Can Sport Management Students Find Jobs?
As a sport management professor, I occasionally get questions about the job prospects for our students and skepticism about the usefulness of a sport management degree. While the sport industry is undoubtedly competitive and sport management may sound like fun and games to some, there are plenty of available sport industry jobs each year, and a sport management degree can help unlock those job opportunities.
In its 2016 outlook on the sport industry, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) projected the North American sports market – analyzed based on gate revenues, media rights, sponsorship and merchandising – would grow from $63.9 billion in 2015 to $75.7 billion in 2020. Teamwork Online, the top sports job search service, currently lists more than 2,000 available jobs and promotes that it has enabled the hiring of more than 117,000 people. The sport industry is large and expanding, and the data supports optimistic employment prospects for future graduating classes.
Sport management programs help position students to fill those available jobs. During a recent “Work in Sports” podcast, host Brian Clapp asked Colleen Scoles, Philadelphia Eagles Talent Acquisition Manager, how she values sport management degrees when reviewing job applicants. Colleen stated, “We value the sports management degrees, I mean, because we do want, you know, people that are passionate about what they’re doing if they’re here, and obviously that’s opened them probably up to more academic internship opportunities that will help them build a resume for applying for a job here…We do value the sports degree, but yeah, it’s not like if they don’t have a sports degree we’re not going to consider them. I think the internships are really helpful, the work experience is really helpful, what they’ve done up to this point is, you know, what we’re looking at, as well.”
Colleen touched on several important points in her response:
A sport management degree is not the only path to a career in sports, but it does help demonstrate to employers that a student is dedicated to working in the industry. This is important because hiring managers often receive applications from people who fantasize about working in sports but have no clue about the lifestyle and actual work involved. A sport management degree is an extended commitment to preparing oneself to work in the industry, which can help sport employers recognize that an applicant is more than just a fan with an unrealistic impression of what working in sports involves.
A sport management degree often provides more opportunities for students to build relevant internship experiences into their education that will help make them more desirable to sport employers.
Hiring managers do value sport management degrees.
My experience hiring interns and entry-level employees in pro and college sports and sending hundreds of alumni from our program into the sport industry has taught me that there is no shortage of jobs for sport management students who have the necessary aptitude and attitude to shine when given an opportunity, an open mind to several potential career paths within sports and a willingness to relocate, and the patience and persistence to deal with rejection and pay their dues early in their careers. However, it would be unrealistic to suggest that a sport management degree, or any degree, guarantees a job in sports. Among the reasons that I see sport management alumni end up in non-sport careers are:
Personal choice. They took themselves off the career path because they did not get a job quickly enough, they did not like the long hours and low pay involved with most entry-level positions, they did not want to relocate for a job, etc.
Unrealistic expectations. They were only interested in one career path, such as becoming a Major League Baseball general manager or working in community relations, and were unwilling to consider other possible career paths within sports that offered more opportunities.
Ineffective presentation to employers. Many job postings in sports receive hundreds of applications. A single typo, misspelling or grammatical error in application materials is what employers often look for to thin out the pool of applicants before considering the qualifications of those that remain.
Ineffective preparation during college. As Colleen Scoles indicated, employers look for relevant internships and other practical experiences. Students who graduate with nothing more than a degree or who only have practical experience at unrelated jobs (e.g., bartending, waiting tables, working at the campus library) struggle to stand out from their peers who volunteered in athletics departments or interned with minor league baseball teams during school.
When evaluating sport management programs, students and their families should compare their options based on three areas:
Industry experience of the faculty. How many years of actual sport industry experience do the faculty members have and at what levels?
Who teaches the undergraduate courses? Are the star professors that students want to work with accessible to the undergraduate population?
What types of experiential learning opportunities do students have access to in the program?
With University of Iowa alumni working in every major professional sport league, throughout intercollegiate athletics and minor league sports, and at agencies and other companies with connections to sports, I can confidently say that sport management programs have become an indispensable source of talent for the thousands of available sport industry jobs that open up each year.