Sports Career advice

[Absolute Gun]

He guys,
I'm looking for a bit of career advice of what to do in the future.

Here's a bit about me... Love Sports could watch just about any sport and enjoy it, I would love to work in the sporting industry especially within an elite sporting team. Or Anythng sporting related would be great.

Willing to go to uni but it would be also good if I didn't have too.

What sort of careers could get me a job like this? And how would I go about getting to this??

Thanks

 

[Poseidon]

Sports science? Physio? Personal trainer?

I'd suggest going to Uni, not just for the degree at the end but because during the course of your degree you'll come across great opportunities for work experience and even paid work that you might not have been aware of otherwise.

 

[Lemma]

Yeh Physio is a good one, it's a four year course. My uncle is a physio and he worked with the Wallabies.

 

[policegetthatman]

Sports Journalist?

 

[bunsen burner]

Love Sports could watch just about any sport and enjoy it, I would love to work in the sporting industry especially within an elite sporting team.

Willing to go to uni but it would be also good if I didn't have too.

You're Gen Y, right?

 

[kBuck]

Sports science?

A sports science degree sounds perfect for you. Its a great gateway for most sporting jobs and sets you up really well to go on to do physio.

The majority of people that do sports science become Personal trainers, PE teachers or go into sports rehab. Lots of people also go into sports management and marketing type roles as well.

 

[lincsPJ]

Here's a bit about me... Love Sports could watch just about any sport and enjoy it, I would love to work in the sporting industry especially within an elite sporting team. Or Anythng sporting related would be great.

Willing to go to uni but it would be also good if I didn't have too.

What sort of careers could get me a job like this? And how would I go about getting to this??

Thanks

working for an elite sports team.. with tertiary study as optional.

im gonna have to say waterboy as your employment option.

 

[Scotland]

If you want to work for an elite sporting team you need to do something that will add value to an elite sporting team.

Sports science? Physio? PT? If you're top 5 in these fields in WA for example, you might get a look in at WCEFC. If you're not then chances are you'll spend 40 years in suburbia taping sprained ankles and teaching people how to hire crutches from the chemist and apply ice packs.

Sports journalism? Marketing? Again, very few opportunities, and sports journalism roles more often than not go to former professional sportsmen. I mean Ken Judge and Tony Shaw have made careers talking about footy.

If you really want to work with an elite sporting team I would say get a degree in mathematics majoring in statistics, then be prepared to work shit hours and make ordinary money. Or just be Lance Franklin. Your call.

 

[Cold Lion]

You're Gen Y, right?

Here we go

 

[THRILLHO]

It's one thing to enjoy watching sports as a recreational activity and quite another to have to watch sports in order to carry out your job. You would have to watch with quite an analytical eye, take notes and (if a night game) stay up quite late so that your copy is ready to be published by morning.

In America there's a journalist called The Sports Guy, Bill Simmons, and to me, he has the perfect job. He slogged away writing for a small website and the university radio station while studying, then made his own website, kept writing and radioing and then eventually got to ESPN and now he's got his own major website and number one best seller book. He mainly writes basketball and NFL articles but he's at a point where he can just write about anything and get huge hits. He has a podcast called the BS Report and his last one was just him talking to a guy from the NY Times about their favourite TV shows.

So, that's kinda the road you're going to have to tread. I would forget about working for one of the two major papers as they're chocked full of journalists who write insipid, poorly researched and written, by-the-numbers with no analysis articles and the main sports gigs are taken up by three journalists (Sheahan, Robbo, Pierik).

Start up a website, start with a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) webpage creator (back when I was in high school I had a geocities but I'm not sure if they're still around) or a Tumblr or something basic.

Once you've got some good articles under your belt (like 100) either pay someone or learn how to code your own website and buy a domain.

Good luck from there.

Or, alternatively, get a 9-5 job that ensures you won't work nights or weekends and you'll be able to just watch sports as a hobby and you could do something like that on the side for fun and just see if anything happens without any pressure.

 

[Troubadour]

I have a friend who has worked for two sporting clubs and one governing body (National). He completed a four year undergrad and then a masters involving administration and communications. He also had over 10 years work experience, including overseas placements.

He then took a pay cut to join the first club.

He took another pay cut to join the governing body.

So if you can put together 4-6 years of uni, and 5 to 10 years relevant work experience at a high level, you should be a lock to get yourself an underpaying role with an elite sporting club.

 

[woopedazz]

If you want to work for an elite sporting team you need to do something that will add value to an elite sporting team.

Sports science? Physio? PT? If you're top 5 in these fields in WA for example, you might get a look in at WCEFC. If you're not then chances are you'll spend 40 years in suburbia taping sprained ankles and teaching people how to hire crutches from the chemist and apply ice packs.

Sports journalism? Marketing? Again, very few opportunities, and sports journalism roles more often than not go to former professional sportsmen. I mean Ken Judge and Tony Shaw have made careers talking about footy.

If you really want to work with an elite sporting team I would say get a degree in mathematics majoring in statistics, then be prepared to work shit hours and make ordinary money. Or just be Lance Franklin. Your call.

The ugly truth. Careers in sport are exceptionally underpaid unless you are with an AFL club and that is practically impossible to achieve.

 

[Daytripper]

Sports is a rapidly changing landscape so if you want to get into this arena in a non playing capacity, then you need to look ahead to 2022 and try and imagine what punters will want and pay for.

I'll give you two examples.
a) Ten years ago a site like Big Footy would have been a niche site with little advertising scope. Now its one of the biggest forums for hits in the country. I don;t know if Chief thought forums would take off or he just created it for a little bit of fun, but he certainly created it at the right time.

b) Fantasy Footy. Again 10 years ago it was virtually nothing. Now its exploded with basically every 2nd person in the country involved.

One occupation that I would be staying away from is journalism. It is basically dead in my opinion. Its been overtaken by blogs, twitter, sports forums etc. And its only going to be worse in 2022.

If I was to give a suggestion, it would be to improve the fantasy footy component. There is scope to improve the existing competitions as SC and DT are very vanilla. You only have to look at how absurdly popular it is in the US to see what could be done if you get it right.

Also, keep a close eye on the sporting trends in the US. They are basically 5-10 years ahead of us so if you could get in on the ground floor here in Australia you might have an advantage.

Otherwise, enjoy uni.

 

[Papa G]

Yeh Physio is a good one, it's a four year course. My uncle is a physio and he worked with the Wallabies.

Yep - Do physio. Reckon the hardest thing about Physio will be the Uni. The actual job is piss easy. You really just are a glorified masseur.

 

[Caesar]

If you want to work for an elite sporting team you need to do something that will add value to an elite sporting team.

Sports science? Physio? PT? If you're top 5 in these fields in WA for example, you might get a look in at WCEFC. If you're not then chances are you'll spend 40 years in suburbia taping sprained ankles and teaching people how to hire crutches from the chemist and apply ice packs.

Sports journalism? Marketing? Again, very few opportunities, and sports journalism roles more often than not go to former professional sportsmen. I mean Ken Judge and Tony Shaw have made careers talking about footy.

Pretty much this.

IMO situations like the OP are putting things back to front. Becoming a physio simply because you like sports is IMO not a good move, because being a physio is about doing physio - not 'doing sports'. If you don't like doing physiotherapy then it doesn't matter how much you like sports - you'll still hate the job.

First find a career that suits you in terms of the actual job involved. Once you pick a job you like on its own merits, you can often find a way to make it work with your other interests. Sporting organisations need people from a wide range of backgrounds - accounting, law, operations, retail, catering, marketing, medical sciences, HR, whatever. Once you find a job you like, and become good at it, you can often find an employer who operates in a field that interests you.

 

[Lemma]

Yeh it's a good point 4 years is a long time to be doing a course you don't like, just for the possibility of working as a physio at a footy club in 10-15 years

 

[J_Moore]

I was at school with the guy who's now the strength and conditioning coach for the Giants. Is only 25. Dunno how he managed that, but good on him.

 

[Caesar]

I was at school with the guy who's now the strength and conditioning coach for the Giants. Is only 25. Dunno how he managed that, but good on him.

A lot of it is who you know, seemingly. A female friend of mine walked into a physio job with the Queensland Reds straight out of university, because she went to UQ and lived on campus with lots of guys who played rugby, went to big rugby private schools in Brisbane, etc. You know people who introduce you to other people, you network and suddenly you know everyone in the field. Give off a good impression and people are keen to hire you when a vacancy arises, because they already know you're good people.

Professional sports are pretty small communities, when you think about it. I mean, for a multi-billion dollar industry even the AFL doesn't employ a huge number of people (comparatively speaking). Once you're inside the tent with the people who count, you're pretty well positioned.

 

[Bombers_Forever]

Well I did sport as one of my majors at uni - studied subjects like Sports Mgt and Marketing but it never helped me to get into the industry. I gave up and did something totally different.

I think the key is to volunteer if possible - that gets you in the door.

I would suggest thinking outside the box: as someone mentioned, sites like this started as nothing, now look at it.

But as Caesar suggested - look at things that interest you. If they happened to link to sport, that is a bonus. For example, if you love data entry type jobs, you can get a job in many places, and you might just find an opportunity at a sporting based company. Focus on building some skills that can apply to many industries and then see what opens up.

 

[Lemma]

How easy would it be to get a job as an AFL recruiter? My cousin is really into footy and watches all the state leagues, and he seems to be able to identify the good players that will get drafted in some cases more than a year before they do. Curnow, Barlow, Hibberd etc

 

[The Passenger]

would be very hard to get a gig i imagine. there would probably be less than 100 positions available australia wide (6 a club sounds about right??)...

and i don't imagine positions come up all that regularly. they would usually get filled by guys already within the AFL system.

one unconventional way to get a look in would be to start a web-site, so that he has some sort of proof of his football scouting abilities. just going to a club and saying "i picked all these guys as stars before they got drafted" is probably not going to get you much of a look in.

but even that is a long shot. as i said i don't think they actively advertise for said position.... but if he was good word of his site would spread around, particularly if he used bigfooty as a tool to attract visitors... it can also backfire if he starts picking guys as stars who turn out to be duds.

 

[frantelle]

Professional athlete

 

[half_back_flank]

How easy would it be to get a job as an AFL recruiter? My cousin is really into footy and watches all the state leagues, and he seems to be able to identify the good players that will get drafted in some cases more than a year before they do. Curnow, Barlow, Hibberd etc

It helps if you have a son who is a gun footballer.

 

[Lemma]

Haha true I'll tell him to get on to that