Careers in cycling...

KentPuncheur

Hi all,

Some friendly guidance/advice sought please...

I left Uni 4/5 years ago with a BA and MA in Geography (or colouring in maps to others!) and fell into a job in finance. After a few years I've grown disillusioned with my current 'career path' and crave a change. I'm planning on doing some travelling first (I didn't do the gap year thing) but I'm still pushed as to what I want to do job-wise when I return.

I'm no longer looking solely for a money driven work life (that's why I went into my current career and I've found it unfulfilling) but want to do something that I love. That being cycling, I've thought about doing a distance-learning sport science degree with the aim of going into coaching (either seeking working for a team set up and/or independently) but I'm unsure as to the viability of this as a career.

Does anyone have any experiences to shed light on this, or even know anyone that followed this path?

It's either this, or find a geography related career...save me cycling please save me!!

Cheers

Garry H

Become a teacher. Plenty of holidays and very short days. Plenty of time left for cycling.

Pross

It's often a bad move to get into a career linked to your hobby. You often end up either watching other people doing what you want to do while working yourself or having no time to ride. I have friends who are / have been national coach, team DS, team physio / soigneur and mechanic and they all ended up riding less than ever.

It's not always the case but people often look for a coach with a history of success in their own riding so it will be easier to establish yourself if you can point to some results on the bike.

KentPuncheur

Yeah...the history of results thing would be a problem!

I've thought about journalism, but have heard it's a tough nut to crack. I suppose I just need to find something to do that will interest me as a profession. What I'm doing know just doesn't stimulate my mind in any way, and the thought of doing it for any length of time simply scares me!

Research based work, whether social research or environmental may be the ticket, if there is any remnants of a job market in those sectors. I've certainly got te qualifications, just not the specific work experience.

I gave teaching a long hard think, but my mother and aunt are teachers, and they've down their best to warn me off. The time off is certainly attractive though!...

Garry H

KentPuncheur wrote:

Yeah...the history of results thing would be a problem!

I've thought about journalism, but have heard it's a tough nut to crack. I suppose I just need to find something to do that will interest me as a profession. What I'm doing know just doesn't stimulate my mind in any way, and the thought of doing it for any length of time simply scares me!

Research based work, whether social research or environmental may be the ticket, if there is any remnants of a job market in those sectors. I've certainly got te qualifications, just not the specific work experience.

I gave teaching a long hard think, but my mother and aunt are teachers, and they've down their best to warn me off. The time off is certainly attractive though!...

I was only being facetious. Goingvthrough the same dolemma myself,also work in the same industry.
.

KentPuncheur

Garry H wrote:

KentPuncheur wrote:

Yeah...the history of results thing would be a problem!

I've thought about journalism, but have heard it's a tough nut to crack. I suppose I just need to find something to do that will interest me as a profession. What I'm doing know just doesn't stimulate my mind in any way, and the thought of doing it for any length of time simply scares me!

Research based work, whether social research or environmental may be the ticket, if there is any remnants of a job market in those sectors. I've certainly got te qualifications, just not the specific work experience.

I gave teaching a long hard think, but my mother and aunt are teachers, and they've down their best to warn me off. The time off is certainly attractive though!...

I was only being facetious. Goingvthrough the same dolemma myself,also work in the same industry.
.

I feel your pain! What part of the industry do you work in?

I'm planning a couple of long distance cycle tours over Europe once I've got round to quitting (aka saved up some more money!) so hopefully that will give me enough time to think about what I want to do!

Garry H

Risk and compliance for an american investment bank, middle office stuff.

KentPuncheur

Ah ok, I'm a credit analyst for a LBO team in a French investment bank. Meant to be front office but the bank doesn't seem to have a middle office so the compliance and reporting side of the job has consumed my role

mattbass789

I would say the same about becoming a teacher!

Getting the work life balance is hard. I had an under grad internship in central london left home at 7am returned in the eve at 7pm completely knackered. Everyone else in the office did this too. I don't know how they physically managed. It only left time for Sat/Sun and the occasional friday night ride. But I was posting great times/speeds and really relished every second I could spend on the bike. The unfortunate thing was when I couldn't ride at weekends for other commitments I got really antsy because it'd be two weeks without a ride.

However now, I work for a gym in back office business/marketing stuff. I see people enjoying sport and everything associated with it everyday, and it makes me realise I'm incredibly lucky to have those facilities on my doorstep and have a work life balance that embraces being healthy. Yet because I'm not working directly with cycling I relish the chance at weekends to put the hard miles in, and don't feel bad if I miss it because I can now make it up in the evenings.

A lot of my peers when leaving Uni (only last year) were very occupied with finding jobs with corporate giants, with fundamentally bad work life balances but the associated 1up manship of working for a household name. And they don't seem to all fully be enjoying it, or they seem to be working all the time. I don't see how that is good for them or their career.

If I were you I'd try and find something close to the area you want to work in, so it captivates you and still challenges you but isn't so close to cycling that you become disillusioned by the one thing you love.

Out of interest what was your degree in?

Garry H

mattbass789 wrote:

I would say the same about becoming a teacher!

Getting the work life balance is hard. I had an under grad internship in central london left home at 7am returned in the eve at 7pm completely knackered. Everyone else in the office did this too. I don't know how they physically managed. It only left time for Sat/Sun and the occasional friday night ride. But I was posting great times/speeds and really relished every second I could spend on the bike. The unfortunate thing was when I couldn't ride at weekends for other commitments I got really antsy because it'd be two weeks without a ride.

However now, I work for a gym in back office business/marketing stuff. I see people enjoying sport and everything associated with it everyday, and it makes me realise I'm incredibly lucky to have those facilities on my doorstep and have a work life balance that embraces being healthy. Yet because I'm not working directly with cycling I relish the chance at weekends to put the hard miles in, and don't feel bad if I miss it because I can now make it up in the evenings.

A lot of my peers when leaving Uni (only last year) were very occupied with finding jobs with corporate giants, with fundamentally bad work life balances but the associated 1up manship of working for a household name. And they don't seem to all fully be enjoying it, or they seem to be working all the time. I don't see how that is good for them or their career.

First paragraph reads very close to home.

He has a degree in geography,capital cities and that


If I were you I'd try and find something close to the area you want to work in, so it captivates you and still challenges you but isn't so close to cycling that you become disillusioned by the one thing you love.

Out of interest what was your degree in?

Garry H

Sorry, posting through a f*cking android phone!!!!!!!!!!

mattbass789

Beg your pardon! I got so involved, completely forgot he said that!

Though because of his Financial experience this opens a number of doors surely?
I considered becoming a teacher, maybe a lecturer. But lecturing takes a lot more time in education and from what my lecturers told me, you really have to love the subject!

Garry H

mattbass789 wrote:

Beg your pardon! I got so involved, completely forgot he said that!

Though because of his Financial experience this opens a number of doors surely?
I considered becoming a teacher, maybe a lecturer. But lecturing takes a lot more time in education and from what my lecturers told me, you really have to love the subject!

i messed up the quote thing. i'm having "issues" posting through my phone

Pross

I wouldn't consider teaching under the misapprehension of long holidays and short hours. I'm sure there are those who do get both those but I suspect they aren't good teachers. My sister teaches primary in North London, she travels from Balham and is at the school by 7am and gets home at gone 7pm. It was half term last week and she had a few days back home before returning to work midweek. Yes, she does tend to have all of the Christmas holidays and most of Easter off together with 4 weeks in the summer but is probably working more than that in unpaid hours trying to establish a career, doing her best for the kids and doing all the unseen crap that goes with doing the job well rather than going through the motions. The grass is always greener on the other side - I love to do a job with the Forestry Commission or Countryside team at a Council, being outdoors a lot but the downside then is poor pay.

velvetytoast

I used to work as a senior software engineering manager for a high profile company in the city with a team in the US and India. I became a teacher/lecturer - I work harder now than I did then and I didn't have to put up with as many idiots as I do now - but go for it it you think its going to be a breeze.....

pipipi

As a teacher I would be careful about thinking about the holidays too much!

The holidays will always be the most expensive times because that's when everyone else is off. So six weeks are great in the summer, but very expensive.

There will often be tests to mark and planning for the next lessons. :roll:

but the worst bit is the lack of flexibility with time off. :shock: My brother in law fancies a long biking weekend so books off a Friday and the following Monday, so there is plenty of time to get down to the Alps. There's no way you would ever be allowed to do that as a teacher. So I just have to listen to the stories. :evil:

KentPuncheur

Thanks for all the feedback.

I wouldn't ever underestimate how much work teachers do. My mother and aunt are teachers, and I really don't think I'd have the patience for the system as much as the teaching itself! And I've always been told the time off is a poisoned chalice due to the expense and inflexibility.

I did a BA in Human Geography (not the rocks mud and water one) and an MA in a cross between Human Geography and Sociology, so working in social research (local authority or think tank etc) or town planning, something along those lines would be preferable (if those sectors are recruiting at all). Have considered international development too.

I think a long way to satisfying the work-life balance is living in close proximity to your job (or at least a cycleable distance). Currently I leave home at 6:45-7:00 and don't get back to 7:30. After an hour session on the turbo I can eat something at 9 ish before chilling for an hour before bed! The train commute is killing me!

sev112

mattbass789 wrote:

I would say the same about becoming a teacher!

Getting the work life balance is hard. I had an under grad internship in central london left home at 7am returned in the eve at 7pm completely knackered. Everyone else in the office did this too.

Unfortunately welcome to the real world, and even more so, one in recession

I run a regular training course at work, where the key point is "how successful do you want to be in your career and what are you going to do about it?"
Draw parallels to olympic champions, or Olympic medal lists, or Olympic finalists, or just get to the Olympics, or be a national athlete, or a county athlete, or a club athlete, or a hobbyist ...
And the great thing is that you get paid to do 40hours of what it takes.
How many hours a week did Redgrave put in over how long ?

You want the career, you put the hours in, whether that be at your desk or at home working on what marks you out from all the rest.

And the same thing applies when you change career. You need to put the hours and commitment in to mark you out from all the rest that want to do the same.
You can do it, you can be successful at whatever you choose, but you have to want to want it more than the next guy, and be prepared to put in the effort and/or study to set yourself out.

Hope it goes well for you.

natrix

How about working for Sustrans, you might be able to combine your geography with cycling?? http://www.sustrans.org.uk/

knedlicky

natrix wrote:

How about working for Sustrans, you might be able to combine your geography with cycling?? http://www.sustrans.org.uk/

I think Sustrans are only recruiting temporary part-timers to do fundraising at the moment, 10-20 hours a week at £8.50/hour. Not sure if the pay is dependent on how much money you fundraise.

But the British Cycling Federation is advertising a few jobs just now: a Marketing and Communications Officer and a Campaigns Manager, these both based in Manchester (applications for the latter close tomorrow), and 4 positions of Recreation Manager at various parts of the country (applications for these close on Friday). One position is coincidentally as Recreation Manager for the Kent-Surrey area.

Obviously none the coaching job you seek, but maybe they include aspects of social research, which you also think you'd like. And eitherway, being at the BCF might give you a foothold on to something else.
What chance you stand of landing one of these jobs is another matter - I'd be curious to know how many applicants they are getting.

Or, as part of your planned long distance cycle tour across Europe, if you fancy a summer job actually cycling, now is the time of year when holiday companies and hotels which offer bike tours try to find their bike guides for the summer season – I’ve recently seen adverts for bike guide jobs in Greece, Italy and Germany (but the latter two only for MTB guides).

KentPuncheur

Cheers Knedlicky, the Recreation Manager jobs (particularly the Kent area one) looks of great interest.
Like you say, it would be very interesting to see what type of background / number of applicants they are receiving. Think I'll be throwing my hat into the ring anyhow!

ben@31

I saw a few full length documentaries on Youtube about cycle couriers in London and New York . Quite interesting. Doing a job they love but the money sucked, it's a young mans game, no job security and then there's the RTA's.

In my own opinion the grass is always greener and every job has it's pro's and con's. Sometimes there's no fast route to your dream job and you have to spend thousands and years working your way up a ladder of qualifications first. I knew a guy who became an airline pilot, he had to pay £70,000 for his own training but he's now doing the job he wanted.

Yellow Peril

Pross was right on the other page be careful of making your hobby your job.

It's a bit like shagging your missus to get her pregnant...it's a lot less fun than shagging her just for the hell of it.

Courage Monsieur

Do not - repeat - do NOT become a journalist.

Terrible pay, bad conditions, a lot of work. It's not half as cool as it sounds. You might 'make it' or, more than likely, you will not. Don't do it.

Courage Monsieur

Also, something I wish I'd told myself 15 years ago: get a job that means you don't get trapped in London or the SE. (though I notice you're in Kent)

The economy, unfortunately, is massively skewed to the SE and there are many jobs that don't exist outside London or if they do they're hard to find and a bytch to get. The flipside of this is that there's a lot more choice in London.

Teacher would be a good one (though I wouldn't want to do it). Very geographically mobile. A lot of public sector jobs fall into this bracket.

Monty Dog

Few people have got rich from the cycling business unless you've got a great new idea and able to capitalise on it. There's also a lot of people who are prepared to get by on little money and are prepared to undercut the market to get a share.

steerpike

Have you thought about becoming a swan herd? You'd have to like herding swans, but i'd imagine it's quite relaxing.

BeaconRuth

KentPuncheur wrote:

I'm no longer looking solely for a money driven work life (that's why I went into my current career and I've found it unfulfilling) but want to do something that I love. That being cycling, I've thought about doing a distance-learning sport science degree with the aim of going into coaching (either seeking working for a team set up and/or independently) but I'm unsure as to the viability of this as a career.

Does anyone have any experiences to shed light on this, or even know anyone that followed this path?

I've been a full-time cycling coach for six years now and have never been so content with my working life. I got a PhD in physics before deciding that I'm no research scientist, taught physics for three years in two different schools, then worked in production planning and supply chain management for two companies for nine years. The most lucrative job was the supply chain management but I can honestly say I worked for 6 years for one company without achieving a single thing of which I'm proud - managing teams through reorganisations and reporting constantly to bosses who ran round like headless chickens........ it earnt me far more money than I needed but was completely arid from a human perspective.

Teaching: utterly exhausting. I never ever got as stressed and tired in any other job I did. I wouldn't recommend it.

So cycle coaching suits me perfectly. But you do really honestly, genuinely have to want to help people become better cyclists - I don't think you can continually pretend you're interested in riders' progress if you're not. Being very good at keeping many balls in the air and handling vast amounts of data day in day out are pretty essential. And I did also have a reasonable haul of TT National Championship medals to prove that I know what it takes. I don't think I could begin to devise very demanding training schedules for riders if I hadn't been there and put myself through it in the past - and, TBH, I don't think I'd want to.

Ruth

hmm

A quick google search revealed this at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/jobs
It may combine your intended desire to work in social research with your background in finance. It's based at Essex Uni, so not a million miles from you. No idea about the salary though...

Hmm

ianspeare

I come from a Geography background too (BSc for me) I've applied for a few jobs at BC without success

It all depends on on what kind of cycling job you're after. The obvious stuff would be coaching. If you're mechanically minded, you could hit the cycle jumbles and restore some bikes

I did my dissertation on sustainable transport, so I'm looking into the planning options. If you fancy sustrans, it's probably worth seeing what volunteer options there are in your area.

I'm also interested in event management, so volunteering at some including sportives and club races.

Have a think about what you would want to do and work your way backwards to see how it's best to go about it

VTech

Dont take this in any other way than it is intended.
Are you good looking ?
Reason I ask is that if you want to do OK from anything fitness related and are half decent looking you will always be in work no matter what you chose.
Others will argue I am sure but they will be wrong. Women will pay, and pay well (I know you said money isnt an issue but it is) it will mean you can work less hours and have more time free to do as you please, we all have bills !

You can charge £35/hour to cycle in the right circles and you would not have an issue booking as many hours as you wanted to do, word of mouth spreads and only lack of time would be the issue.