Work Experience

It seems like work experience, or interning, is a something everyone has to go through to get a job in sports. However, a lot of people may be unsure of how to go about getting this and also don't fully understand the importance of it.

Whether you think interning is wrong is beside the point, that is a conversation for another day! If you've seen any job post recently, you will see that they usually list the requirements of what they are looking for and this could be '2 years’ experience in professional football' or 'at least 1 year at first team level'...

Although getting the job wouldn't be impossible without the experience, it will definitely be 10 times harder!

So, why is work experience important?
Let's first look at this from the view of the employer. They are looking to hire someone, and they want someone that they believe will do well in the role (obviously). One way to do this is to bring someone in that has done the job before.

Working in professional sport can be a daunting task and can be a very intense (and different) type of environment to work in. If they employer knows you are coming to them from a similar environment then that will make them more comfortable, and confident, that you will be able to fit into the role. You will also require less training and can start performing right away.

Another reason would be so they can check on industry references from people you have worked with in the past (even as an intern or volunteer).

There is a chance that the person hiring you has a strong network in the industry and can pick up the phone and get an honest account of how you have performed in previous roles (extra reason to always work hard and make a good impression!). A reference from another analyst that understands the role and is respected in the field will be given much more weight that a reference from somebody outside of sport for example.

Finally, from the employer’s point of view (and this now comes down to the type of experience you have), they may actually want you because you have got a certain type of experience in a previous role. For example, maybe you have worked on a project they find interesting and would like to implement something similar at their club. Your knowledge and experience become an asset. This proves you can be intelligent and selective when trying to gain experience early in your career, leading nicely onto the next point...

Quick one for once you've read the rest of this article; I did a video on internships and experience which you can see here:

How can you get work experience?
For this, you have to be proactive. Work experience isn't going to come looking for you, you need to go looking for IT!

You may be frustrated that jobs all ask for experience and simply wonder how you can get that in the first place. I understand that, but if you put yourself out there, there are always situations to gain experience.

For example, if you are at university, you will have an abundance of sports teams that would be happy to receive analysis of their games. The chances are, you can likely get all equipment and software from the university anyway and so you shouldn't have much barrier to entry. You may be thinking that working with a student team won’t count for much. Wrong. It shows initiative, and also gives you the opportunity to work in a team setting and work on the basics (getting footage and starting to analyse it!).

As well as university teams, you also have local lower league teams that you could volunteer at too. Same situation, if they don't have anything in place, they will be grateful for your help. Yes, you won’t be getting paid with money, but you will be earning experience which at this part of your career is probably worth more.

The next step would be to try and offer your services for free for other analysts already in clubs. That way, if you do a good job, you've made a good connection (and there could be a job for you) but if not, you've gained experience, and got a good reference to add to your CV. This doesn't have to be going right to asking for a job/internship. You could offer to do a project for them or ask them if you can take anything off their hands that they don't have time to do. This can be done remotely too which would likely be easier to organise.

Tips when gaining experience...
Remember (especially if you aren't getting paid) that you want to treat work experience as an opportunity to best prepare yourself for future roles.

By this I mean you don't want to just do the same things over and over again and instead, should be looking to learn as many new skills as possible. If you are interning, be clear to your superiors that you are looking to get your hands dirty and want to have a go at different tasks. Be keen to learn and treat it as a challenge.

If you look over the job specifications of roles that you want (even if you are not ready for them yet) you can see what types of experience, you will need. Make it your mission to get those experiences.

This can actually work in your favour in another way too, in which it may show you areas of the role that you like better than others. Maybe whilst interning you realise you are not so keen on something, or you prefer a specific area over others. Now you can niche down and double down on what you are both good at and know that you enjoy.

Work experience is also a great to build your soft skills such as communication, teamwork and problem solving. All great skills to have when looking to start a career.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

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