Choosing a life as a Preston accountant just didn’t add up for football mad Christopher Nix. The 25 year old has now completely changed his career and now has his dream job working at a top Championship club.
Christopher spent four years training to be an accountant after he left school but it was only after he finished that he realised that it wasn’t the path that he wanted to take.
Sport had always been his passion and he decided to take the chance and pursue a career in something he knew he would love.
He enrolled in a sports degree at the Lancaster campus for the University of Cumbria and landed an internship with Blackburn Rovers football club after he graduated.
He said: “I chose the University of Cumbria as it offered a coaching and sport development degree – something that intrigued me and I felt would be of interest to me. A good friend of mine had himself completed that very degree there just a year prior to me considering it.”
“Professionally I have not only been provided with a vast amount of knowledge from the course, but I have also developed key research skills that I believe leaves me in a position where I can conduct my own research on a given topic in the future.
“I have also learned not to take things at face value and conduct further reading to counter-argue theories and come up with better understanding of a concept.
“When looking for internships and jobs in the performance analysis area, it was clear that the vast majority, if not all clubs, wanted a sport-related degree.
“Through a university lecturer, I was able to get a short placement at Blackburn Rovers FC in the performance analysis department where I now have my internship.”