The sport industry can be impressive for whoever sees it from the outside. All the players and competitions, the sports performances and fans, the victories and stories of resilience. Of course, such an amazing industry attracts many people who dream to work in it and that is what makes it so difficult to find a place in the sector. Unfortunately, in the official sports governing bodies there aren’t as many job offers as people who want to join, so you need to be very unique to stand out from the crowd. Formal and informal education can help you with that. But that’s not enough.
Taking the best Bachelor or Masters program will not guarantee you a job in sports. However, there is a special trick that can make you reach your goal more efficiently and quickly: networking. Yes, I know, you have heard this before. But here is the secret behind it, learn how to read people and opportunities.
Maybe you want to reach out to a top executive in the industry… but that might be hard, right? But do you really need to reach out to that one person to get what you want, though? Maybe it is smarter to reach out to a “less busy” person, but don’t think that, say, a head of the department you want to work at will be any less busy. High-level professionals receive emails with CVs from people asking for an opportunity all the time. I can tell you that that approach is not effective.
So, how do you reach out to them? Look for other ways!
I am not telling you to stalk them when they are grocery shopping, to ask for an opportunity! That would be completely inappropriate. But how about reaching the person who works for that top executive? How about joining sports communities where you can meet new people and share your dream of working in this industry? Or, in this social media era, how about engaging in posts about the things you want to be part of?
There are many ways, but you need to be creative. Check how people of other sectors are doing it. Maybe you can get an idea from them. And don’t forget: “read” the people you want to reach out to. Maybe you can engage in a virtual conversation with them that has nothing to do with your area or sports. This is a matter of practice, try, fail, try, fail, try, fail, and then one day, you will try it and get it right. You need patience and resilience. Let’s learn from the athletes, practice, practice, practice.
Is this still not enough for you? You still feel that you don’t know how to reach out to the sports leaders, you don’t know how to interact with the other people in the sector, or that you don’t know how to engage in social media? But you want to work in sports… Then my suggestion to you is: look for a Mentor. Even though the sport industry is quite hard to get in, surprisingly enough, many people who work in it are open to provide instructions and tips to the outsiders.
How do I know that? Because I, myself, have two mentors that are helping me to navigate in the sport industry currently.
Where did I find them? Online!
And this is the best part, if you are shy or don’t have the time to engage online with the people you admire, there are Mentoring Programs that can help you with that. All you need to do is to look for experienced mentors who can understand your issues and give you the proper advice to keep going. This is another reason why these programs are effective. They select the mentors, so you don’t have to do that.
If you are interested in more information about mentoring programs tailored to your needs, check out the LWF Academy Mentoring Program in Sports.