Obtaining an internship in the field of sports is not the easiest task to complete. There is a high level of competition involved in obtaining an internship in sports. More and more college institutions are offering the Sport Management program all over the country. It is more than likely that the students competing for an internship in sports are graduates from well known, high level education institutions. A single individual competing for an internship in sports must be skilled in certain qualities. Based upon my research I have found three qualities that will extremely benefit ones chance of obtaining an internship in sports. The three key qualities to obtain an internship are high communication skills, strong knowledge and passion of the sport one is desired in getting an internship with, and efficiency in most of Microsoft Office programs.
Communication skills are essential to almost any career path in today's society. It is essential to have strong communication skills because just the way one presents them will have a strong impression on the organization or wherever they try obtaining an internship. The ability to communicate with others in a high intelligent and professional manner can only benefit one's contribution to a sports team. Every marketing and advertising project is team oriented which has to involve communication. One can improve their communication skills by performing presentations and public speeches in front of large audiences. Also one can increase their vernacular to improve their communication skills. Reading high intelligent books with strong vocabulary is a great way to improve one's vernacular.
The quality that I believe is most essential in obtaining an internship in sports is possessing strong knowledge and passion for the particular sport one is trying to obtain an internship for. This quality is most essential because without passion and knowledge of the sport, one may be useless in terms of contributing to the organization. First of all, one will not understand the sport, and second of all, one will not be capable of expressing their inner most thoughts about the sport and having no enthusiasm towards it whatsoever. There is really no way to improve this quality; it just depends on what sport one has strong knowledge and passion for.
The last quality I came across after researching many internships, is being highly skilled in using Microsoft Office programs. Almost every professional sport internship I researched mentions the skills of Microsoft Office. It seems to me that the Microsoft Office programs are essential to almost every sport organization in today's society. Without Microsoft Office, organizations would have much difficulty in putting together certain advertising and promotion programs. Also Microsoft Office has an excel program that allows an organization to keep track of certain data and statistics. For example an organization must keep track of their financial data and statistics. It could also be used to keep track of statistics of players on a sports team. To improve one's skills in the Microsoft Office programs is to use the programs repetitively. Microsoft Office is used throughout almost all levels of education, so students are using it repetitively.
Overall, obtaining an internship in sports is difficult. These three qualities mentioned can be developed at a young age. One will be better off developing these qualities at a young age because as they get older and older they will improve the level of each of these qualities. So when it comes time to apply for an internship the competition between the person that developed these qualities at a young age against an applicant that started developing these skills as a teenager, will not be tough because they already developed these qualities and a have a high level of experience in them and are constantly improving.