshots. Still nothing. But because she keeps reassuring me that it should be there, I start to believe this is really happening.

So, what do I do?

I told the people I’d mentioned it to at my cousin’s surprise 30th birthday party on Sunday that it was official. I even shared the news with the 15–20 construction guys who come in for lunch every week—some of whom I’ve known for the past three years. They’ve been along for the whole ride: hearing about my job hunt since graduation, the 2022 NHL Draft in Nashville (which I went to alone—even though the thought of traveling by myself to a place where I didn’t know a single person gave me full-blown anxiety), and all the highs and lows in between. A few have even asked why I was still bartending after graduating from Michigan—so getting to share this win with them felt really good.

Then Tuesday comes.

After asking (again) if maybe I was logging into the wrong account — or if there was a chance the offer letter was tied to a different profile — I finally get this message:

Did it have you plug in your email? If so, what email did you use?
Sorry for the inconvenience—I’m trying to see if someone from Workday can help in the meantime!

I remind her I thought the offer might be tied to my old colleague account or a new one created with the email I used to apply. She asks for the email I used. I send it. And then I get this:

Hi Cierra,
I am so sorry for the confusion—I emailed the incorrect Cierra. It looks like you didn’t apply or interview for this role. However, I had your email on file from previous correspondence. When I tried to email the other Cierra, I must’ve clicked your name instead. Once again, I apologize for the confusion!
Please disregard all previous communication.
Thank you!

Yes. You read that right.

She emailed the WRONG Cierra.

She had my email from a previous correspondence we’d had, and when she started typing “Cierra,” she must’ve clicked on the first one that popped up. She meant to send it to someone else… and accidentally offered me the job instead.

Yep. She offered the wrong Cierra a full-time management position.

Which really sucks because I’ve been trying to find a full-time—or hell, even part-time—position for the last two and a half years. Trying to find a job has been disheartening, especially when I look at my TeamWorkOnline account and see how many applications I’ve put in.

And, honestly, it’s sad to say, I assumed she’d sent the email to the wrong person. But then she kept reassuring me the offer letter was in my portal — even after I sent her screenshots showing my old position listed and no sign of any new offer.

Honestly, after all her reassurances, I actually started to kind of get excited.

For a moment, I let myself believe it was real — that maybe this was finally the break I’d been waiting for.

When I responded (trying to stay cool), I wrote:

“I applied for the coordinator position, so I was wondering. Okay thanks you.”

Yes, I fat-fingered “thank” because, of course, I did.

Her response?

“Sorry about that – this is a different role.”

No acknowledgment that I had literally just said I applied for a different role and was confused why I was sent an offer for this one. Just… “Sorry about that.”

There was no acknowledgment that she had just offered me a job—in an industry I’ve been trying so hard to break into—only to basically say, “Sorry, I was careless when sending this offer letter. Instead of typing out Cierra’s full email, I just clicked the first one that popped up, which happened to be yours. Yeah, we’ve talked about positions here before, but still, sorry, wrong person.”

There was no real accountability for what she had actually just done—no recognition of the impact it had on me.

Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up.

Honestly, this whole thing has been a tough lesson in patience—learning to roll with the punches and accept that, in situations like this, the only one who ends up facing any kind of fallout is usually me. But I keep reminding myself it’s not my fault, and I’m not an idiot. I trusted what she told me because she’s the corporate recruiter, and she had looked at the information I sent her to verify everything—even when things didn’t add up.

Now, as I get ready to tell everyone I didn’t get this position after all, I’m reminding myself there’s no shame or embarrassment here. This was someone else’s screw-up—something that shouldn’t have happened and isn’t part of a normal job search. I got excited because they kept telling me the offer letter was in my portal—even after I showed them screenshots proving it wasn’t, because the recruiter was telling me otherwise.

This experience has been a harsh reminder of how unpredictable and frustrating the job hunt can be—especially when you’re chasing a career in a field that everybody and their mom wants to work in. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s to keep pushing forward, even when things get messy.

Because sometimes, the struggle is just part of the story we’re meant to tell. And trust me, this isn’t the first struggle that’s been part of mine.