Careers in Esports Are on the Rise

0:00 [Music]

0:00 with esports viewership on the rise so

0:02 are the career opportunities that

0:04 support this growing industry

0:06 beyond the athletes supporting roles

0:07 include everything that traditional

0:08 sports typically have like performance

0:11 and health management marketing

0:13 administration and obviously there's a

0:15 greater need for technology support

0:17 specific programs like the one at

0:19 university of michigan flint are arming

0:21 the future of this industry with the

0:23 skills and needs to continue its growth

0:25 to educate us today we have jason goody

0:27 esports coordinator at the university of

0:30 michigan-flint

0:31 so jason tell me a little bit more about

0:33 your esports program

0:35 well we started the esports program

0:37 roughly as the pandemic

0:39 started

0:40 so it was a little bit of a battle there

0:42 to get it going we started out with 18

0:44 students

0:45 from the get-go

0:47 a year later in our second year we had

0:49 more than increased by 110 percent we're

0:52 roughly around 40 students

0:54 and

0:55 as if if we're lucky looking at this

0:58 coming year which would be our third

0:59 year

1:00 within esports we're close to 68 to 70

1:03 students and we continue to grow

1:06 that's amazing and so in this program

1:09 what are the main disciplines that um

1:11 that you and the team are focused on

1:13 uh one of the first things is teamwork

1:16 um looking at students and they how they

1:18 communicate how they work together how

1:19 they problem solve

1:21 a lot of the games they they play

1:23 together they have to have these this

1:25 split-second decision

1:26 and it could make or break the outcome

1:28 of the game that they compete in and

1:30 what are some of the hottest career

1:32 areas in esports

1:34 well typically you would think it'd be

1:36 in the technology world which it does

1:38 have a strong stronghold you can look at

1:40 your streamers or your broadcasters just

1:42 like you would in traditional sports

1:44 broadcasting those events

1:46 you do have the athletes that if there

1:48 are the ones that are fortunate enough

1:49 to move forward and compete at a pro

1:51 level it is also very lucrative

1:54 income for them but then we also have

1:57 the the size of the supports where would

1:59 come in the network interfaces

2:01 uh the support from the business side um

2:04 health side

2:06 really there's roughly about 250 careers

2:08 that stem off of of the esports industry

2:11 and it is everything from the players

2:13 themselves all the way to the business

2:15 manager or the physical therapist that

2:17 would help that athlete

2:19 along the way

2:21 that's awesome it sounds like there's a

2:22 lot of opportunity in this industry um

2:25 and what is one of the things you're

2:26 most excited about as it continues to

2:29 grow

2:30 well as i look forward

2:32 what i'm excited about is to see how u

2:33 of m flint is able to compete on the

2:36 the level playing field that is provided

2:38 by esports and so we're not limited to

2:41 just the the smaller universities but we

2:43 do compete against the schools

2:45 in the big ten like in ohio state

2:47 michigan state or even ann arbor's

2:49 campus at u of m

2:50 in ann arbor and with a level playing

2:53 field in esports it is quite unique to

2:55 see how we are able to take these these

2:58 local students and have them compete at

3:00 that high level

3:01 and it can bring some notoriety back to

3:03 u of m flint which would be an awesome

3:06 return

3:08 absolutely well jason thank you so much

3:10 for joining us today and sharing a lot

3:12 of the information on esports and all

3:14 the growth and and many of the career

3:15 opportunities that are available

3:17 at the university of michigan flint and

3:20 for anybody out there checking around

3:22 make sure to check out some additional

3:23 content on the feed and thank you very

3:26 much all right thank you

3:32 you