Questions to Ask Someone in the Sports Industry
Questions for an informational interview with someone working in sport, whether in a club, a league, an agency, a broadcaster, or a brand. Aimed at people considering the field or trying to move within it.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What does your job actually involve day to day?
Why ask it
Titles in sport are unusually misleading, and the same one means different things at a club, a league, and an agency. Ask before assuming they are near the athletes or the games.
How did you get in?
Why ask it
Listen for the mechanism rather than the story: an internship, a contact, a job in another industry first. Many senior people came in sideways and their route no longer exists, which is worth knowing.
Which team or department do you sit in, and who do you report to?
Why ask it
Reveals whether they sit near revenue, near the sporting side, or in support. That position, more than the title, determines what they can tell you and who they can introduce you to.
Where does the money in your part of the business come from?
Why ask it
Broadcast rights, sponsorship, ticketing, merchandise, and transfers behave completely differently. Someone who cannot answer this about their own employer is a limited source of advice.
What does your calendar look like in season versus out of season?
Why ask it
The honest answer is often that there is no off season, only a different kind of busy. Get specifics on weekends, evenings, and travel nights rather than a general comment on it being demanding.
What's the least glamorous part of the job that people applying don't picture?
Why ask it
Usually spreadsheets, logistics, licensing, or waiting around at venues. People who love the industry will tell you this cheerfully, and it is the most useful thing they will say.
How much do salaries here differ from the same role outside sport?
Why ask it
Sport competes on desirability rather than pay in many functions. A vague or defensive answer is itself informative if you are weighing a move.
How are decisions made when the sporting side and the commercial side disagree?
Why ask it
Cuts to the real politics of the organisation, which no job description mentions. The answer tells you who has authority when results are poor.
How does a bad season change your work?
Why ask it
Sporting results move budgets, headcount, and sponsor conversations, and people outside the industry rarely factor that in. It is the closest thing to asking about job security without asking directly.
What's changed most in your role in the last few years?
Why ask it
Grounded in their own experience rather than inviting a speech about trends. Expect answers about streaming, data, betting partnerships, or social media, depending on where they sit.
How much of your job is now data, and who actually uses it?
Why ask it
Sports organisations vary hugely in whether analysis genuinely informs decisions or exists as a department nobody listens to. The second half of the question is the revealing one.
What skills do you find yourself hiring for that are hard to find?
Why ask it
Reframes the conversation around their problem rather than your ambition. This is where you learn whether to build a portfolio, learn a tool, or get experience elsewhere first.
Does being a fan of the sport help or get in the way?
Why ask it
Answers split, which is why it is worth asking. Many people say that fandom is what gets you hired and what makes you tolerate the pay, and also what makes the work harder to switch off.
How do you deal with the public having opinions about your employer?
Why ask it
Working somewhere that is criticised by name on television every week is a specific pressure. Ask how it affects colleagues on the sporting side too, since it is worse for them.
What's the working relationship with athletes like in practice?
Why ask it
Do not assume there is one. In plenty of roles the athletes are a downstream concern, and the answer corrects a misconception most applicants arrive with.
Who else in the organisation should I understand better if I want to work here?
Why ask it
A request for a map rather than a favour, which is easier to grant. It also often produces an introduction without you having to ask for one.
Where do people in your role tend to go next?
Why ask it
Tells you whether the job is a stepping stone, a plateau, or a specialism that traps you in one sport. Ask about the ones who left the industry as well.
What would make you leave?
Why ask it
A more honest read on the job than asking what they like. Answers about workload, family, or ceiling tell you what the role costs over a decade.
If you were starting now, would you take the same route?
Why ask it
Older entry paths often relied on unpaid internships or contacts that no longer apply. Someone thoughtful will say plainly that they would do it differently, and how.
What should I be doing in the next six months that would make a difference?
Why ask it
Ends with a concrete ask and a deadline, which makes follow-up natural. Vague encouragement here usually means they do not think you are close yet, which is also worth knowing.
How to use these questions
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the conversation
Work out which part of the industry they are in
A club, a league, a governing body, an agency, a broadcaster, a sponsor, and a technology supplier have almost nothing in common day to day. Check their employer and function first so you are not spending the meeting on basics.
Pick eight questions, not twenty
Most informational interviews are twenty to thirty minutes. Choose the ones matching their position, and let the rest go.
Ask about their work before their opinions
Starting with the future of the industry gets you a talk they have given before. Starting with what they did last week gets you something specific.
Have one clear ask
An introduction, a look at your portfolio, or a view on whether to take a role elsewhere first. Leaving with no ask is the most common wasted meeting in this field.
A workable order
- 1Open with their role and route in, which is easy for them and orients you.
- 2Move to how the money works and where they sit relative to it.
- 3Then the honest costs: hours, pay, what a bad season does.
- 4Then the skills gap and who else you should understand.
- 5Close with the concrete next six months and one specific ask.
Common mistakes
Talking about the games
Opening with last weekend's result signals that you see the job as fandom with a badge. Most people in the industry have this conversation constantly and it does not help you.
Asking for a job in the first ten minutes
It converts an open conversation into a screening one. Ask for information, and let the job question arise from what you learn.
Assuming access to athletes
Most roles in sport never meet the players. Asking about it repeatedly marks you as someone who wants proximity rather than work.
Not following up
Do the thing they suggested, then tell them you did it, briefly. This is what separates the people who get introduced from the people who get a polite half hour.