Sports internships: How students can best be prepared during the application process

Abstract

Sport internships are a crucial component to the success of students both in the academic and post-graduate workforce settings. Oftentimes, students do not know what organizations are looking for when they apply. Similarly, they are also unsure of what responsibilities they will be tasked with, the qualifications they need to have, the skills and expectations that are needed, and the experience they need to possess. The purpose of this study was to help students learn how they can identify what the best internship is for them, while also helping educators and practitioners understand what students, or prospective interns, are looking for. For the study, one hundred and thirty job descriptions were collected from two different job sites and depicted multiple types of roles and different organizations across the United States. This paper utilized a content analysis, more specifically, a coding and analytical approach, that breaks each job description down into the categories of responsibilities, qualifications, skills and expectations, and experience. The results indicated that depending on the role, the top responsibilities varied, however, top overall qualifications were related to previous knowledge as well as school and schedule attributes, while having professional characteristics was the most sought-after skill and expectation, and having previous experience was highly valued. This study explored various kinds of jobs and their respective job descriptions in the sport industry to help students better understand what they can expect while going through the recruitment and application process when looking for internships.