Finding an interdisciplinary course

Before doing my master’s, I did my undergraduate in Health and Exercise Science here at Bath. I always knew I was interested in health and exercise, but didn’t want to go back to the Czech Republic to do only sport or nutrition as a specialism.

Coming towards the end of my undergraduate degree, I still didn’t have a real clue what I wanted to do. Over the years I’d got interested in business, marketing and management, so when the MSc Sport Management graduates got called to the stage in the graduation ceremony, it was the first time I realised that Bath offers a master’s that combines my interests.

So that’s when I decided to look up the course page and applied! It covers the business side of things but still overlaps with sport; marketing is thrown in there as well and of course the research aspects. The option of doing a consultancy project with an external company was also a great to get some exposure to real-life scenarios.

Studying at Bath

Honestly, I hadn’t heard of Bath before I applied – I didn’t know anywhere outside of London. I just knew I wanted to study in the UK, and a family friend who’s an English teacher helped me narrow down my options. Everyone I asked had only good things to say about Bath, both the university and the city, so I chose it over others I had applied to.

Bath became my second home. I wouldn’t have wanted to do my studies in any bigger city; there are great connections to London or Bristol, and the city has everything within walking distance.

The community on campus was always very welcoming. You don’t have to be a sports ace to study sport management; there were people of all ages and backgrounds on the course who came together just because they were passionate about this industry.

We had people that had studied sport coaching and performance or sport science, but there were also people with a computer science background, biochemistry or psychology.

Our lecturers really made sure everyone was up to speed and received the support they needed with any knowledge gaps. It was great that everyone brought different points of view to the table and enriched the conversations.

Gaining real-life experience with a consultancy project

I was really interested in doing the consultancy project, as you get to work with an actual company and real-life data, as opposed to dissertation, where it's more research based.

For my project, I worked with the Swiss recruitment hub, iworkinsport. I looked at how to better build and potentially monetise community.

We’d gone on a field trip to their job fair in Switzerland during the course, so it was great to work with an international company and interview people from all over the world during the consultancy project. We looked at their current offering, like the job fair and portal, online coaching support etc., and we tried to evaluate how they could reach more people, build their community, and potentially monetise some aspects so they can still offer as much as possible for free, but make sure they can run the business sustainably and invest in the future.

We recruited people from all different backgrounds, including students, to get their perspective on how they view and interact with the website, LinkedIn page, and so on. It was basically a small brand analysis, and we collected all the feedback from our participants – I think we interviewed over 60 people and ran focus groups. We were then able to present all the data and qualitative results back to the company and suggest ideas.

Starting a career after university

I started applying for jobs early on, once teaching had finished and we only had the dissertation or consultancy project to focus on. As I’m not originally from the UK, I wanted to find a job right after graduation to make sure I could sustain myself.

It’s certainly been a long process, but I stumbled across Huel through a friend that I’d met at an event a few months prior. My biggest advice for anyone is to network, network, network. Talk to people at events, connect on LinkedIn, and even go to your local running club. You never know who you might meet!

I sent over my CV and went through the application process, which took a few months, but I ended up getting the job and literally started the day I submitted my dissertation!

I now primarily work in sales, which isn’t my overall ambition, but it’s a great entry level position in a sports and nutrition field that can help me get to more management and marketing focused positions.

I’m happy to gain experience in a full-time job now, and like any other internships and job before, there’s always something to learn, especially this early on in your career. You don’t just pick up new skills, you also get to learn more about yourself and where you want to go in your career.

I love the company and the team I’m working with; the experiences and opportunities I’ve been given, and that I get to live in London, which I’ve always wanted to experience. It’s really important to me to work for a company I believe in and that works sustainably and ethically – which, unfortunately, some of the big players don’t.

Was it worth doing a master’s?

I really think that the course was the right choice for me because it perfectly blends sport with marketing and insights into business management, even if you’ve never studied it before.

You also need to remind yourself that, even though everyone talks about football and rugby, there's so much more to sport. You don’t need to be a football manager; there is so much more you can do within the industry with this course, from wellness to sustainability and community work.

You also pick up a lot of transferable skills, like presentations, research skills and teamwork, which you can use in any other industry.

At the end of the day, sport is culture, it’s a part of our society. It’s always going to be around.

Kickstarting a career in sport management: Andrea’s story

Andrea talks about her experience of studying at Bath as an international student, and how her passion for sport, health and business has shaped her career.