Quitting corporate to become a sports journalist

I think the best place to start is right at the beginning.

So Rob, I'm gonna go to you.

Can you kind of take us back to the start? Can you set the scene for us about what it was like working in corporate and how the idea of becoming a sports journalist first kind of came to you?

Yeah.

I mean, with, with the theme of going back to the start, I think for me, I was really, uh, already thinking about s- you know, sport and sports journalism, sports writing from, from a pretty young age.

You know, I was, I was doing things sort of at 16, 17, 18 with a view to, you know, maybe doing a career in that realm.

Um, obviously it didn't turn out that way, but you know, that, that was quite informative to kind of where I ended up eventually, I think.

So y- you know, the idea was always there from young.

I think I reached a, a fork in the road when I came out of university and started looking at what I was gonna do with my life, and I thi- I remember having a, a very clear moment where, where there was this sort of two opportunities, a fork in the road moment where I had one, on the one hand, an opportunity to work in sports journalism that was un- uh, low, either, either low pay or unpaid, I can't quite remember, one of the two.

Um, and on the other hand, I had a, you know, an opportunity that was, um, much better pay, potentially much better prospects.

I was coming out of university sort of on the back of a recession, and I think the, the choice was sort of quite...

I didn't really have a choice, you know, I, I felt at that time around, you know, what, what made the most sense.

Um, so yeah, that's kind of how I fell into corporate really, and I think I took a route that perhaps I hadn't envisaged, but that sort of felt more necessary, and obviously you have all these, you know, friends and people around you who are following typical paths, more typical paths.

And I think at that time the conditions maybe weren't quite right for me to, uh, to, to start sports journalism.

Maybe things work in their own way.

Maybe actually starting it later was what, what was set out for me.

But yeah, uh, uh, you know, that time I was working in corporate, I sort of always had a nagging feeling of, "Oh, it's not really me.

Feel like I'm living someone else's life a little bit or following the path that others are doing." So it was sort of always underlying, and I think, you know, there, there did eventually come a point where, yeah, I chose to, I chose to move, and it's not been an easy route at all times.

But, um, yeah, I, I think I got to the right decision in the end.

And when you were working in corporate, how, how many years had you been working in corporate and in that environment before this kind of really started to kind of come up as, as something that you maybe wanted to pursue?

I think I'd been...

I was in corporate for probably, I don't know, eight years, something like that.

Um, across three jobs.

I think, you know, I'd...

Because of, because, you know, having those three jobs I think gave me the chance to try different types of corporate job and see, or maybe it's just the environment of this place, or, or maybe it's just my boss at this place, or maybe it's just that, or maybe it's just this.