Breaking into SEM: how I landed my first roles

For any doctor thinking about carving out a career in sport and exercise medicine (SEM), the first question is the same, and it is often the hardest to answer. How do I find my way in? As with most things in life and medicine, getting your foot in the door is the hardest step.

The world of SEM can feel quite alien and remote to those of us in our early medical careers. It is a world where soft skills, such as networking and selling yourself, are often as important as clinical knowledge or qualifications. For those of us used to the fixed applications, pathways and career development of postgraduate medical training, it can feel daunting. It certainly did for me, particularly without any existing SEM contacts.

I am very much at the start of my own career in SEM. I am a soon-to-CCT GPST3 with a developing special interest in the specialty, currently covering casual matchdays with the QPR FC academy and occasionally with Crystal Palace FC Women, alongside ad hoc work at multi-sport events and in adolescent school sport. I am studying for a part-time SEM MSc at QMUL and working through the FSEM Diploma exams.

So I have a great deal left to learn. But I thought some insights from someone still navigating the path, having made a few early inroads, might be useful to others starting out. Here are my tips.

1. Do your research

Doing my own research, in a few different ways, was how I first oriented myself and got started.

I benefitted from keeping a regular eye on job vacancies, and from identifying people in roles of interest and working out how they got there. Regularly checking careers websites alerts you to vacancies when you are actively looking, but it also informs future job searches. You build an awareness of what jobs exist, when they become available, and what qualifications and experience you need to get them.

The sites I check regularly:

• UK Sport's Jobs In Sport page
• Jobs In Football
• The FSEM and BASEM careers pages
• LinkedIn
• StudySEM's Opportunities page

But I'm sure there's good places I'm missing! Tracking vacancies helped me identify personal areas to strengthen, and showed me where to prioritise time and money to become a more competitive candidate.

LinkedIn is useful in a second way too. Looking at the profiles of other SEM doctors, the places and roles they work in, and the career paths, qualifications and experience behind them gives you a realistic picture of how people actually get into those positions.

2. Invest in yourself

There is an overwhelming number of courses, diplomas and degrees to choose from when upskilling in SEM, and none of them seem to be cheap. From my experience, though, the sentiment "chance favours the prepared mind" has proven true.

Investing time, money and effort puts you in a stronger position when opportunities arise. I was aware early on of the importance of holding a pitchside qualification, and sought out a slot to get my ATMMiF done. Even once I had it, it did not lead to anything significant until the final year of its 3-year duration.

I initially felt the money and time had been spent prematurely and wasted. But when the moment came, having it already in place meant I was immediately up to scratch, and it led directly to my first pitchside cover.

I have since started an MSc in SEM, which is again no small or cheap undertaking, and it has been worthwhile. It has given me a much better grounding in the specialty and has directly opened some doors, providing a genuine chance to network, letting me explore specific areas of interest, and translating into a developing research project in concussion and brain health.

Diplomas and examinations are worth a mention too. They indicate SEM expertise and provide a route to FSEM membership, demonstrating further commitment to the specialty.

The overwhelming caveat is the financial and time cost. Costs add up incredibly quickly and are not guaranteed to lead to further work. There is a real trade-off between cost and benefit, and deciding which outgoings are worthwhile comes back to doing your initial research.

3. Right place, right time

Once you are developing yourself and your prospects, finding the actual opportunities becomes the next hurdle. Alongside watching for advertised posts, the power of word of mouth should not be underestimated in what still feels like a close-knit specialty.

Networking is the big buzzword. Getting yourself into environments where you are surrounded by people involved in SEM, getting your name and face known, and presenting yourself as likeable and reliable is very powerful. Courses, LinkedIn, conferences, shadowing at events. All of these put you into the world of SEM and into conversation with the person who might open a door.

This is not a skill most early-career doctors are especially comfortable with, and I include myself in that. Our training pathways do not tend to emphasise it, and it felt, and still feels, uncomfortable to wade into.

There is a large element of luck. In my case, a fellow MSc colleague needed help covering a football game and either recalled me or asked around for anyone trained in ATMMiF, which thankfully led him my way. I like to think being active and chatting to others on my course helped that along.

4. The power of saying yes

Once I had been offered chances to cover on a one-off basis, the next natural thought was how to turn that into more.

I had been booked in to cover an academy football game 4 to 6 weeks out, and it was clear the doctors were also struggling to cover another game or two before that. Sometimes the temptation is not to push the boat out and to take things slowly, which is the right call on some occasions. But I was keen, felt confident, and crucially had the availability, which made it a genuine win-win for the medical team.

By showing enthusiasm and reliability, I think I endeared myself to the lead academy doctor. When they started a pre-season round of recruitment for a casual matchday role, I had already demonstrated willingness and dependability, and that led to the job.

SEM is a small world, and building trust matters. Being dependable and saying yes early and often is how you get asked back, and a track record opens doors. Because SEM is a genuine portfolio career, senior clinicians typically work across roles, organisations and sports, so a good reputation at one club or governing body has a habit of following you elsewhere.

There are caveats. There is an overwhelming temptation to say yes in the early stages, even when something takes you outside your comfort zone or your competencies. Be careful, particularly when chasing an exciting role. I found myself saying yes to things in a rugby club doctor interview that, in hindsight, I could not have delivered. Away travel to Newcastle or Cornwall was never going to fit, and it would have stretched my expertise to its limits given my limited rugby experience.

For a sense check, the FSEM minimum standards document is worth bookmarking and measuring yourself against. Working far outside recommended scopes of practice, competency levels and personal limitations could land you in real trouble. Be honest and self-reflective about what you should do, rather than what you could do.

Also bear in mind what saying yes does to your own wellbeing, to friends, family and loved ones, and to your work outside sport. From personal experience, multiple busy consecutive weekends covering sport affects my partner, and the burden of childcare, more than it affects me. Work-life balance matters here.

A final word

To stress it once more, I am very much at the start of my SEM journey and have lots to learn. Having managed to get my foot in the door in a few ways, I hope these tips offer some advice to those looking to land their first roles, and some encouragement to anyone who feels like they are on the outside looking in.

One thing leads to another, and once you get the snowball rolling, it tends to take off on its own.

Feel free to reach out if you want to chat about, or completely disagree with, anything I have said. Best of luck.