Breaking Into The Brazilian Sports Industry: My Best And Exclusive Tips And Advice!
Geschreven op 16/12/2011 door Jelle Verdoodt — 1 reacties
Tussen 16 november en 13 december verbleef Kristian Dobrev, een jonge Belgische sportprofessional, in Brazilië. Zijn doel: internationale ervaring opdoen in de sportsector om zo zijn 'sportcareer' een boost te geven! Waarom hij dit deed en hoe hij het aanpakte, krijg je in 4 delen dit blog te lezen. Dit hier is het laatste deel! Met zijn uitzonderlijk verhaal (in het Engels, want hij gaat dan ook internationaal) hoopt hij andere sportprofessionals te inspireren. Alvast veel leesplezier gewenst!
The story of Kristian Dobrev (final part): Stick to these rules and you will succeed...
Some of you might have been wondering why it’s taken me longer to give you an update on my Brazilian experience. Well, the reason is simple: as soon as my last meeting was over I took off to indulge in my other great passion – backpacking! But I’m back in Belgium now and ready to give you an overflow of insights, experiences, and useful information.
Rule nr 1: be as proactive as you can be!
After my wonderful experience with Soccerex, I was meant to have one more interview, with Octagon Brazil. But as I was on the bus going towards their offices with a considerable amount of time in advance, I noted in my papers that several other interesting sports organizations had their offices in the same borough. Proactive as I like to be, I decided to go for it and just knock on their doors. First up was MATCH Services, a company that provides all kinds of services to FIFA. I had met with one of their employees at the Soccerex Global Convention where she gave me a business card and told me to send her my CV. The lady herself wasn’t at the office but another colleague was kind enough to accept my CV and take me aside for a small speed-interview (more on the outcome of this later). Next, I went to the building in which the FIFA World Cup 2014 Local Organising Committee was based. Before leaving for Brazil I had sent then an email twice, but both were never answered. So what happened was that without having a contact person, the receptionist couldn’t give me a pass. She did call the office, however, to which the LOC answered I could leave my CV at the reception – that was it.
It was finally time for my meeting with Octagon (the one I for some reason anticipated most, perhaps due to our previous correspondence). Our talk started off in English but pretty soon we switched over to Portuguese, which, to some surprise, went magnificently well (and probably got me to score some points). So I left the meeting with a good feeling, and saw there was one more place I could drop by: the Brazilian Olympic Committee. I had a contact person, though I knew he was out of town until after my trip, but I decided to give it a try anyway. The outcome was similar to the FIFA 2014 LOC office, though: no access without a scheduled meeting or contact person. So I thanked the receptionist thinking I’ll just continue exchanging emails with my contact person and headed back to my hostel to pick up my bag and leave for Sao Paulo.
Rule nr 2: Even parties provide networking possibilities. Always consider going.
The next morning I was in Sao Paulo because a Dutch travel agent I had met at my hostel in Rio de Janeiro had told me he was organizing a ‘Sinterklaasfeest’ for the Dutch and Belgian communities in Sao Paulo. There I met with the Consuls General of Holland and Belgium, the latter of which I knew could be of particular help regarding useful information, tips, and contacts in the future. After the event I did the same thing as I did in Rio: explore the city, in order to make up my mind whether or not I’d see myself living in it. Although it has some nice residential areas, the city in itself isn’t very attractive. Imagine a somewhat dirty, concrete version of lower Manhattan, and then multiply that by 50. Oh, and the amount of crazy people by 100: there you have it – Sao Paulo. But that’s just my opinion, and the city is the business center of South America after all, so it’s really a matter of what you’re used to, what you’re looking for, and how much you’re willing to bargain with yourself.
Rule nr 3: do try volunteering.
The last meeting, with the Director of Havas Sports & Entertainment Brazil, took place on Monday afternoon. I had gotten in touch with him thanks to an introduction by a Havas-SE employee from France whom I had worked with (as a volunteer) during the three editions of the Global Sports Forum Barcelona. The meeting had to be short but went well because the man was very honest and straight to the point with me, as was I.
So what have I learned from this trip and how can this help you?
I’m really satisfied with the fact that I had gone all the way over there to meet with these people and see what the country is about.
- Face-to-face meetings will always beat other types of communication and when considering a distance of approximately 10.000 kilometers, you show them just how serious you’re taking this. The experience taught me that things take slightly longer in Brazil and hence you need to show a bit more flexibility than you might be used to, or simply stay longer (which is arguably one of my main recommendations if you’re looking into going to Brazil).
- Then one of the most important factors to consider, which I learned from my meetings with MATCH Services, Octagon, and Havas-SE, is that the Brazilian government has recently put a somewhat protectionist law in place which obliges companies to hire between 2 and 4 (to my confusion, all three companies mentioned different numbers) Brazilian nationals for every foreigner they want to hire. Acceptable to some extent, yet pitiable to another, especially when you read (and see) that Brazil is lacking sport management professionals and even more so, professionals with linguistic skills (very few people speak English fluently). There is hope, though!
- Nevertheless, a good thing is that most of these companies have the intention and prospective of growing their business considerably in the next year, or the one after that, meaning that they will have the possibility of hiring a few foreigners along the way. All companies asked me to definitely keep in touch in order to stay up-to-date with each other’s activities and plans, and pointed out to make sure I keep learning Portuguese as well as I can since practically all business meetings and presentations are done in the local language.
Having said that, I hope it’s been an equally interesting journey to follow online as it has been to me in person. Furthermore, I hope it has motivated some of you to start planning similar trips (even if only in your minds) and that it has showed you the positive effects following your (crazy) dreams can have. “Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can […] – are the ones who do!”
For anyone who feels like staying connected, asking any insight or information, or simply exchanging stories, please feel free to connect through twitter (www.twitter.com/kdobrev) or LinkedIn (
www.linkedin.com/in/kristiandobrev).
It’s been an honour and my pleasure to work with sportcareers.be and hope (or make it: I’m sure) it won’t be the last project I’ll do with them, as much as I hope it may help you landing that job you’re so passionately looking for within the Belgian sport industry.
Stay hungry, stay foolish, or my personal favourite: Just Do It!
Read on: Kristian's story part 1: Preparing for taking off to Brazil
Read on: Kristian's story Part 2: First week of Rio: sports, good times and bad luck...
Read on: Kristian's story Part 3: Networking at the Soccerex Convention
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