Last week we announced our first online conference. Jobs in Analysis 2023 will feature a number discussions, presentations and panels made up of professional analysts offering insights & advice to those seeking a job in the industry.
We’ve seen remarkable interest in the event on December 7th, with over 150 registrations in the first week! There’s still time to register if you haven’t already, and you can check out the event in more detail here.
Any successful event needs a competent and knowledgeable host who can drive discussions in the right direction to benefit the attendees. Luckily, we found two! Chris Gill & Liam Henshaw have done enormous amounts to help the analysis community in recent years, and we couldn’t be happier to have them on board.
We sat down with them to get to know them in a little more detail prior to December 7th.
You’ve both built an audience online helping others. Why did you decide to start doing this?
Chris – The main reason I started producing my content was because I felt there was a need for it. There isn’t too much out there to be honest, and I remember when I was in the early days of my analysis journey, I would have found something like this really useful. I just started making videos and other content on the things that I’ve learnt along the way, and what I would have wished I known years before. There is of course a selfish aspect to it too, where I’m able to meet and learn from other great people in the industry, but by putting myself out there, and recording podcasts, I just hope others can gain as much from it as I do!
Liam – Having gotten into the game and being fortunate to have a paid position in analysis, I thought it was a good opportunity to help some others looking to do the same. When I was looking to secure a role I built an online presence by releasing some of my work publicly, so using that platform to do as much good as possible is important to me and who I am as a person, I guess.
You likely get contacted by a lot of people asking for help/advice. What helps you to help them more? (how should they approach you?)
Liam – Having specific questions and topics you’d like help with. I get asked a lot of very generic questions that there’s answers to online if you look for them. Things like where to find video of games, data, how to get started in analysis are all easily searchable. It makes a huge difference when a question is a lot more specific, and it’s great when people come back after I’ve helped them and they can tell or show me the results. That’s only ever going to help you to want to help people even more.
Chris – I would say the best place to start when it comes to learning from what I have to offer is by subscribing to my Youtube channel and heading over to my website. I reply to all Youtube comments if you have questions, and on my website you can download a professional CV template, for free, and customize it for yourself. Aside from those two, I am also very active on LinkedIn, so feel free to connect with me and shoot me a message on there!
If you were starting all over again now, what would you do and in what order? (writing online, education, networking, job experience etc.)
Chris – If I was starting all over again with the aim of working within analysis, I would definitely start to write online and create a portfolio of work. People think that they cannot begin to share things online until they are the finished article. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Sharing online allows you to learn from others and refine your skills. When doing this, try to add something with your own stamp on it. Don’t just do what everyone else is doing, be different. Networking is also huge and the advice I’d give for this is to not just jump ahead of yourself. Try to connect and learn from people a year or 2 ahead of you and others at your level, as then you can still probably add value to them too. Don’t just go straight into the leaders in your field, you have plenty of time to make your way up to their level. If I was at university I’d also do exactly what I did many years ago and get club experience. Nothing prepares you for the job better than actually doing the job. Remember, a university degree is not enough, you need to put yourself out there and be noticed.
Liam – I’d double down on longer forms of writing and content. My biggest successes were the recruitment plans I built and longer articles on developing player rating systems. They were the ones where people in the industry reached out to say the work was interesting or to say thanks for sharing. From there you can build relationships and your network. These are the pieces that get looked at. Education is of course important, because people want to see you’re competent, but it’s definitely possible to take a course and still produce underwhelming work. But there’s plenty of talented analysts out there producing great work without formal education, and you can’t fake that!
What do you see for the medium-long term future of analysis?
Liam – I think we’re starting to see it now, and that’s more specific roles within football analysis. Coach-Analysts, in or out of possession analysts, set-piece specialists etc. it’s going to be a great time for people to pick something they really enjoy as a specialization and get uber focused on that, vs being a generic Performance Analyst.
Chris – I think the future of analysis will be split between what we are seeing now as a ‘coach analyst’ and then the data side of the game. In the past, a team had one person that did a bit of everything. However, with greater technology and developing skillsets, this is definitely changing. I think teams will continue to hire more analysts but I think it will fall into one of the two categories. Coach analyst being an analyst that is very technical and has a very good understanding of the game and even does some coaching. The other side, would be the ‘data analysis’ where a strong knowledge of coaching is less required, but a knowledge of gaining insights from the ever expanding amount of data that is becoming available to clubs. I think analysts will also be able to thrive learn to embrace new technology including things like AI.
Hosted online via Zoom, Jobs in Analysis 2023 will deliver a number of presentations and discussions centered around all things related to employment as an analyst in football
Attendees will have lifetime on-demand access to the presentations via APFA website, so you can revisit the discussions anytime.
While we’d love to deliver this for free, large webinar packages are expensive, and we expect high demand for this event. A small financial contribution prevents no-show registrations at the expense of others, and places are limited on a first-come, first-served basis. At $10 the event is priced as low as possible, aiming only to cover the APFA’s hosting costs as we continue to work tirelessly to provide value to the football analysis industry.
