Your career at the Center for Sports Management –

You can apply for positions with us at any time. There is a structured process for candidates applying for doctoral positions at the Center for Sports and Management. After we have received your complete application package in electronic form (comprising CV, cover letter, diplomas/certificates), initial questions will be clarified by phone. This is also your opportunity to receive more background information about the center and our team. We may then invite you for a personal interview at our center in Düsseldorf.

You should allow around 2.5 hours for your interview in Düsseldorf. We usually have two interviews, after which you'll get the chance to interact with other research assistants working at the center. These discussions should answer the question as to whether the Center for Sports and Management is a suitable place for you to pursue your next academic qualification and, also, whether you will fit in here. As a small team, we view strong personal alignment as an absolute priority. Therefore, you are also encouraged to ask questions and to find out what we do, how we work, and what belongs to the daily work of a research assistant.

To get a good impression of you as a person, we divide each interview into two parts. In the first part, it is all about getting to know you as a person. We discuss a typical situation from the everyday life of a research assistant in order to gain a clearer understanding of your problem-solving abilities. It is in no way about assessing your knowledge of sports or testing some preset thinking patterns or frameworks. What we aim to achieve is to understand how you structure ideas, formulate creative approaches, and summarize key points of the problems presented. Such cases offer a good opportunity for you to become better acquainted with the topics and working approaches at the center. In the second part, your possible ideas and topics for the dissertation will be discussed.

It goes without saying that you will receive feedback soon after the discussions. We do our best to communicate our decision on the day following our personal meeting.

For many successful athletes - especially outside of professional football - the question of how to secure a long-term livelihood after the end of the career is essentially. Therefore, many athletes already take courses or begin to study while still being active sportsmen. In our study Sports Business Study 2019 we actively dealt with this topic for the second time after our Study "Kollege Spitzensportler". This resulted in several projects and cooperations. For example, the WHU in cooperation with the foundation "Deutsche Sporthilfe" offers scholarships for former athletes in its full-time and part-time MBA program.

In 2016, the Center for Sports and Management, in cooperation with the Career Center of the WHU and clubs of the Bundesliga, launched an internship program exclusively for WHU students. As part of the program, selected WHU students have been given the opportunity to complete an internship at top clubs and organizations in German professional football.

The application process at a glance:

• Sport-interested WHU students of all programs and classes who are interested in a career in sports business are eligible to apply.
• Internships take place in spring of 2021 at the following clubs / organizations:
• BVB
  Eintracht Frankfurt
  FC Bayern München
  DFB Deutscher Fußball-Bund
  DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga
• Further information on the vacancies can be found in the job postings on this page.
• Application deadline is on November 15th, 2020. Please send your application via e-mail to bewerbung.csm(at)whu.edu including your CV, a highly convincing motivation letter and all of your certificates. Kindly also state your preferred internship club. Please note: Fluent German language skills are mandatory for either of the internships.
• Together with the WHU Career Center the CSM recruiting team will review your application and conduct online interviews at the end of November 2020.
• Successful applicants will be presented to the club or organization, taking their preference into account. The Bundesliga club then conducts a final interview and finalizes the internship contract directly with the applicant. Framework conditions for the internship are agreed directly between the intern and the Bundesliga club.

All job postings:

>>> BVB

>>> Eintracht Frankfurt

>>> FC Bayern Munich

>>> DFB Deutscher Fußball-Bund

>>> DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga

The "SPOAC - Sports Business Academy by WHU" also offers the opportunity for further professional development, not only to the junior executives of the sports business, but also to former top athletes. It provides leaders and high-potentials in the sports business industry with participant-centric, cross-functional, and application-oriented advanced education and training. It has been established in 2014 as a cooperation between WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management and SPONSORs, the leading information processor and convention organizer.

By combining the competencies of both partners, SPOAC aims to develop future decision-makers in sports business, who learn from the best in the field, both from academia and practice. To that end, the CSM ensures successful incorporation of cutting-edge insights from research into teaching in order to maximize relevance of the course contents for real-life applications. This is guaranteed through close integration of the SPOAC partners DFL, DOSB and WWP.

Learn more and apply now!