Tom Rowell: How to Nail a Job Interview 

At GIS, we’re proud that 79% of our graduates work in sport, but our current students may want to know how these alumni secured their roles.

Recently, our Deputy Dean of the Business School at GIS, Shana Doyle-Axcell, hosted a webinar offering valuable insight into how students can position themselves as strong candidates and top tips for interview preparation. She was joined by Tom Rowell, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at World Snooker Tour, who also brings over a decade of experience in football.

The first steps to landing your dream role aren’t necessarily technical, they start with how you approach your interview.

Tom shared practical advice for interview success, beginning with the importance of curiosity. Interviewers view this as a sign of genuine interest and engagement.

“You can’t be passive in this industry, you have to ask questions,” Tom said, highlighting the difference between candidates who do their research and those who don’t.

“Practice interviews and do research about the business you’re interviewing for. 

“So many times I’ve done interviews for executives and they’ve made no effort on the most basic things.”

One question that Tom often asks his interviewees is to critique his work, but finds responses are hesitant. “I often ask people to tell me why I’m rubbish, and people are scared to answer, but I need to know that answer so I know what you can offer me.”

This is especially true when you are being interviewed by a senior member of staff, Tom continued, as their lack of involvement in day-to-day decisions might mean you have noticed something they didn’t.

While experience is a large part of whether you can do a job, managing people is something that goes under the radar, especially if you aim for senior jobs where you will be managing teams of staff, like Tom has. “You can be the smartest person in the world but if you don’t get along with people or understand how they work, and how to manage people, you’re going to struggle, which comes across in interviews.”

“Dont apply for something half heartedly, if you really want a job, go all in and make the effort,” he summarised.

Working his way up from entry level roles to managing multiple departments and teams of over 40 people, Tom attributes a lot of his success to ambition, and saying yes to every opportunity. 

Landing his first marketing job at Leicester City during their time in the Championship, Tom was hired after a recruiter offered to put his name in for a job he hadn’t originally applied for, though he said yes nonetheless, saying: “You have to take opportunities that come your way, if you get the chance to speak to someone, always say yes.”

These recruiters, Tom said, are not just important in his eyes, but essential when it comes to landing new roles in sport. On this, he advised students to get to know recruiters as quickly as possible so that your name is the one that comes to mind when a new opportunity presents itself. “Ultimately, recruiters don’t put in much effort sometimes to fill jobs, and often they have 10 go-to people for certain roles”, he added.

As you can imagine, experience is another attribute that employers look for, though this experience can come from many avenues and doesn’t necessarily have to be a full-time role.

“If you have a job in football once, you can get a job in football many times. Even if it’s an internship or you’ve done voluntary work for a sports team, it’s a tick that you know something about the sport and you’re more than just academic.”

Tom continued to advise students to ‘make a fuss’ about their placements, knowing that people want to see that you’ve made the effort to apply yourself and learn more. This extends to academia, with Tom saying students should emphasise why their dissertation is related to the job they’re applying for- a factor that helped Tom to his role as Data Marketing Executive at Leicester despite having no other marketing experience aside from his masters degree.

Similar masters degrees are offered by us at GIS with a focus on sport, namely our MSc Sports Marketing & Media and MSc Football Communications & Digital Marketing courses. Students that have studied on these programs have gone on to big things, including Maria Hasler’s role as Global Partner in the Marketing Team at DAZN, which you can read more about here.

In the digital age, exploiting the opportunities that the internet brings is also essential for Tom, who said, “Networking and LinkedIn are essential, I don’t think you can have a particularly strong career in sport unless you’re really looking for jobs.” 

This is a well-documented belief, with studies showing that increased frequency of LinkedIn usage is significantly linked to various career benefits, such as accomplishing work faster, achieving salary increases, and creating new ideas and knowledge.

After getting your first job, Tom believes that the best way to improve is simply through experience and learning on the job, and the effort you put into this is something your future bosses will notice.

“You don’t learn when things are easy, you learn when it’s difficult.

“You’ve got to be willing to take on more, if you’re doing the minimum with your job description you won’t stand out.”

Landing your first job, you may see it as a stepping stone to bigger and better things, and in Tom’s experience, moving jobs may be required, but he sees a major difference between progressing and sidestepping.

“Most of my jobs have been better jobs, you don’t want to be making sideways moves as it puts people off- the question arises of ‘why haven’t they been promoted?’

“To get promoted within an existing club is very rare, you need to jump around a little to get that chance. My willingness to jump around helped my career progression.”

An overarching theme in the sports industry is hard work, with Tom summarising that “knowing what you want is great, but knowing what it takes to get that is very important, in terms of time, effort and commitment.”

Article by Zakaria Anani