How to start a career in collegiate sports?
March 30, 2008 10:24 PM Subscribe
How to start a career in collegiate sports?
Read below for long story, but here's some quick info:
-Desire to work in Collegiate sports (a unrealistic career goal would to be a high level executive/director at a NCAA level institution)
-College degree from a highly regarded undergrad business school with good connections. Would this help?
-Work experience in consulting (mostly business analysis/IT programming jobs) 3 years
-Living in Chicago
-Going to school for an advanced degree is definitely an option
-No starting point is beneath me
-No real sports working/volunteering/interning/playing experience (I'm afraid this would hurt my career chances)
Long Story:
Watching the NCAA Tourney has made me realize something, again. My passion is college sports--any sport. I've spent at least 25% of my free time in the last ten years being involved in news, recruiting, games and watching sports. I live for sports. I say that with no embellishment.
Some background: I have a degree in Business. Because of a concentration in IT and one summer internship, I parlayed this into a 3 year career in IT consulting (primarily business and data analysis). After 3 jobs in as many years, I decided that the goal of the career (career advancement to make more money) did not really mesh well with my goals and desires for my life. I did develop a great deal of organizational, leadership, communication and analytical skills, however.
So I quit, and have started the road to becoming a Physical Therapist (mostly because of it's relation to sports, experience and the ease to find a upper middle class job) , which includes taking lots of pre-reqs and doing some volunteering/shadowing. So far, while PT seems like a career that I would enjoy, the pre-reqs remind me why I didn't do it in the first place; and the end result is not something I'm obsessed with.
So as a full time college student (with no job, but with some financial resources), I have some time to be able to: 1. Learn what I really want to do, and 2. Do something about it. I'm wary to what my parents would say, which is one of the reasons I think I've semi-decided on PT, but I've decided that they will ultimately support me if it makes me happy.
Read below for long story, but here's some quick info:
-Desire to work in Collegiate sports (a unrealistic career goal would to be a high level executive/director at a NCAA level institution)
-College degree from a highly regarded undergrad business school with good connections. Would this help?
-Work experience in consulting (mostly business analysis/IT programming jobs) 3 years
-Living in Chicago
-Going to school for an advanced degree is definitely an option
-No starting point is beneath me
-No real sports working/volunteering/interning/playing experience (I'm afraid this would hurt my career chances)
Long Story:
Watching the NCAA Tourney has made me realize something, again. My passion is college sports--any sport. I've spent at least 25% of my free time in the last ten years being involved in news, recruiting, games and watching sports. I live for sports. I say that with no embellishment.
Some background: I have a degree in Business. Because of a concentration in IT and one summer internship, I parlayed this into a 3 year career in IT consulting (primarily business and data analysis). After 3 jobs in as many years, I decided that the goal of the career (career advancement to make more money) did not really mesh well with my goals and desires for my life. I did develop a great deal of organizational, leadership, communication and analytical skills, however.
So I quit, and have started the road to becoming a Physical Therapist (mostly because of it's relation to sports, experience and the ease to find a upper middle class job) , which includes taking lots of pre-reqs and doing some volunteering/shadowing. So far, while PT seems like a career that I would enjoy, the pre-reqs remind me why I didn't do it in the first place; and the end result is not something I'm obsessed with.
So as a full time college student (with no job, but with some financial resources), I have some time to be able to: 1. Learn what I really want to do, and 2. Do something about it. I'm wary to what my parents would say, which is one of the reasons I think I've semi-decided on PT, but I've decided that they will ultimately support me if it makes me happy.
I have a buddy who just got a job as an NCAA compliance officer at the school from which he graduated. It's entry level, but opens a lot of doors in the university's sports administration neck of the woods. May be worth looking into.
posted by craven_morhead at 5:41 AM on March 31, 2008
posted by craven_morhead at 5:41 AM on March 31, 2008
Something else to think about is doing sports reporting for FoxSports, newspapers, local stations, etc. I have a friend working for FSS and they travels all along the country to cover ACC games and is starting to cover Big-10 games this season. She gets to go and report on the sports she loves for a living.
posted by jmd82 at 6:50 AM on March 31, 2008
posted by jmd82 at 6:50 AM on March 31, 2008
In university, I worked in sports information for an NAIA school. I wasn't even interested in sports, but I had a strong background in communications and marketing (relative to other applicants). You might want to look into an internship like that, as an entry point.
posted by acoutu at 8:42 AM on March 31, 2008
posted by acoutu at 8:42 AM on March 31, 2008
Call a few athletic directors in your area, explain who you are, and see if anyone will let you job-shadow for a day. Since you're a student, there may even be someone at your school who could help out. The Occupational Outlook Handbook will have some very general info about some very general fields, but you may find something you didn't know in there.
Good luck!
posted by willpie at 9:21 AM on March 31, 2008
Good luck!
posted by willpie at 9:21 AM on March 31, 2008
Northwestern uses Graduate Assistants for their football program and a few people I know started their career in collegiate sports that way (one is now a head coach at a university in Michigan).
They might use GA's for basketball. Try contacting a current GA and setting up an informational interview with them, or a current NU coach. Can't hurt. Or talk to someone in their sports management program.
P.S. GO CATS!
posted by jeanmari at 12:15 PM on March 31, 2008
They might use GA's for basketball. Try contacting a current GA and setting up an informational interview with them, or a current NU coach. Can't hurt. Or talk to someone in their sports management program.
P.S. GO CATS!
posted by jeanmari at 12:15 PM on March 31, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by parmanparman at 10:29 PM on March 30, 2008