Hello friends! 👋

Welcome to the SportsGrad Newsletter. Each week we take a deep dive into how people are growing their careers in sport.

Here you’ll find insights, tactics and tools to help you win jobs, get promoted, work around the world, make an impact, and still get paid fairly in sport.

Plus the latest on what’s happening in the SportsGrad Community - a private group of legends lifting each other toward the careers of their dreams.

Ever wondered what goes on inside the Australian Olympic Committee?

Meet Jeff Dickinson-Fox, Digital Engagement Manager at the Australian Olympic Committee.

Today Jeff shares the ins and outs of his role at the AOC, and how he has developed professionally over the years to land his position.

In the past, Jeff has worked at:

Bet365, Fox Sports, Athletics Australia, Tennis Australia, Parramatta Eels, Commonwealth Games, Southern Cross Austereo, Gymnastics Australia, and the ICC Cricket World Cup.

Enjoy this interview with the AOC’s Digital Engagement Manager, Jeff Dickinson-Fox 👇

But before we dive in, we’ve got a quick announcement…

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If you’ve thought about joining, you’ve got less than 46 days to prepare yourself.

A Rookie Membership is the quickest path to grow your network, access hidden job opportunities, and get your foot in the door of the sports industry.

Pop your name on the waitlist, and we’ll remind you when it opens.

Inside the Australian Olympic Committee's Digital Engagement team with Jeff Dickinson-Fox

From all of your past experience, which position did you first feel confident in your ability as a professional? Why this specific role?

This might be somewhat of an unpredictable answer, I first felt confident in a professional role when I was an Australian Open tour guide for Tennis Australia. When I started it wasn’t that way, but I had some volunteer experience and existing relationships within Tennis Australia I could lean on to get going.

There’s something about being a group’s tour guide for 60-90 minutes that was a great challenge for me, an introvert by nature, to make sure my delivery was more interesting than a wet rag - so people got an engaging experience of what it’s like to be at Oceania’s home of Grand Slam tennis. The groups ranged from school students to international tourists, locals or journalists and the group size could have been 20+ or 1 person.

When I nailed a tour or nailed 3-4 tours in a day, there’s something about that feeling which brings immense confidence. I was doing this job on the side for all three years I studied sport journalism. The professional skills and confidence I gained doing tours also flowed into my uni assignments.

When you applied to join the Australian Olympic Committee, did you receive any feedback as to what made them employ you over everyone else?

I did get some feedback from the AOC about why they chose to hire me. They thought I had a very strong case for why I could be a great ‘all-rounder’ for them as their Digital Engagement Coordinator. I sold them on being someone that could jump straight in and know how to spot, ideate and execute engaging sports social media content. With the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics being less than two months away at the time, that was crucial. But almost as important was the AOC knowing I could lean on my journalistic skills to write about all their Olympic sports on a quick turnaround (Games-time content) and feature-length pieces, while using their website tools to publish that content.

Do you have an approach to goal-setting that you find most beneficial?

Approaching professional goal setting is definitely something I have struggled with. Particularly when I was at uni and in my first few years after graduating. In those years I’d get a seasonal contract to do a job I loved and it would be over in 3-18 months, I wanted to build up enough great experience to be a prime candidate for sports roles I’d love that were also full-time.

I never liked the idea of ‘think of the one job you want most and get it’ as a goal because there are so many factors at play that I can’t influence. What I’ve found to be most beneficial is, and what I say to people in their early-mid 20s thinking about a way to approach goal-setting in sports, is think about the types of things you want to be doing every day and in which sport/s. That becomes the goal and then it’s up to you to be flexible with which city/town you live in and what you’re going to do in your professional/spare time to make that goal a reality.

What is your preparation for the Olympics looking like? Give an example of a standard day in your life.

Preparation for the Paris 2024 Olympics keeps evolving as we get closer and closer to the Opening Ceremony! It gives me variety in what my days look like which keeps things interesting.

Most of my days as a digital engagement manager are a blend of producing content, plus planning and strategising for upcoming content campaigns and events.

We drive fan engagement across olympics.com.au, the Australian Olympic Team/Committee social media accounts and EDMs. The content ranges from weekly articles wrapping up what Aussie athletes from Olympic sports have done in competitions around the world, training/motivational content, Paris 2024 Olympic Team feature articles, bios, videos, Olympians visiting schools and remote communities as well our community programs. I also manage a Social Media Coordinator. We’re based in Sydney but the frequent flyer points have gone up quite a bit in the last 12 months to get content with athletes who are en route to Paris 2024.

Then on planning and strategy side of things, how we scale up to best cover 450+ athletes who will represent Australia at the Paris 2024 Olympics is also part of my day. What do we do to make sure everyone at home feels a part of the Australian Olympic Team as much as we do, to turn the national pride up to 11.

Digital is constantly evolving, is there a skill, tool or platform you’ve enjoyed learning most in the last 2 years?

Digital is constantly evolving! The obvious answer here is TikTok, but for me it’s been learning how our website content management system backend (Drupal) works. If there’s a pesky bug, something goes wrong or there’s a feature we don’t have that we need – I’m trying to fix it myself before going to the experts or trying to learn with the experts. Understand how long things take to fix when they break, the mysterious world of search engine optimisation and how our website gets prepared to confidently handle significant traffic at Games time.

I’m keeping a close eye on how ChatGPT continually evolves, I hope the day doesn’t come when it’s capable of doing everything I can!

What’s one thing you’ve done consistently for 5-10 years that’s made a tangible impact on your career growth?

Always highly valued advice from independent HR/People & Culture professionals or similar with sports industry experience. From getting the CV on point, to what to expect in job interviews, getting comfortable for interviews, salary negotiation and more. Inside an organisation, the internal departments can be quite different from each other in how they work and what they value in/want from their people. Even when it comes to the difference between not-for-profit organisations, government and privately owned companies. Places where 20 people, 100 people or 1,000 people work also makes a difference. Hearing from someone that understands those intricacies is invaluable.

What are you most excited for about working on the Paris Olympics?

That’s hard! It’ll be my first time ever on foot at an Olympic Games and my first time in Europe. Being at the world’s biggest event will be incredible. But I’m also really looking forward to seeing 450+ athletes from more than 30 sports have their best day on the right day, each one of them deserving of success after many years of grinding to get to the top. It will also be a family affair, a few relatives are flying over to experience the Olympics as fans and I have a cousin I grew up with that now lives in France.

Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, or if you’re working full-time in sport, join SportsGrad Pro to connect with him and other like-minded people inside the community!

What’s happening in the Community?

Community Wins ⭐️

Here’s what SportsGrad Members got up to last week...

Sebastian Gilson received a placement position at the South Adelaide Football Club

Braith Porteous is starting as a Sport Programs Officer with the Australian International Sports Organisation

SportsGrad Members have landed over 600+ jobs in sport.

If you've had a win, share it with us in the #wins channel on Discord!

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Members, to join an event, RSVP via Discord.

Pro Member Events:

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Looking for a new gig? Here’s a few organisations who want to hire SportsGrad Members:

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For those looking to break into sport - make sure you pop the 14th of May in your calendar!

Catch you soon,

Acacia 💛

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