By Jamie Heron
Two former students from Leeds will visit Leeds Trinity University next week as a part of the annual Media and Journalism week.
Ryan Parrish and David Bowers are journalism graduates and both currently work within sports media.
They plan to base their talk around the different career options within sports media after going on a very similar path themselves, juggling placements, voluntary and freelance throughout University to then go onto working their way up the sports media industry.
Ryan Parrish – who is the current media manager of Newcastle United – said: “The main thing I would want to stress is the importance of going out and getting work experience and building relationships with people who can guide you along the way.”
He added: “If you can build up a bit of a portfolio and get experience under your belt whilst you’re still at Uni, then you have a far better chance of getting into a job after graduating.”
Ryan’s current role at Newcastle United involves dealing with interview requests, player appearances and media obligations as well as more general PR aspects on the football side of the club.
His previous experience includes working at what used to be Yorkshire Radio, skysports.com and Leeds United as a media assistant and press officer.
Ryan Parrish, Newcastle United
David Bowers – who has worked as a digital insights analyst for Sky Sports since January said: “Hopefully we can address some of the most pressing questions from the students – whether that’d be about career progression, the roles available, the lifestyle of being a journalist and more.”
David has previous experience within freelance journalism and sub-editing, mainly working within the digital team for Sky Sports but made a recent switch to the products team.
David Bowers, Sky Sports
David and Ryan will host their talk ‘All to play for: career options in the sports media’ on Wednesday November 6 in AG100 at 10am.