The Business side of Motorsport - Work Exp/ Volunteer

[BenEvans94]

Hi, I am currently studying a business degree but have a strong passion for Motorsport and F1 in particular so kind of hope to move into this industry on the non driver side in the future.

My problem is I feel you 100% need work experience to be successful, but finding any contacts or making an head way on this seems impossible... so I was wondering if anyone could offer any solid advice on any companies or organisations to pursue for some summer or on going work experience.

The areas i'm looking at are marketing, sales and PR (at any level of Motorsport at this point in time) but as I said my searches keep giving me dead ends.

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this but I'm guessing there is some vast and great knowledge here. May i add that I am not crying for someone to do all the ground work for me, I have just come to a dead end and really am craving a bit of guidance/ push in the right direction.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions!

Ps sorry if anyone has seen me post before about this, I'm just exploring all possible avenues!

[Starter]

First, where do you live (what country)? That has a lot to do with any approach you may take.

[BenEvans94]

My bad my bad. I'm from the UK, England. I'm not really location fixed within the UK, flexible.

[janvanvurpa]

The areas i'm looking at are marketing, sales and PR (at any level of Motorsport at this point in time) but as I said my searches keep giving me dead ends.

It is only my personal impression but a) it seems as though the world of auto-sport--and sport in general already is overflowing with whole battalions of people "interested in" marketing, sales, and PR......
Indeed the word infested seems closer to the mot juste

b) you don't think there is some sort of hierarchy in the ranks of the 10s of thousands of marketing, sales and PR people swarming over every sporting event?
And that there is some sort of ranking, informal as it is?

And that that ranking---meaning access, and pay for writing mind numbing, contentless, platitude filled, made-for-TV near illiterates----is related to some kind of performance?

I've been nearly daily involved in one way or another in motorsport for a while...I can't think of a group that I feel more disgust and contempt for in the world than marketing, sales and PR..

They've ruined motorsports, ruined politics from a local level up, ruined everything they get paid to touch..

Is there anything in the world that might be "productive" that interests you?

[Starter]

It is only my personal impression but a) it seems as though the world of auto-sport--and sport in general already is overflowing with whole battalions of people "interested in" marketing, sales, and PR......
Indeed the word infested seems closer to the mot juste
Only too true.

I'm in the US and from my, admittedly limited, experience with the PR side of motorsport, there are few long term and/or well paid jobs available. The road I've seen most often is for people to take either unpaid or low paid jobs in the sport to gain experience. Then when they have something to actually put on a resume they move on to PR positions in fields other than motorsport where they can actually earn a living.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

I'm assuming that if you like motor sport then you're into cars? There will be more marketing roles in general in the car industry rather than specifically motor sport.

But then I finished my marketing degree 5 years ago and haven't had a sniff of any marketing job.......would have had a better chance if I'd done English, Maths or Engineering.

You might not want to hear this but a marketing degree is a waste of time. All it tells employers is that you've read a few marketing textbooks and know about the 4 P's. An English degree is much more useful for them. My advice would be to get as much work experience as possible and be grateful for any 'real' marketing role you can land. Otherwise the only opportunities left will be telesales jobs disguised as 'marketing executive'.

[BenEvans94]

I do a business degree and I think I'm fairly versatile in picking up new skills so I'm not too alarmed that there is lots of competition. Yeah I do have an interest in cars generally as well so i'd be happy to follow that, but Motorsport is the dream.

I know it's a big ask to make it, but isn't everything a big ask these days? As you said the world is closer together. I'm just starting early in the informal channels and trying to build my knowledge of the pathway so I can full on attack it in the not so distant future