Being involved in the recruitment process of our S&C/sport science placement students for a few years now, there’s some things that stand out about the process that might help future applicants to S&C jobs - a thread:

1) Some of this may be specific to our placement but a lot of this will still be applicable to other roles in other environments, I’m guessing most employers for internships or junior level positions are all looking for the same thing...

2) Firstly, FOLLOW THE BRIEF. It will give you clues as to what to include in your application. We ask for a short video, in the brief we include a few things that we want to find out about the candidate, if you don’t cover this in the application you’re unlikely to get a look in

3) On that same theme, ATTENTION TO DETAIL is something a lot of employers look for - this is a KPI for our sport sci. role - where attention to detail with the data we collect is highly important. So if the application asks to be formatted a certain way...

...or a video needs to be a certain length, make sure you follow the guidelines.

4)The key traits that we look for are someone’s PASSION and their DRIVE. For most internship positions employers aren’t necessarily looking for prior qualifications or loads of experience, they...

want someone who is keen to learn and get better. This can be hard to assess in a cv, which is why the video application process really helps draw this out. If you are genuinely passionate about the role this should be easy for the hirer to see.

5) Gaining EXPERIENCE for intern roles can be a bit of a paradox - to get a role to obtain experience, you need prior experience! This is why entry level positions don’t stress this so much. However, a candidate having passion for the role often manifests itself in a way...

...that leads to some prior experience: shadowing/volunteering or at least conversations with current practitioners.

6) How do you do this? It doesn’t have to be a pro team, but it could be speaking to your uni to shadow their S&C team, coaching your local rugby team, helping with warm ups or supporting testing or data analysis. All of these are things that help push you to the top of the pile.

7) Candidates who have a genuine passion are CURIOUS + KEEN TO LEARN & thrive in a decent learning environment. You don’t need to be the finished article (no one truly ever is!) but you have to be driven to get better than you were yesterday. Show this trait in your application.

8) Uni's are getting better at providing real world knowledge but someone who is driven doesn’t just do their course, they enrich their uni life with other relevant knowledge or experiences - furthering their learning outside of a textbook I.e. articles, courses, debates etc.

9) The next simple bit of advice is PROVE IT! Everyone can say they are passionate or work great in a team but not everyone shows relevant examples where they’ve actually displayed these traits...

...Keep it relevant too: Being a team player working at your local supermarket is great, but show it in a more relevant context - Problem solved with a difficult sport coach? Collaborated with a physio? Travelled 2 hours to learn off of a respected S&C? Use those examples!!

10) Be CONCISE. The person reading the cv’s or watching the videos (44 ten min videos we had to go through this year!) has a lot of applications to go through so is unlikely to appreciate you waffling for ages or submitting a 4 page essay on why you’re the right fit for the job..

...Keep a CV to no more than 2 pages. Enough to print double sided on one page. Say as much as you can with as little words as you can.

11) Do your RESEARCH. Learn about the environment & the organisation, don’t be afraid to reach out to old interns or people connected to the organisation to gain info. Don’t be afraid to look through the website or stalk LinkedIn for details (maybe use incognito settings though!)

12) Make yourself STAND OUT. For most coaching roles you need a personality that will be able to control a room full of athletes. So don’t be afraid to show that personality in your application...

...Over the years we’ve rejected many applicants who had decent applications or qualifications but we thought perhaps didn’t have the right personality fit for the role and our environment.

13) Finally, the reason so many places hire people from within their own network is because they are looking for someone they can trust to be a ‘good bloke’ (or gal) who fits their environment...

...Either show this in the application process or if you know someone in the environment, or know someone who knows someone, get them to vouch for you! You’ll be surprised what a good word from a fellow coach can do!