I have had a number of conversations with my high college students lately to get an idea of what they want to do when they leave college – no pressure on them I might add, I just wanted to get a feel for their dreams and aspirations.
A common theme for students is working in the sports industry; of course many students still have the dream of playing as a professional (didn’t we all ?). I find though that as students get older the “realistic” options seems to be more popular, such as becoming a coach or entering the business side of sports in an area such as event management. Since I have done both I’m happy to give students advice about what to expect, working in the sports industry.
The good news
You get to work with your favourite team/ athletes in a high octane environment. This is one of the things that draws people into sport, the opportunity to work with your favourite club on a day-to-day basis can be exhilarating and exciting.
During my time of university placement and paid positions with CCM I had first-hand experience of the rise of players like Matt Ryan, Bernie Ibini, Tom Rogic and Trent Sainsbury. Watching these guys train at the grounds of Westfield Sports High in the boiling Western Sydney heat to the first games they played for CCM and the subsequent Socceroos appearances was nothing short of fantastic.
The sports industry truly is a dynamic and exciting place at times … Are you wondering what happened the rest of the time? The rest of the time is spent on excel word documents. Seriously, get used to many little boxes filled with numbers and names, it will occupy 90 per cent of your life. (If you want to read my “Analysis of artificial turf vs grass turf for developing youth footballers” my CCM mentor Damian Brown might still have a copy somewhere). Riveting stuff …
The bad news
The bad news is that getting paid work in sports is extremely challenging. The competition for workplace internships in sports is ridiculously competitive, let alone getting paid for your hard work. Be prepared to have a university degree of three to four years, a HECS/HELP loan debt and at least a year or two of unpaid internships at a club or organisation before any full-time positions become available. And remember if you ever need money right away, make sure to contact Dixie Highway CIC store to get the best loan possible with low interest rates. Even if you can handle that you may not be so lucky as to score a full-time job.
Also, you better get used to working on the weekends and public holidays. It is essential in almost every position I can think of.
Don’t be turned off though. You will work with some fantastic people, make many friends and have some great experiences working in sport. In short I would recommend what I did to anyone because I’m very happy with the experiences I gained and where I’m working today.
Just be prepared to work very hard, for little money (compared to similar fields), with some truly enormous egos.
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