Combining your passion with your career

Gen-Simmons-e1437367925424Can you successfully combine your passion and your career? Communications professional Gen Simmons talks about how her love of sports guided her career path.

I’ve always loved the way that different sports captivate Australian audiences. Whether it’s AFL in winter, cricket in summer or the race that stops a nation, Aussies love a good sporting contest.

Unsure of what I wanted to do when it came to Year 10 work experience, I could think of nothing better than working with my beloved Hawthorn Football Club. With plenty of notice, I organised a placement in the communications department and ended up loving every single minute of it. I knew I’d found the right kind of role and set my sights on studying communications at university.

I studied professional communication at RMIT University, a hybrid degree that gave me a taste of journalism, media and public relations. I majored in public relations but my favourite subject during the three-year course was a sports media elective. For me, there was nothing better than being able to talk about sport all day and I knew this was the industry in which I wanted to work.

After graduating in 2010 I began working with a not-for-profit organisation, but I still had the hunger to work in sports. I started to take on different volunteer positions so that I could build up my experience. I worked as a Digital Marketing Assistant with Box Hill Hawks in 2011 and in 2012 I helped Balwyn Football Club as a Database Administrator. I also took on a role with mobile sports app PlayUp, where I would do Twitter commentary on AFL games and write match reports.

These positions gave me the experience required to apply for full-time sports roles and in 2013 I secured the role of Digital Communications Manager with the ANZ Championship Netball League. I began this role launching straight into a new ANZ Championship season, where five Australian and five New Zealand teams battled it out over 17 weeks — the Adelaide Thunderbirds being crowned the top team.

In my role I was responsible for all things digital, including our website, e-news and social media. I also played a unique role in balancing the content from the respective Australian and New Zealand communications teams. We had a very successful season with impressive digital growth, so in August I was asked to assist with Netball Australia’s digital presence on top of my current role.

Managing the suite of digital channels across Netball Australia, the Australian Diamonds and the ANZ Championship was a challenge but also extremely rewarding. We were able to implement two website redesigns and some cool digital campaigns like the ANZ Championship All-Star voting, My Diamond web portal and #GoldenBib awards. A big highlight was being involved with the Australian Commonwealth Games Team, which won the gold medal at Glasgow.

Mid-way through 2014 I was approached by Racing Victoria to join a new digital start-up called Racing.com and manage the social media strategy. Despite knowing very little about racing I decided to make the switch to continue to challenge myself and expand on my social media knowledge in a different type of sport.

My role at Racing.com was focused solely on social media so I was able to really concentrate on our strategy across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+. Launching as a new racing platform, it was met with mixed response, which meant that the strategy was constantly evolving.

Working during the Spring Racing Carnival was suitably hectic, especially across the four big days at Flemington with Melbourne Cup as the pinnacle of Australian racing. Trying to make sure our channels covered race results, news stories, Fashions on the Field, race replays, celebrities in the Birdcage, crowd and atmosphere was a hefty task but we stuck to the strategy of showing all aspects of a day at the races.

Earlier this year I decided the role with Racing.com and the racing industry weren’t right for me so I made the decision to move on. I plan to travel and when I return will be seeking the next role within sports.

I love that I’ve been able to combine my passion for sport with my career path and that I wake up each day excited to go to work and see what challenges will be thrown my way. I would encourage everyone to see if they can find what they love to do and somehow incorporate it into their everyday employment.

Some tips for those wanting to work in sport:

  • Volunteer positions and internships are the key to getting your foot in the door. Students can seek out experience through their institution or take matters into their own hands, approaching organisations directly.

  • Attend networking events with a sports focus, such as #SportsBiz catch-ups.

  • If you don’t get the job, seek feedback and work on suggested areas of improvement.

By Gen Simmons