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Five young people talk about working behind the scenes at Wimbledon, demonstrating just how many people it takes – working across job sectors – to host a major sporting event.

Rachel, 23, is part of Wimbledon's groundstaff team, maintaining tennis courts during The Championships. Rachel’s role includes mowing and maintaining the grass courts, putting out the nets and covering the courts in the event of rain. The groundstaff team also water the grass courts on hot days.

Rachel’s role is seasonal – she works on site from April to October. Many members of the team will come back to the role each year.

Rachel’s favourite subject at school was PE and she went on to study Sports Science at university. Rachel used to want to play football professionally. Unfortunately it didn’t work out and she decided that, for her, the next best career option would be working in the sports industry.

Rachel enjoys being part of the groundstaff team, as everyone comes together to help each other out, and get the tasks done.

I like the competitiveness of it – we all want our court to look the best so there’s an element of rivalry there.

Rachel's top tips

• Having a ‘can do’ attitude is beneficial. To start with Rachel didn't know how to use the machines or tools, but she learnt by shadowing other people on the job
• Enjoying working outdoors is important – groundstaff work in all weathers
• It doesn't have to be Wimbledon – lots of sports require grounds maintenance staff, including football, rugby and golf.

Jed, 22, is a press office assistant, attending to the world's media during The Championships. Jed and the other members of his team are the first point of call for journalists at Wimbledon.

A typical day can involve helping journalists get online and navigate the computer system, directing them to the press seats on court and providing them with transcripts from player interviews.

For Jed this is a seasonal role, he's employed for three weeks – the Wimbledon qualifying week, and the two weeks of The Championships itself. Jed has been asked back to work at Wimbledon for the past three years.

Jed loves tennis and is interested in pursuing a career in sports journalism.

Journalism is a passion because there's always a need for it, there's always a story to be covered and the more journalists you have with different opinions, the better.

Jed's top tips

• People skills are really important in this role. Jed liaises with journalists from all over the world, all with different needs and requirements
• A passion for sport helps – not only does sporting knowledge help when assisting journalists, it also makes it feel like it isn't a job
• Jed found his university degree really useful – his lecturer had industry experience and knew which skills were necessary to succeed in the role.

Although a university degree helped Jed, it isn’t essential. You can find out about another pathway into journalism by checking out apprentice journalist Natasha's story.

Holly, 26, is an IT support analyst working on site in an office at Wimbledon. It’s a full-time role, assisting colleagues with IT issues and requests such as installing computer software, assisting with forgotten passwords and fixing broken laptops.

Holly is on call to answer queries over the phone but she also travels around the grounds, going out to different areas to help colleagues resolve their IT issues.

Holly initially thought she wanted to study Neuroscience at university. She studied the relevant A-levels but, when it came to writing her UCAS statement she found it difficult – she couldn't think of why she wanted to study Neuroscience, but she could think of lots of reasons for wanting to study IT. She decided to change her course and went to university to study IT.

Whilst she loved the university lifestyle, being independent and making new friends, she didn't enjoy the course and wanted to start working. Holly left university early and returned to her old school to work as an IT technician.

The thing I like most about working here is the people – the site is massive and there are so many different members of staff.

Holly's top tips

• Patience and people skills are important – Holly spends time with people from different walks of life, all with varying degrees of IT knowledge. Colleagues come to her because something has gone wrong, so understandably they can be upset or annoyed
• Immerse yourself in the world of tech – technology is changing and updating all the time
• Don't be afraid to ask for help – it's OK to ask a senior colleague if you can't find a solution.

Eleanor, 25, is a collections officer at Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum. It's a full-time role, involving processing items that come into the museum and assisting with creating new exhibition displays.

Day to day, Eleanor ensures the museum artefacts are properly cared for, catalogued and housed in the underground store.

During The Championships, Eleanor and her colleagues go out around the grounds to collect items that represent standout moments from the tournament – including homemade fan signs and iconic outfits worn by players – to document and display in the museum.

Eleanor's parents used to take her to museums and historic buildings, which fostered a love of history and preserving history for people to enjoy. She went on to study History of Art at university. After graduation, she found a temporary position at an archive in Edinburgh.

As a tennis fan and history enthusiast, this is the perfect role for me!

Eleanor's top tips

• Communication is key – you work with a broad range of people throughout the grounds and across the site, so it’s important to be able to work together and achieve a shared goal
• Management and organisational skills are important too – Eleanor's role involves balancing competing priorities
• When pursuing a career, take all the experiences and opportunities people offer you – a lot of the skills that you gain from volunteering or helping others are transferable and can really inform your career later on.

Joe, 25, has a full-time role which involves planning and managing projects around the food and drink experiences at Wimbledon.

Visitors to The Championships love to know where their food and drink comes from, the history and heritage of the items on the menu (especially the famous Wimbledon strawberries and cream), and how sustainably sourced the products are. It's Joe’s job to create information stands for visitors, providing them with this information.

Joe's role is varied – he might be visiting a strawberry farm to inspect the fruit, researching the heritage of one of the Wimbledon menus, or planning a new project in the office.

During The Championships Joe walks the grounds, looking at how visitors are interacting with his stands and monitoring the overall food and drink experience.

When I was younger, I didn't realise a role like this existed. But there are similar roles across industries… If you're into music, there are roles like this at Glastonbury, different restaurant chains need people like me, as well as other big sporting events.

Joe's top tips

• Being able to communicate with lots of different people is very important
• When deciding on a career path, think about how you can combine passions – at school Joe loved English and sport, now he gets to combine the two
• Volunteering in hospitality or working at events can be useful for developing people skills and gaining industry experience.