Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials
Umpires and Referees are those who officiate at sporting events, ensure rules are being followed, and call penalties when they're violated.
Whenever you attend a sporting event, the Umpires and Referees are the ones who call the shots, watching for the rule violation, and deciding penalties. Possible job titles include Major League Baseball Umpire, Judge, Referee, Softball Umpire, Basketball Referee, and Director of Officiating.
An Umpire or Referee must have excellent skills in communication, coordination, negotiation, monitoring, social awareness, decision making, and critical thinking. People who make good Umpires and Referees are usually good at far vision, organization of information, reasoning, and problem recognition.
Daily tasks for Umpires and Referees involve officiating at an event or game to ensure the teams play by the rules, judge competitions and award points to athletes, examine sporting equipment, educate teams on the rules of a sport, and start or stop the game if compelled to do so.
The work environment of an Umpire or Referee may be indoors or outdoors, working in a group, with the majority of time spent on your feet. They work in contact with others in close physical proximity and communicate face-to-face. An attention to detail is important as their decisions have a big impact on the game at hand.
To start a career as an Umpire or Referee, you need to education in a vocational school, on-the-job experience, or an associate’s degree.
Umpires and Referees make approximately $23,730 annually. With 4,700 projected job openings over the next decade, this career is projected for average growth.