Blog text by Denis Polyakov
Hi everyone! My name is Denis Polyakov, I am a 5th year student at JAMK, IB. My specialization is Sport Management so I needed to find a practical training in sport industry. As I am keen on football, I had decided to find a place in this kind of sport.
I thought that it would be wonderful to get a place in Russian top football league where the best Russian clubs perform. So, I looked through the web-site of Russian Football Premier League and decided to contact them directly by giving a call and also, I sent an e-mail to them where I had told about myself and that I was interested in an internship. A few days later I had received an invitation to an interview and I was happy because it is a rare and great opportunity to complete an internship in premier league.
The next week I had a quick meeting with president of the league (Sergey Pryadkin) where we had a chat about what could I do during my practice. After that I was sent to the Executive Director (Sergey Cheban) of the league to determine my responsibilities and under whose leadership should I fulfill my duties. We decided that I can complete an internship as a specialist in the public relations department and also the marketing and communication department under the direction of Sergey Alekseev (information policy advisor).
When I started to work I understood that it was not easy at all because of lack of experience. I had to learn a lot of things (forms, regulations, fan relations programs, documents and their modified versions due to the Covid-19 problem), visit many games and write a lot of reports, participate in the organization and conduct of events, study the marketing, management and financial activities of the league. But, I overcame everything because when I needed help and explanations, everyone was there for me and gladly helped. I am very grateful for a help to everyone in the league and especially to my mentor Sergey Alekseev, who taught me many things. I really liked the atmosphere in the league and I spent half of year there with a pleasure.
In the end I would like to say that this internship helped me to develop a lot of important soft and hard skills and I am very happy with my practical training experience. I think that this experience will help me a lot in a future because I really would like to work in this field.
Author: Denis Polyakov