Ethan Walker (QM 2009-2016)
Following the completion of my Sports Management degree at Loughborough University in 2019, I decided to enter the property industry and become a lettings negotiator in Birmingham City Centre. Despite not having any prior knowledge in the field, one of my family members has been a landlord for 20+ years and I had spent a few weeks with them and soon developed a keen interest into the sector. I spent a year and a half as a negotiator where I met new people every day, sometimes from different countries. It was a rewarding job but for me, watching people walk away with keys to their new apartments, however I wanted to get back into sports as my aim is to become a sports agent. Going into the property world gave me first hand experience at dealing with law, negotiations, contracts and managing relationships between different stakeholders of a property.
In 2021, just before the summer I applied for a job with Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games as the assistant manager for Rugby Sevens and was successful. For the next year I helped organise the Rugby Sevens competition that took place in Coventry, in addition to the Judo. I was involved in many projects during my time at The Games, one of the most notable were managing and looking after a small portion of volunteers who were on hand to help us with anything that we required during the event. I was fortunate enough to go to Twickenham Sevens with work and spend a week with the teams and officials, which included a day at an England Sevens’ training session.
As The Games came to a close, I started to look for other opportunities in sport that I thought would help me develop in the sports industry and saw an opening online with British Athletics, as an Athlete Support Coordinator. In the role I manage athletes and their relevant contact’s logistics which includes but is not limited to travel, accommodation and entry into international events. I am fortunate enough to sit in on key selection meetings for competitions. I have been in the role now just over 7 months and have spent a month in South Africa for a warm weather training camp with a portion of elite athletes including Katarina Johnson-Thompson, in addition to 2 trips to Turkey (one for a competition and another for a camp). This summer I am fortunate enough to be going to Finland and Hungary as part of team management for 2 different competitions. Having such close contact to the athletes has allowed me to build strong relationships and better understand what helps them compete at their best. I also get to work with some household names such as Darren Campbell, Jenny Meadows and Robbie Grabarz who are current part of our staff team.
While at QM, one of the key messages that the teachers would give to us, is to take the opportunities that are presented to you, which I still try to do now, especially those that are not in my field as I feel it is important to develop skills outside your chosen path. A big thank you to all of the teachers and staff that were at QM during my 7 years!