Hi all,
I'm in an interesting predicament. I am currently deciding between a couple offers and am from a target school (H/Y/P/W/S) as a senior:
- Football Operations for an NFL Team (basically running analytics for player performance and help make drafting decisions, sports science analytics)
- Bulge Bracket IB (tier 2)
- Consulting (tier 2)
I keep thinking about optionality - obviously consulting and IBD are considered "safe routes", but I guess working in football has been my dream since I was a kid. Like, the opportunity is something I've always dreamt about and have worked towards. How would you guys consider the three of these opportunities if you had a choice? I'd also like the option of going to M7 B-School down the road, so while I'm leaning towards football right now, I'll have a hard decision to make if working in football operations is frowned down upon by adcomms.
Any perspective would be great, thanks!
Why on earth would you turn down your dream job in order to impress a faceless gatekeeper years into the future?
Take the NFL job. And if it happens to be with the Seahawks, make sure they do a better job with the O-line please, and thank you.
It will be easier going to a top business school from the NFL job than banking or consulting. You will stand out and have an interesting story instead of competing for spots against the people from Goldman or McKinsey.
FWIW, I have a good friend who went to one of the schools you listed for undergrad, worked as a scout for an MLB team for a few years, and ended up at H/S/W for business school. No other work experience.
Plus, like what everyone else said, this is your dream job!
Also, if you decide to leave the NFL for some reason for a "normal" corporate job, every single interviewer you have will be dying to talk to you about your time there. You will be "that guy from the NFL" when they talk about candidates post interview. Having a "hook" like that is a very good thing.
Is it top tier NFL though? If we're talking about a job with the Browns...
@JohnDoe251192 I sent you a PM. I think I'm uniquely qualified to comment on your situation, but would rather chat over PM.
I think when a dream job avails itself to you, you take it. Your job satisfaction will undoubtably be higher than if you work in IB or consulting.
I think adcoms will actually view it as a positive if you go the b-school route. Your experience will be very different from most applicants and that makes for a much more well rounded class.
If for some reason football doesn't work out, you can much more easily pivot to IB or consulting. If you take IB or consulting first, there's no guarantee a sports door will ever open again. As you know, these types of roles are very hard to come by, and when a team does hire, they hire one person and not an entire class.