The ultimate guide to landing your dream job

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO

LANDING YOUR DREAM S&C JOB 15 ACTION-ORIENTATED TIPS TO GET YOU ON THE RIGHT TRACK SCIENCEFORSPORT.COM

THE AUTHOR

JAMES DE LACEY This guide was written by James de Lacey.

James is currently the Head Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Romanian Rugby Union. In addition, James is also the Strength & Conditioning research reviewer for the Science for Sport Performance Digest. He has previously worked in America’s professional rugby competition Major League Rugby with Austin Elite and the NZ Women’s National Rugby League Team. He is a published author and has completed a MSc in Sport & Exercise Science from AUT, Auckland, NZ.

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#1 EXPERIENCE, EXPERIENCE, EXPERIENCE. When it comes to positioning yourself as the right candidate for any job, given the saturation of coaches in today’s environment, experience is key.

That doesn't always mean that your experience has to be in that particular sport as per se, your experience can come from a multitude of environments. The important factor is that you gain genuine, high-quality experience.

Another misconception is that this experience is better or more powerful when the experience was gained at a higher level of sport (e.g. Premier League). This is definitely not the case, and more and more coaches (potential employers) are more than aware of the typical high-level sport intern duties (e.g. filling water bottles, making recovery shakes, and cleaning) which currently plague the industry.

With that in mind, our advice to you would be to split your intern experience into two periods in order to maximise the amount of high-quality experience you obtain. The first half containing of “low-level” sport experience (e.g. amateur or semi-professional) during your undergraduate years. Following this, you’ll know have a substantial amount of quality coaching experience and more “umpf” on your resume. With that, you can now focus on choosing specific, high-quality coaching experience in “high-level” sport (e.g. professional) during your Master’s/post-graduate years. We suggest that you speak to many people and try to find out the best clubs/organisations/coaches to work in/with and focus your attention on gaining an internship there.

By being strategic with your internship experience, you’ll not only maximise your coaching skills, but you’ll also improve other important things such as your resume, network, people skills, management skills, and much more.

Action Tip= Devise an experience dominating plan for your career and write in down on paper.

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#2 SURROUND YOURSELF WITH COACHES OF ALL LEVELS This is another very important aspect of propelling your career which believe it or not is slightly different to building a network, though the two are intertwined. The two quotes below must be completely understood if you’re to really maximise tip #2. #1 - “If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.” – Marissa Meyer #2 - “The interns of today, are the experts and pioneers of the future.” – Owen Walker The first quote refers to ensuring you’re in a positive environment which will hyper-fuel your learning experience and dramatically propel you into the “expert phase” of knowledge. In other words, the amount you’ll learn in an environment like this is going to enhance your knowledge exponentially.

The aim of the second quote is to teach you that those whom you think might not be worth spending your time with may actually become the experts and pioneers of the future. It’s extremely important to understand that they might not currently know as much as the experts or be in their dream job yet, but who’s to say they won’t be in 5-10 years’ time? As such, we recommend you use your intuition to identify those whom you feel might become an expert and pioneer of the future and surround yourself with them.

Another two points that you need to remember is that this is a tough industry to land a job and that university is not about just partying and avoiding full-time work. Universities are an absolute breeding ground for making amazing connections with other experts of the future, current coaches, and lecturers.

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#2 (CONTINUED) SURROUND YOURSELF WITH COACHES OF ALL LEVELS Whether you’re in university or not, you need to find ways to create “learning hubs” with others who’re just as passionate and dedicated to this industry as you are. At Science for Sport, we’ve built an insanely good members-only group which allows you to connect with coaches from all over the world. As we have a huge network from all over the world, to add to that, we have now begun organising local coach meet-ups where you can completely immerse yourself in a positive environment.

Action Tip= Devise an experience dominating plan for your career and write in down on paper.

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Exhausted from having no free time?

Sick of having no money to spend on your personal development?

Frustrated with the lack of opportunity in your network?

So were over 1,900+ coaches before they started a Science for Sport membership.

Now, we save them hours of time each month.

We deliver them with relevant, easy to digest sports science research reviews with findings that they can apply into their practice in minutes.

They've also built an impressive network through our membersonly group, The Coaches Club.

All through one simple, affordable monthly membership.

If you want to feel less stress and more relief, hit the button coach.Â

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#3 BUILD A NETWORK Though very similar, this point is significantly different to tip #2. There’s a great saying from Mark McCormack which has been slightly modified by an unknown individual. The saying goes…

“All things being equal, people will hire a friend; all things being unequal, people will still hire a friend.” - Adapted from Mark McCormack I want you to think about your best friendships, chances are they weren’t built with an end-product/objective in mind (e.g. I want to make friends with this person because they’ll be able to get me this new car (or land my dream job). Am I right?

No doubt your best friendships were built organically with no objective intention in mind.

Building a network of coaches who you’re friends with should be absolutely no different whatsoever. Believe it or not, people will see through the bullshit if you try to build a network without authenticity. This is where tip #3 (this one) intertwines with tip #2. The best way to network authentically is to build a hub of passionate and dedicated coaches whom you can build genuine relationships with.

Another important tip within this one is that you need to provide value to others without any intention of reciprocation/exchange. You simply cannot build authentic relationships by providing somebody with something but be expecting something in return; it doesn’t work like that. So, the simple message here is, when you help someone else, do NOT have something you want in return in mind.

Having said this, it’s useful to understand the “law of reciprocity”, which basically states that if you do something nice for somebody, then they obligated to reciprocate that good deed. Meaning, I believe it may be a useful strategy to try make yourself the most “value giving” coach around with no intention of reciprocation. By doing this, you’ll place yourself in an amazing position where people may wish to return the help/value you provided them with at some random point in the future. This may be in the form of connecting you with someone, providing you with free tickets to an event, or better still, offering you with an internship or job.

Action Tip= Implement the law of reciprocity into your everyday life, never just ask..

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#4 FIND A MENTOR As strength and conditioning coaches, we tend to have more questions than answers. A mentor can be a guiding light to help you navigate the many uncertainties you may have.

How do you go about finding a mentor? If you are interning or working under another strength and conditioning coach, that is often the best and easiest place to start. You have already established a relationship with this coach and likely see them multiple times a week. This opens a lot of opportunities to ask questions or get feedback on your programs.

The previous tip on networking (Tip #3) gives some good insight into finding a mentor. “The best way to network authentically is to build a hub of passionate and dedicated coaches whom you can build genuine relationships with.

Another important tip within this one is that you need to provide value to others without any intention of reciprocation/exchange.”

Your value as a mentee isn’t to provide knowledge of what you know to your mentor. Your value is allowing your mentor to share his/her knowledge with you and to help educate and further a career of a younger and/or less experienced coach. If you are willing to learn and really care about your career as a strength and conditioning coach, a more experienced coach will more than likely want to help you through mentorship.

Choosing your mentor as your boss is an easy place to start. There are no rules stating that you can only have one mentor. Having multiple mentors is a great way to gain access to different specialists and their knowledge. It is important to remember, however, that these must be genuine relationships and not just a way for you to gain some information. Compared to most other professions, strength and conditioning is a very small industry and reputations can spread quickly if you are not genuine; authenticity is vital.

Action Tip= Create a list of 5 mentors and contact them asking if they’d be happy to be your mentor. Be sure to start from the person you’d most like to be your mentor...

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#5 QUALIFICATIONS Qualifications are your doorway into your career as a strength and conditioning coach. Currently, the field of strength and conditioning coaching is growing immensely, with many more individuals looking to study and make a living out of coaching. However, the job market hasn’t expanded at the same rate as the number of students who are graduating from their university degrees or short courses.

As stated in the first point (Tip #1), experience is key. However, this must be coupled with some kind of education. Most strength and conditioning jobs (paid or voluntary) generally require a bachelor’s degree, at a minimum. While it is often said that a university degree won’t teach you how to coach or deal with athletes, a degree will set you up with a basic understanding of anatomy, biomechanics, general strength and conditioning concepts, along with a basic understanding of the scientific method. These are invaluable in the long run and also gives you options to pursue postgraduate qualifications, should you wish to.

As the strength and conditioning field continues to become more saturated, postgraduate study is almost becoming a prerequisite to non-entry level jobs.

Further postgraduate study coupled with experience interning and coaching may be a way to set yourself apart from your peers in a cut-throat job market.

As stated in tip #2, universities are breeding grounds for making amazing connections. While this doesn’t exactly have to do with getting a qualification, the people you meet, the lecturers you become friends with, or the groups you become a part of, all of it will help you with future job opportunities.

Bonus tip: If you already have your BSc, MSc, and maybe even a PhD, then start thinking outside of the box in terms of what qualifications you could add which would seriously levy your resume and skills. The key here is to “think outside of the box”. For example, how many coaches do you know who have a specialist certificate in using Microsoft Excel and can create insanely good spreadsheets for athlete testing and monitoring?

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#5 (CONTINUED) QUALIFICATIONS Action Tip= Once you have the industry standard qualifications, then it’s time to think outside of the box when it comes to your bolstering your resume.

P.S If you’re looking for undergraduate S&C courses in the United Kingdom, then this awesome list from the UKSCA is an absolute must to check out… https://www.uksca.org.uk/SandC-degrees/undergraduate

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Exhausted from having no free time?

Sick of having no money to spend on your personal development?

Frustrated with the lack of opportunity in your network?

So were over 1,900+ coaches before they started a Science for Sport membership.

Now, we save them hours of time each month.

We deliver them with relevant, easy to digest sports science research reviews with findings that they can apply into their practice in minutes.

They've also built an impressive network through our membersonly group, The Coaches Club.

All through one simple, affordable monthly membership.

If you want to feel less stress and more relief, hit the button coach.Â

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#6 KEEPING YOUR KNOWLEDGE UPTO-DATE As the saying goes, “who you know will get you the job, what you know will keep you there.” There are many ways to keep improving your knowledge. From finding a mentor, surrounding yourself with good coaches, reading, writing, and subscribing to research review services such as the Science for Sport Performance Digest.

Having said this, the need to apply new knowledge is the key from turning your ideas and thoughts from theory into practice. Interning is always essential to building your resume and network within the strength and conditioning community. However, as in intern, you’re not often able to get your hands really dirty. Being in charge of a team or group of athletes is your ticket to applying the knowledge you’ve acquired through your qualifications or your own learning. It doesn’t matter the level. Your local club is a perfect place for you to start applying knowledge. See what works and what doesn’t. See if a certain concept can work in that population. Make mistakes now so you don’t have to make those same mistakes when you have a full-time paying job.

Do you want to stay ahead of the game? The Performance Digest is a great place to start with staying up-to-date with the latest research and info. There are also many other great places to read articles, blogs, and watch video content in relation to training and coaching. Imagine the practical and theoretical information you can explore if you spent an hour a day reading or watching different pieces of content on training and coaching. If you really love strength and conditioning, you are most likely doing this anyway from the sheer enjoyment of it Action tip = Work out how many minutes or hours you can dedicate to additional learning every day. Everybody’s schedules are different, so once you’ve figured out how much you can spare, get to work.

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#7 PERFECT YOUR RESUME AND COVER LETTER Make sure your resume is up-to-date, tidy, and free of grammatical errors.

There’s nothing that will put an employer off more than a resume and cover letter that is full of spelling and grammatical errors, especially when it doesn’t take much effort nowadays with programs such as Grammarly. If you haven’t downloaded Grammarly yet, this is an absolute must for all your written documents.

If you talk to many strength and conditioning coaches, many of them didn’t get their job through applying online with their resume and cover letter. More often than not, they’re put forward through another coach or management personnel or, if they are further down their career, their experience and skill as a coach is already known. Having said that, this does not mean that a resume isn’t needed for an experienced coach. A resume can back up and add further value to your current recommendation for the position.

A resume should consist of more than just your job experience and qualifications. If you have published research, articles, blog posts, podcasts, or have extra-curricular qualifications, these all add value to your experience and shows you are an “expert” in the field. To make your job experience stand out, adding your responsibilities and/or the improvements you were able to make in physical capacities for the team or athletes you were working with are good quality pieces of information you can add. There is also discussion with how long a resume should be, and whilst it should be no more than 3 pages, the number of pages it is will entirely depend on how much experience, qualifications, and extra stuff you have completed. What’s more important than how many pages it is, is how well laid out and concise the content is. So, make sure your resume is concise and to the point, with your key information standing out.

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#7 (CONTINUED) PERFECT YOUR RESUME AND COVER LETTER In regards to your cover letter, it must be personalised for the job you’re applying for, meaning you need to read the job description carefully. Even go as far as researching the organisation's values so you can incorporate them into your cover letter. In addition to this, you need to portray your passion for that job and your eagerness to work for that company through the cover letter as well. If you struggle to do this, then perhaps this job isn’t for you. The more you can align yourself and the cover letter with the organisation and the job description, along with a strong resume, the greater potential you’ll have to get through to the interview process.

I would also suggest having your friends and family check over your resume before then investing in having a professional review it. For example, what’s a $149 investment to have a professional critically-analyse your resume and improve it for you if it could get you the $40k a year job? Exactly. So, consider using a resume writing service such as TopResume.

Action tip = the resume should be concise, well designed, and with your key information standing out. The cover letter should be aligned with the job description, the company’s values and objectives, and it should also display your passion to work there.

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Exhausted from having no free time?

Sick of having no money to spend on your personal development?

Frustrated with the lack of opportunity in your network?

So were over 1,900+ coaches before they started a Science for Sport membership.

Now, we save them hours of time each month.

We deliver them with relevant, easy to digest sports science research reviews with findings that they can apply into their practice in minutes.

They've also built an impressive network through our membersonly group, The Coaches Club.

All through one simple, affordable monthly membership.

If you want to feel less stress and more relief, hit the button coach.Â

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#8 START FROM DAY 1 AT UNIVERSITY What does it mean to start from day 1? Coaching is a lifelong journey. There is no perfect time to start coaching. Taking a coaching course, getting a degree, or doing a weekend strength and conditioning certification doesn’t suddenly mean you’re going to be a great coach. If you started coaching at day 1 or day 1095 (3 years) of university, your coaching ability would most likely be the same regardless… lacking. You may just have some more training ideas to implement after 3 years at university.

Perhaps you feel you’re not qualified to coach at day 1 of university. Luckily, coaching does not require a qualification. Coaching does not need to be in a formal setting when you’re just starting out either. Even just training your friend in the gym is a good place to start. While that isn’t formal experience to put on your resume, it is experience to notch under your own belt and I can promise you that you’ll learn a few things too.

Programming is also something that takes years of experience to develop. Being an Exercise Science major (or equivalent), we can assume you play a sport and/or train in some kind of formal manner due to your interest in strength and conditioning. If so, you are likely to get many people, friends, and family asking you to write them a program. My advice to you? TAKE THESE OPPORTUNITIES! By taking these opportunities, you’ll gain more experience programming and you’ll see yourself improving as you look back at previous programs and think… “what the hell was I thinking?” This is also your opportunity to apply any knowledge you have acquired in your time as per tip #6.

Action tip = take every opportunity you can to write and implement training programs.

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#9 INTERNSHIPS Internships are how we all start as strength and conditioning coaches. It can seem like a dream come true if you manage to land an internship with a professional sports team or with a coach you look up to. It may seem everything in your career will move linearly from this point.

Your thought process…

"An internship here for a year, maybe land a job with the youth academy the following year, and then work my way up to the professional/first team by year 4."

There are some harsh realities you will learn as an intern, and learning that this thought process above is likely to be wrong will probably be one of them.

Firstly, you will more than likely not get paid a cent for all of your hard work and commitment. This means you’ll have to find another way to support yourself along with your studying. Secondly, you will be given menial jobs such as filling water bottles, taking RPEs, inputting data, cleaning the gym, and picking up cones.

Thirdly, depending on where you intern, hours can be long and with most of your work being hugely underappreciated. Internships can take up most of your day, meaning you have to find time for your own work, studying, and training. Fourthly, you may not even get a paying job at that organisation, regardless of how long you intern there. Lastly, you will most likely get teased by the athletes and staff (in a loving way, of course). You are the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to coaching staff. You will need to learn to take the jokes and give them (in a fun, light-hearted way). And finally, it can desensitise you to being “starstruck” by professional players and teach you that professional athletes are just people too.

In saying all of this, it is all worth it. Interning can be a tough, underappreciated gig. But the interpersonal skills you learn in a sporting environment and the inside view you get to have on how professional coaches interact with athletes and each other are invaluable.

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#9 (CONTINUED) INTERNSHIPS Just because your job as an intern may be underappreciated, acting as a professional and showing up early are very important. It will stand out like a sore thumb if you are consistently late or lazy. If you want a job there, you must earn/create it, don’t just go “through the motions”.

Action tip = Wear your intern status with pride, embrace the crappy jobs, become part of the team and culture, be punctual and energetic, and never, ever just go “through the motion”. If you want a job, earn it.

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Exhausted from having no free time?

Sick of having no money to spend on your personal development?

Frustrated with the lack of opportunity in your network?

So were over 1,900+ coaches before they started a Science for Sport membership.

Now, we save them hours of time each month.

We deliver them with relevant, easy to digest sports science research reviews with findings that they can apply into their practice in minutes.

They've also built an impressive network through our membersonly group, The Coaches Club.

All through one simple, affordable monthly membership.

If you want to feel less stress and more relief, hit the button coach.Â

TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR CAREER

#10 NEVER BULLSHIT IN A JOB INTERVIEW Job interviews can be a nerve-racking affair, especially with the uncertainties of questions you may have to answer. Building your unique selling proposition (USP) is one way to help guide you through an interview process – this will be covered in more detail in tip #14.

When faced with questions you don’t have an answer for, you are far better off responding with a “You know what, I’m unsure about the answer to that question, sorry.”

This all too frequent scenario reminds of a scene in the movie ‘The Pursuit of Happiness” with Will Smith, which if you haven’t seen yet, you must watch. Click here to watch that scene (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHXKitKAT1E) In this interview, Chris Gardner (Will Smith) has to handle many objections to his suitability for the job (e.g. tardiness, inappropriately dressed, unqualified, etc.) and the manner in which he does so is nothing short of excellent. He does so by not only displaying how passionate and eager he is about getting that job but also by being charismatic and authoritative, all at the same time.

At the 2 minute 14 second mark in that video, you can see exactly how he handles not knowing the answer to a question. This is a great example of how to handle such a scenario, whilst a poor example would be to try and lie your way past it. It will be glaringly obvious to an experienced coach if you try and lie your way through that question. Instead, a response stating “you’re not sure but you’re willing to learn” shows a genuine character.

It is of utmost importance that your previous job experiences are also not made up or expanded past the responsibilities you had. With the strength and conditioning profession being such a small world, it is likely that someone at the current organisation you’re applying to knows someone at your old organisation and can quickly check what your real roles and responsibilities were. The last thing you need is a bad reputation when applying for jobs.

Action tip = Always be honest and never, ever lie. Portray passion and eagerness to become a part of that team.

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#11 PROVIDE VALUE The strength and conditioning profession is a world of sharing. From the many various articles, podcasts, and videos coaches share online (which are often done for free), to the conversations coaches have with one another, information is always being shared. A lot of this information isn’t just face value either, it is often in-depth to the point where you’d be able to implement the specific idea immediately. This level of openness and collaboration is, in my eyes, the true beauty of the strength and conditioning profession.

As stated in tip #3, providing value to another coach without expecting anything in a return will help you build authentic, long-lasting relationships. Perhaps you are at the very beginning of your career and don’t feel you have much value to offer?

Teaming up with coaches at a similar stage in their career is one way of providing value, as not all value has to do with sharing knowledge. Friendships built in the early stages of university will no doubt last a lifetime, and the value you provide each other through “trying to make it” as a strength and conditioning coach will be invaluable. For example, often just knowing what one another is going through when trying to find that first full-time job and sharing each other’s emotional rollercoaster will be hugely beneficial.

As you gain more experience and knowledge, sharing your experiences with other coaches is a great way to build the authentic relationships mentioned in the previous points. Furthermore, gaining outside feedback on how you run your program can also help with critically-analysing what and why you are doing what you do from a different perspective. We are all trying to learn and improve, not just for our own sake, but for our athletes. As such, I believe critically analysing each other’s programs is an immensely useful strategy in order to add value to other coaches, build relationships, and develop your own skills as a coach.

Action tip = provide value to other coaches in anyway shape or form you can possibly think of. If you believe in Karma, this is your opportunity to earn some of the good stuff.

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#12 LEARN ABOUT YOUR COMPETITION When it comes to job applications, you’ll most likely be competing against hundreds, if not thousands, of other applicants. In addition, most of these applicants will also very likely meet the minimum requirements of a Bachelor’s degree and an S&C certification (e.g. the NSCA’s CSCS).

So how do make yourself stand out? If you’ve read each tip thoroughly, you would’ve picked up many small nuggets of advice on how you can make yourself standout and better position yourself for a job. For example, as stated in tip #7, completing extracurricular courses for your degree (e.g. an Excel course for sports scientists or a fitness testing qualification) can help you stand out in comparison to your competition.

You can’t make yourself stand out if you don’t know what you’re up against.

Because of this, you need to seriously analyse who you’re competing against for these jobs. There is an infinite number of ways of doing this, and it’s your creativity (or lack of) which will determine how much you find out about those applying for the same job you want.

For example, if you’re an intern at a rugby club and your boss has hired somebody in the not so distant past, then try politely asking them if you can see the resumes and cover letters of a few applicants. Alternatively, if you’re part of a “learning hub” (tip #2), you could ask a few of the fellow members if they’d be kind enough to show you their resumes and cover letters in return for you sharing yours. Another idea might be to watch the recent job postings and then finding out who was hired for that position. With this, you can then look at the successful candidate’s LinkedIn profile and see if they have anything you don’t. You could even take it a step further by connecting with them and congratulating them on their new position.

What you do from there is entirely up to you.

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#12 (CONTINUED) LEARN ABOUT YOUR COMPETITION When trying to understand who’re getting the jobs you want, you need to build a virtual profile of them by understanding some of the following: • What qualifications do they have?

• How much experience do they have and where did they get it?

• Have they published any research?

• Are they present on social media?

• Who’re their connections?

• Have they been on any podcasts?

Use your imagination to create more of these questions and build a profile of the successful candidates.

All of this information will provide you with plenty of information needed to analyse who you’re competing against. Once you know who you’re competing against, then you can devise a killer strategy in order to stand out compared to the other candidates.

Action tip = Go find out who’re getting the jobs that you want, see if you’re missing anything, and devise a killer strategy to put yourself in the perfect position for the next job you want.

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Exhausted from having no free time?

Sick of having no money to spend on your personal development?

Frustrated with the lack of opportunity in your network?

So were over 1,900+ coaches before they started a Science for Sport membership.

Now, we save them hours of time each month.

We deliver them with relevant, easy to digest sports science research reviews with findings that they can apply into their practice in minutes.

They've also built an impressive network through our membersonly group, The Coaches Club.

All through one simple, affordable monthly membership.

If you want to feel less stress and more relief, hit the button coach.Â

TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR CAREER

#13 BE PREPARED TO MOVE This tip is something that is rarely discussed in the strength and conditioning field.

There are only so many opportunities that will be within your current location. Unlike other fields of work where 100 businesses may be in your area, there may only be a couple of professional sports teams and one college, if you’re lucky. You may get lucky and work your way into a job in one of those organisations, but more often than not, strength and conditioning jobs are numbers game; meaning you will have to take a lot of rejections before being offered a job. In addition to this, there will be far more job opportunities away from home.

When I say you need to be prepared to move, I’m not just talking about within your own country, you’ll most likely have to move to other countries in order to accumulate more experience or even to just earn money. As you are beginning your career in S&C, starting a family or buying your first house may have to go on the “backburner” if you are serious about pursuing a career in this industry.

Lack of job security is a huge factor in being prepared to move, as all too often keeping your job may not come down to your performance as a coach. Rather, the performance of the team as a whole in terms of wins and losses may dictate whether or not you stay in your job. Additionally, your fate is often in the hands of the head coach, whereby if he/she gets “sacked” the rest of the staff are also left without jobs. However, this can also work in your favour, for if the head coach gets promoted to coach another team, he/she is likely to take other coaches they trust and enjoy working with along with them - which could be you.

Rather than viewing this as a negative, the opportunity to move around the world is one of the biggest benefits of being a strength and conditioning coach. Meeting and making new friends in foreign countries, learning and experiencing different cultures, and being able to live almost anywhere in the world is something many people will be envious of. Make sure that you cherish this aspect of the job, most people aren’t as lucky to have these opportunities in their career.

Action tip = Always consider where you would and wouldn’t like to live before you’re ever presented with the opportunity. This will help you make the job offer decision quicker and ensure you’re well prepared for what is to come.

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#14 BUILD YOUR USP This is one of Owen Walker’s (Founder and Director of Science for Sport) biggest tips for strength and conditioning coaches. To quote Owen on the creation of his USP: “If you don't build your USP, you'll just blend in with the other candidates and the employer’s choice will be left more to a "weighting factor" of skillset and personalities.

You need something to leverage yourself above the rest of the candidates. For example, a couple of years after my time at Cardiff City FC and moving to Australia, I was offered an interview for the Nottingham Forest FC U21 Sports Scientist position. I thought what the heck and went for the interview. After researching the job description, the roles and responsibilities, and trying to analyse what they were currently doing, I decided my USP for that interview was going to be developing a more comprehensive load-monitoring strategy.

I knew they were using internal and external load monitoring strategies such as GPS and HR, but I was pretty sure (from the roles and responsibilities) they weren't trying to identify a relationship between the two. At this point in time, not many clubs were, or even are now. We know internal and external load-monitoring doesn't provide the whole picture, we need a combination. So that was my USP, I devised a formal structure on how I was going to do this - if given the chance - and transparently displayed that to them. What I also made sure of, is that this internal-external load-monitoring strategy was practical and time-effective. So make sure yours is too. For whatever reason, I was offered the job.”

This was part of our discussion in the Science for Sport exclusive members-only group on Facebook. If you’re wondering how you can join, readers of the Performance Digest get this as an added benefit to their membership and get to connect and chat with over 1,200 likeminded coaches.

This example goes to show that if you’re able to identify a need in an organisation that you can fill by presenting a solution, you have already shown that you’re of value and stood out over the other candidates. Go into an interview with the mindset to improve their organisational/athletic practises versus simply stating what you can do. Just make sure you also add character and build a relationship with the interviewers.

Action tip = When you’re next applying for a job, use the job description and values of the company to develop a USP and lead with it.

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#15 KNOW WHERE TO LOOK FOR JOBS A question we get asked all the time is “where can I find S&C job and/or internship postings?” This is a vital part of the job searching process, if you don’t know where to find jobs and miss them when they do pop-up, then you’ve got a serious problem with your career path.

As a result, we highly suggest you save this list of job posting websites onto your Google Chrome (or equivalent) bookmarks and search through it every week.

1. ASCA 2. UKSCA 3. NSCA 4. Indeed (Australia) 5. Indeed (USA) 6. UK Sport 7. BASES 8. SEEK (Australia) 9. CSCCA 10. English Institute of Sport 11. Australian Institute of Sport 12. Sports Jobs UK 13. Sports Discovery 14. Strength & Conditioning Vacancies 15. Strength and Conditioning Jobs Action tip = Save this list to your bookmarks and check weekly.

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#16 BONUS TIP- CHANGE YOUR MINDSET Let me paint a little picture for you here…

You’ll spend tens of thousands of dollars getting your degree(s), but how much have you spent on additional/further education and qualifications? What does your spending ratio look like?

Let’s create a theoretical example and take a look: Bachelor’s degree = $35,000 Master’s degree = $10,000 S&C accreditation = $1,000 Additional qualifications = $1,000 Continuing education = $300 Total spent on degree(s) = $45,000 Total spent on S&C accreditation = $1,000 Total spent on additional (inc. continuing) education = $1,300 % of career investment spent on degree(s) = 95% % of career investment spent on S&C accreditation = 0.02% % of career investment spent on additional education = 0.03% If one thing is certain in the current climate of this S&C industry, it is that having a degree alone will NOT get you the job you desire. So, why do 99% of those who seek a job in this industry only invest (not spend – this is an investment in your career) approximately 0.03% on additional education? Why are we not trying to even out our career development investment? I personally believe we should be spending 0.05% of that total spend (approx. $2,500) on additional education, per year.

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#16 (CONTINUED) BONUS TIP- CHANGE YOUR MINDSET I can almost hear the pessimists chanting already saying that “yeah, but I got a loan for my degree(s), I can’t afford to spend any more money.” Just because universities make it easy to get a loan for a degree, doesn’t mean there's any other ways of sourcing money for your additional education. Just like completing an unpaid internship, you need to find a way to make it work. If you can’t be bothered, then more likely than not, this industry is not for you. Here’s one example, ask a friend or family member for a $1,000 “additional education” loan that you promise you’ll pay back within the first 6 months of landing the job you’re seeking.

You see, you need to change your mindset, you need to start thinking in a “shortterm loss, long-term gain” frame of mind. Take tip #7 (Perfect your resume and cover letter) as an example. You need to view investing (not spending) $149 on your resume as a “short-term loss, long-term gain”. For example, spend a little bit of money now as an investment in your career (i.e. short-term loss), and you’ll eventually earn that $40,000/year job (i.e. long-term gain). When you do, then that $149 resume investment seemed hysterical. The exact same applies when you’re considering investing your money on continuing education. What is, for example, $500/year spent on continuing education (i.e. short-term loss) if the end result from that investment is a $40,000/year job (i.e. long-term gain)? So, you see, the question you have in your mind shouldn’t be “should I spend $2,500/year on continuing education?” Instead, the question you should be asking yourself is “What should I be spending $2,500/year for continuing education on?”

Action tip = starting thinking in a “short-term loss, long-term gain” mindset.

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