Lately, my friends have been asking me a lot of questions about Shockfruit. Most of those questions are about careers in sports. To be frank, I do not come from the so called “jock” side of high school background and so sports was never really an option for me. However, it doesn’t mean that the inner athlete in me was dead. There were times in my academic life when I sincerely attempted to pursue a sport. However, I was always told that my physical attributes were not of an athlete. Well, I did fell ill quite often as a kid and the dreams of my inner athlete were always crushed. During every school and college level sporting event, I stood in the stands and wondered if I could take part in the action. Not to mention, my friends mostly were as athletically inept as me. So, now when they know about Shockfruit, their reaction is often of surprise but when I tell them more, they start asking me if there are ways that they can still have a chance to contribute to sports. This gives me immense satisfaction as I see people who are seemingly distant from sports start thinking of it when I talk about our website. So, here are a few sports career options I tell my not so very athletic friends about, which I think would also interest you.
Sports Medicine – Becoming a doctor is probably one of the most brainy jobs. Most people who see doctors as a geeky, lab coat wearing, prescription writing person don’t realize how physically demanding their job is. If you are a doctor, especially a surgeon or deal with orthopedics, pediatrics and trauma, you would agree that your job is no less intense than professional sports. This parallel is something of importance when you explore the field of sports medicine. Yes, it is one of the most rapidly growing areas of therapeutics that include biomechanics, physio therapy and even plastic surgery. The scope of applied medicine in sports is in fact so vast that I probably can’t summarize the entire scope of opportunities in this post. Just watch the movie Trainwreck where Bill Hader plays the role of an accomplished sports doctor. Honestly, it might take years to reach that stage where you’ll be treating an NBA basketball player for tendinitis or an international cricketer for hamstring injuries. Still, the possibilities in sports medicine are vast and if you start gaining expertise in this, you could grow fast.
Sports Product Designer – Countries like India and China have been supplying sports goods to the global sports industry for a while. The range of sporting equipment an products that are available today is simply mind boggling. There new sports products designed and invented everyday. From shoes to better helmets to more aerodynamic golf clubs, the product designing side of sports industry is booming. In coming time, the demands of product designing in sports in only likely to increase. So, if you have a knack for design and have ideas to improve upon currently available sports equipment then this could be a really awesome opportunity for you. Another aspect of this is that newer formats are being created in professional sporting events and a lot of new regulations are being brought in. This means product designers need to get more creative. Gaming industry is relatively new and is opening up scope for new categories of products to design. Yes, it takes a lot of experimentation and your early concepts may not work but always “have the courage to fail big and stick around.”
Sports Data Analyst – Now data analysts job is a particularly tied to a desk. However, that too has a potential to be tweaked for a sports related career. Modern sports and games are rapidly evolving towards automation and data scientists are needed in every step of the way to assist this ever increasingly data driven endeavor. There were times when there was very little digital technology involved other than score and timekeeping at big events but today all major sports are employing vase amount of analytics. These days, sports statistics come into play in everything from scouting for the players, designing mascots, selecting venues, creating campaigns and crowdsourcing public sentiment. Its fast paced, competitive and interesting. Plus you may get to work with the best athletes and sports organizations. As technology invades in every aspect of sports the job of an analyst will also evolve to include more dimensions. This is also particularly a great career option for ex-athletes and professional sports persons as they can bring in their experience to the analysis.
Motorsport Pit Crew – Not many engineering graduates plan on entering motorsport arena. Its challenging to say the least. However, there are unique new opportunities in this area as more and more professional racing teams are competing in international events. There is a budding ecosystem of sports automotive specialists and the industry needs fresh talent. Forget about F1, there are dozens of new racing formats being developed for all terrain and cross country racing which require more rigorous involvement of designers, engineers and mechanics. Then there is Formula Electric which opens up an exploding new opportunity in non conventional motorsports. Although it is a relatively niche career at this moment but pit crews in future motorsports will expand to include a variety of automotive and engineering specialists but to do this job, one thing you’ll always need, the need for speed!
Do you have a dream sports job? What other new emerging opportunities in sports industry you know about? Share with us in the comments.