Career change
Life after sport: what do elite athletes do next?
Establishing a second career takes determination — but many have the right skills
Scott Ward, former professional footballer, has forged a second career with EY © Charlie Bibby/FT
September 6, 2018 3:00 am by Kate Youde
Scott Ward enjoyed an “explosive” start in professional football, saving a penalty with his first touch. “I presumed from that point onwards everything would be great,” says the former goalkeeper, “but physically I really struggled.”
He retired 12 years ago at the age of 26, after countless injuries. His club, Crawley Town, had gone into administration that year and Mr Ward was out of pocket. He found work as a refuse collector in the area where he grew up. “People knew me as Scott the footballer and the next day I’m collecting their bins and they’re saying: ‘What are you doing here?’”
Having signed a professional contract before he left high school, and coming from a footballing family (his brothers Elliott and Darren have played in the Premier League), the game was all he knew. “There was no mental or skilful preparation for the ‘what if’ moment, so it creates that even more dramatic cliff-edge,” he says. He struggled to deal with the expectations of those around him and a “loss of identity”.
Many former athletes find it hard to adjust to conventional working life. Former UK Olympic medal-winning badminton player Gail Emms made headlines last year after writing an emotional account of her difficulties after she retired from the sport, particularly in finding a job.
While some sportspeople are able to forge new roles as commentators, coaches, managers or public speakers, more end one career at the top of their field only to find themselves at the bottom again, in many cases — because of the all-consuming nature of elite sport — without relevant experience or qualifications to get another job.
Superstars: from sport to business
© AFP
The former athletes with successful second acts
International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde, above, was in France’s synchronised swimming team as a teenager.
Rob Scott, managing director of Australian conglomerate Wesfarmers, won silver in rowing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Former Heinz chief executive Tony O’Reilly played rugby for Ireland and the British and Irish Lions.
Meg Whitman, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and eBay, was a member of Princeton University’s lacrosse and squash teams.
But increasingly, leading employers such as EY and Citigroup are harnessing the skills of former professional athletes, recognising their very particular skills and attributes.
For Mr Ward, the turning point came when he enrolled on an executive MBA at Warwick Business School in 2014, his first taste of academia since an A-level in leisure and tourism. He chose to research the level of acceptance within sport of athletes preparing themselves for life after retirement.
His findings have contributed to EY’s Personal Performance Programme, set up for athletes prepare for life after sport. EY’s project provides workshops and online education in business skills, employment and mindset development. The consultancy is in talks with sport governing bodies and player membership organisations about adopting the global programme.
Mr Ward is global lead for the scheme. He says it is designed to “replenish that societal growth element” many sportspeople miss by going straight from school into sport and help them decide what is best for them.
His research found 80 per cent of athletes could not understand how skills gained during their sporting careers could be adapted for jobs in other industries. Yet EY is also hiring sportspeople as part of its plan to diversify, “because they come with a natural set of skills that are very, very attractive in the world of work”, says Dan Black, global recruiting leader at EY. He highlights leadership skills, commitment and resiliency.
The US Olympic Committee’s Athlete Career and Education Program — which helps current and retired Team USA athletes access education, develop career readiness skills and find jobs — has identified 10 traits that make them “strong employees”.
Case study:
Australian tennis player Marija Mirkovic studied commerce after retiring from professional tennis in 2012 at the age of 22. She found she handled exam pressure better than some of her university peers because she “dealt with it day in, day out playing big matches on the world stage”.
Now an analyst in the central and eastern Europe institutional sales team at Citigroup, she sees parallels between her sporting life and markets “because no two days are the same”. “It’s quite similar . . . in the way you’ve constantly got to react to changing circumstances,” she says.
Athletes are results-oriented and team players; execute strategy and conquer adversity; have a high performing work ethic and perform under pressure; and are coachable, ambitious, inspirational and culturally sensitive.
A 2015 EY/espnW global study found 94 per cent of women in senior management positions played some sport, 52 per cent at university level. As part of its focus on recruiting athletes, EY has employed 18 female Olympians and Paralympians, from 12 different sports and 10 countries, across two internship programmes, following the 2016 summer and 2018 Winter Olympics. “I’ve met many of them and they are as impressive in the boardroom as they are on their fields in sports,” says Mr Black.
Eight of the first intake of 10 women are working for the company beyond their six-month placements. Their skills translate, says Mr Black, so the scheme goes beyond being “a good a thing to do” or gaining a marketing advantage.
A separate pilot programme in Australia is enabling nine women to pursue sporting careers while on flexible working arrangements at EY.
Other projects have helped athletes make the leap into the corporate world. Add-Victor is a specialist recruiter founded by former Harlequins and England rugby player Steve White-Cooper. It has placed about 170 elite athletes in Europe’s finance industry since 2012.
Three-quarters of 27 sportspeople placed by Add-Victor who have undertaken internships with Citi’s markets business in the past six years were offered permanent positions, and the company is expanding the programme to its capital markets group.
Candidates must have a strong academic background so Mr White-Cooper says Olympic and Paralympic sports including rowing and hockey tend to dominate because historically those athletes are more likely to attend university.
“Finance is a fast-paced environment,” he says. “It is very meritocratic — you live and die by your performance, and you’ll be awarded accordingly — and therefore I think there’s some very easily transferables between sport and the finance industry.”
