5 Traits NCAA Athletes Need to Highlight in Their Job Search
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Student-Athlete

  • Staff
  • Job Search Tips
  • March 28, 2016

5 Traits NCAA Athletes Need to Highlight in Their Job Search

The life of an NCAA athlete is a difficult one. Time is expected to be split between their sport and academics, leaving little time for anything else in between. Often what ends up getting lost in the shuffle of this sport and school balance is relevant job experience.

Where most college students are afforded the luxury of internships or on campus and summer jobs, athletes often have to pass up these opportunities to meet their immediate responsibilities. Before NCAA athletes know it, graduation has arrived and they need to put together a resume for potential employers.

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What should be on this resume though if you’re an athlete who has no relevant job experience?

Yes employers value relevant job experience, but job responsibilities can be taught. What can’t be taught are the traits that fulfill job responsibilities. Traits like coachability, competitiveness, confidence, discipline and persistence cannot be instilled by employers. Yet these very traits have been bread into athletes from their childhood and every athlete should be aware of their importance in the working world.

In this week’s motivation Monday, we want NCAA athletes to learn that their time spent in sports is just as relevant as job experience. Whether it is your resume or on a job interview, athletes should make sure to highlight the following traits.

Coachability

Athlete Coachability

Being able to be coached is key.

Every athlete has been coached in their lives. From a young age, athletes learn how to take direction and criticism. By learning those skills, they are able to make improvements to their game–which ultimately helps them become better competitors and help to achieve their goals.

Companies want employees who are able to listen and learn. Managers do not want subordinates that disregard their advice. They want people who are willing to learn and take instruction. Athletes are already used to being coached, so it is easy for them to demonstrate this trait.

Competiveness

Behind every successful athlete is the desire to compete. Athletes are constantly competing, whether it is against an opponent or against themselves. This drive is not something that can be taught. The desire to compete is simply built into athletes.

While looking for employment, athletes need to be mindful that their competiveness goes hand in hand with any business. Businesses are always looking for ways to separate and rise above their competition, and the only way to achieve this is to have employees who want to do the same. This desire to compete is a natural instinct for athletes, and they should find ways to show potential employers how their competitiveness can translate to success within their company.

Confidence

Confident athletes get the job done, no questions asked.

Confident athletes get the job done, no questions asked.

Athletes trust their abilities. Rather than wasting time doubting whether they can do something, they tell themselves they can do it and then figure out how to make it possible. Athletes know how to stay optimistic and produce under pressure even when the odds are stacked against them.

Employers want employees who face adversity with confidence. When there is a problem that needs to be solved, they want workers who say “I can” instead of “I can’t.” Athletes understand how to trust their abilities and that is an extreme value to companies.

Discipline

Discipline is essential to athletes in practice and in competition. Athletes need discipline in order to train properly both physically and mentally for their sport. They also need discipline in the heat of competition when things are not going their way, or if they need to maintain a lead.

Athletes can easily transfer the discipline they learned in their sport to the office. Employers value workers who are organized and keep a schedule. They want workers who have demonstrated the ability to balance multiple responsibilities, and student-athletes do this every day of their lives.

Persistence

All athletes fail at some point in their lives. However, it is those who persist and learn from their failures who end up being the most successful. Having a never give up attitude is essential for athletes if they ever want to win and stay ahead of their competition.

The same never give up attitude is extremely valuable to businesses. Potential employers want to know how a candidate handles failure. Athletes can draw from numerous experiences in their respective sports and show businesses that they are able to persist through adversity.

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  • Staff
  • Job Search Tips, Networking
  • March 20, 2015

The Shocking Reality: You Might Not be Ready for Life after Graduation

The moment has finally come! Your last semester of college is coming to a close and you are ready to kiss the late nights of studying and chowing on Ramen until 4 in the morning goodbye! Congrats! Give yourself a pat on the back! You’ve earned it! I do have some questions for you though: What’s next after you graduate? Have you thought about what you want to do? Do you have a job already lined up? What is your game plan to get noticed and hired by potential employers? If you don’t have answers to any of these questions you could be endangered of becoming one the 14.3% of unemployed youth (ages 16-24). Fortunately, there are steps you can take to avoid unemployment after graduation.

The first question you might want to ask yourself is do you have a resume? A company will very rarely hire someone who doesn’t have a physical resume. A resume more often than not is the first thing hiring personnel will review in the hiring process. As they say, first impressions are the most important and you want to leave a lasting one with a resume. If you already have a resume, now is the time to update it before graduation. If you have never created a resume don’t sweat it! There are a plethora of resources available online and many universities career services offer help in building your resume and even with mock interviews. Take advantage of the resources your university offers before it is too late and you have graduated! Also, take a look at NexGoal’s take on preparing a resume. As placement specialists we know what it takes to get an employer to notice your resume and push you through to the next step in the hiring process.

Another factor that could mean the difference between being employed and unemployed is job experience.   According to a job survey conducted by High Fliers Research, “More than half of the recruiters surveyed suggested students who are leaving university with no previous work experience have little or no chance of getting a job offer for their company’s graduate program.” Even though it may be late in your college involvement to gain job experience, there are still ways to gain valuable experience before entering the job market. The most popular way to gain experience is through internships. Companies in every industry offer internships throughout the summer and these experiences can greatly increase your chances of being hired. You may not get paid very well or at all, but you have the chance of getting your foot in the door which will increase your chances of being hired full time by a company. Another feature of internships are that they allow you to test out different fields of interest and that will let you gain better insight on whether the field is a fit for you.

Internships are a great way to gain a direct real world experience, but companies are also looking for people who have a certain set of knowledge, skills, or traits that can be acquired through a non-working based activity. For example, as NexGoal recruiter Mike Kordel points out, being a former athlete can be an invaluable experience that could actually help your chances of gaining employment.

“The biggest misconception former athletes have is that upon graduation they are just another face in a sea of inexperienced job seekers. What they don’t understand is that while their athletic abilities might not translate to real world work experience, there are other strong qualities that will. By nature, athletes are driven, motivated, goal focused, coachable, team players who by way of their athletic achievements possess great time management and leadership experience that any employer would love to have on their team. Use these traits to separate yourself from the crowd and get a leg up on the competition.”

Mike Kordel
Recruiter NexGoal

Though being a former athlete does not demonstrate work experience in the direct sense, it does demonstrate key characteristics like commitment and drive that employers value so much. Those sorts of traits can be hard to justify on a resume, but having an experience in athletics or a student group is a huge added bonus when trying to prove your skill set.

Almost equally important as job experience are connections. Often times it is not what you know that matters but who you know! A study conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that referral recipients are more than twice as likely to be interviewed and, conditional on interview, about 40% more likely to receive an offer. The job market is an extremely competitive place and a referral could very well be the deciding factor between two candidates who have very similar resumes. To build connections, start networking! Networking can be as simple as attending job fairs, joining a society, or connecting through social media sites like LinkedIn.  The more people who know you or recognize you, the better your chances could become to have them endorse you for a future employment opportunity.

To supplement these steps, you should have an overall goal that each one of these steps will help you achieve. It is important to have something that you are working towards and that you take all available measures to get there. However, don’t expect to reach your goals overnight. In order to reach where you want to be, you often have to start somewhere that might not be ideally what you were looking for. As said by Lewis Humphries from Shift Insurance, “A failure to appreciate the importance of workplace experience and its benefits is a significant cause for concern, while some graduates may also be carrying a sense of entitlement that is preventing them from being proactive in their search for work.” This sense of naive entitlement is an illusion. It takes hard work and setting attainable goals that can be realistically achieved with your current skill set, education, and experience. It’s these realistic goals that you set early on in your career that will help build to your ultimate career goals.

 

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So do you now have a clearer picture on what you need to do to prepare for life after graduation? By building your resume, gaining job experience, establishing connections, and laying out your goals you should be able to put yourself in and better position to thrive after graduation. It also wouldn’t hurt to upload you’re resume to NexGoal.com! Being the experts at placing athlete candidates, we will greatly increase your chances of not only finding employment but also finding a cultural match that will set you up for success. The time to plan for post-graduation is now! Don’t waste another second and get started today!

 

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  • Staff
  • Interviews, Job Search Tips, Resumes
  • December 26, 2014

Getting Started With Your New Career Search: Part 3b

Now that you have used your research, resume and networking you find yourself at the doorstep of an interview. Below are some helpful tips to keep in mind when it comes to successful interviewing:

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Interview Do’s:

  • Plan to arrive 10-15 minutes early. This allows for ample time to be ready and prepared walking into the interview. It also cuts down on added stress that might come as a result of arriving at the last second. It allows for you to take some time to “get in the zone”.
  • Bring extra resumes! Never assume your interviewer has been given a copy of your resume. HR forgets to pass these things along all the time. Always be prepared by bringing AT LEAST 5 copies of your resume to distribute during the interview.
  • Professional Dress and Appearance. There’s saying that goes “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have” and this couldn’t ring truer in this situation. Always dress for success. The way you look and present yourself speaks louder than words because it shows you care about what you are doing. It shows you are serious about the opportunity at hand. Clean shaven, hair cut, ironed suit and tie, nothing too low cut or flashy. If you have to second guess it, forget about it.
  • Be Confidant! Nothing kills the mood of an interview more than a quiet and timid church mouse. Notice we didn’t say cocky; that can be a mood killer too. The key is to not only be confidant in yourself and your abilities, but to be sure to convey that to the interviewer in the way you talk and present yourself.
  • Posture/Eye Contact. Sitting up straight not only keeps you from looking like a slouch, but it allows you to speak clearly and firmly when responding to questions from the interviewer. Making sure to always make eye contact during an interview shows the interviewer that you are listening and engaged in what they are saying. Putting the two together helps to further project that level of professionalism that will ultimately help to win you the job.
  • Research, Research, Research. If you haven’t noticed, a lot of the job search process is research. So why would that come to an end just because you got an interview. Once you have confirmed your interview date, be sure to get a firm grasp on who/what the company is and what they are all about. Being able to convey knowledge about the company in an interview is vital to securing the job. It shows the interviewer that you have done the work on your end to be fully prepared and shows your dedication to obtaining the position.
  • ASK QUESTIONS. After you have done your research, but sure to develop some questions regarding the company, as well as the position itself and how they relate to each other. The questions not only help to better understand the company/position, but again it engages the interviewer and shows that you have done your research. An interview should always flow like a conversation: They ask a question, you listen and answer; you ask a related question, they answer. The goal is to gain insight while having a conversation.
  • Ask for contact information. Be sure at the end of the interview to request a business card or contact information so that you are able to follow up with the interviewer. Once you have received this information, be sure to send a thank you (either by hand or by email) to each person you interviewed with. Try to include a specific thing you each talked about to make sure that the thank you is personal and sincere. Be sure to also reiterate your excitement about the position and why you feel you would be the best fit.
  • CLOSE CLOSE CLOSE. At the conclusion of the interview, be sure to do a soft close with the interviewer. Make sure to ask about the next steps and what, if anything, they might need additionally from you. The number one mistake candidates make is that they walk out of the interview without asking for the job. Sounds pretty crazy right? But it’s true! Now that’s not to say you are going to flat out ask “can I have the job?”, rather it means you should indicate that you feel you are a great fit based on your experience, your research and your gut feeling on how the interview went. Try to get insight into what the next steps would be. Ask directly, “What do you think the next steps of this process will be?” and “When can I expect to hear back from you regarding this opportunity?”

thumb down

Interview Don’ts:

  • Showing Up Late: For obvious reasons, do not be late to an interview. If you are running late and have a valid excuse, but sure to call ahead and notify the interviewer immediately.
  • Showing Up Unprepared: This includes not bringing enough resumes, not doing your research on the company, not asking questions, not showing up dressed professionally, etc. If you are unable to be fully prepared for the interview, how is this employer going to assume you would be prepared for the actual job itself?
  • Talking too much. Again, this interview is supposed to be a conversation. Conversations are interactions between two or more people, not one person talking to or about them self. Be sure to answer questions that are asked fully and to the best of your ability. Don’t allow yourself to ramble on about information that is not relevant to the discussion at hand. Keep your conversation relevant. Getting off track is a huge turn off to interviewers.
  • Not Following Up. It sounds simple and somewhat cheesy, but it makes that big of a difference. If for nothing else, it could be the difference between you and another equally qualified candidate. It could be the deciding factor in who gets the job and who gets left out.
  • Not Closing/Asking For The Job. If you leave the interview and haven’t begun to close them on the opportunity, you might as well kiss the opportunity goodbye. The reason being, once you have walked out that door, chances are they have other candidates to interview and you have left it in their hands. You may never even get another opportunity to talk to them because one of those candidates could knock their socks off and steal the job from you.

Best of Luck With Your Interview!

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  • Staff
  • Job Search Tips
  • December 5, 2014

Getting Started With Your New Career Search: Part 1 of 3

Are you a college senior athlete who is planning to graduate this winter and wondering to yourself “where do I start?” Perhaps you’re a former athlete that is now a seasoned corporate professional who is thinking about making a job change but not sure where to turn. At any rate, in this three part blog series, we will guide you in the right direction to help get you going on the right (or new) path to your new career!

HurdleNexGoal works with former collegiate, professional and Olympic athletes by helping them to take the next steps in their careers away from the sports arena

NexGoal works with former collegiate, professional and Olympic athletes by helping them to take the next steps in their careers away from the sports arena

When making the decision to put yourself out on the job market, whether it’s for the first time or not, it is important to keep a few things in mind. In reality, before you even make the decision to put yourself out there, there are some things you might want to consider. First, what do you want to do? Who do you want to work for? Where do you want to work? For many positions there are different levels or qualifications, to what degree are you qualified? Here at NexGoal, we like to use the F.I.L.L. method when approaching a job change:

  • Function: What function do you want to perform? Ex: Sales, Computer Science, Social Work, Consulting, Engineering, Accounting, Software, etc.
  • Industry: What industry are you looking to conduct your career in? Ex: Steel, Information Technology, Criminal Justice, Wealth Management, Medical, HR, Industrial, etc.
  • Level: At what level are you qualified and does it match your compensation requirements? Ex: What is your target income? Are you looking for a base salary? Are you looking for commission? A combination of the two? What level of a base do you need to ensure your financial stability?
  • Location: Where do you want to work? Ex: Do you want to stay in the same geographic region as you are now? Are you open to relocation? Do you want an office setting? Or perhaps a home based office?

The key to each step in the F.I.L.L. process is research. Being fully knowledgeable about all of your options is huge in choosing a new career path. Being able to confidently say “Through my research, I know what I want to do, I know with whom and where, and I know what I can expect/need as far as compensation”. Being able to answer the above questions is important even before putting your resume together and beginning to get it out to prospective employers. So it would be most helpful for you to reverse engineer your job search. Start with the end goal in mind. You need to figure out where you want to end up in order to be able to start your search.  Your job search will always start with your very own research. “Finding a new job is a full time job, in and of itself. You have to work at it just like a job!” – Kevin Dahl, former NHL defensemen, Olympic medalist and NexGoal co-founder and CEO.

You need to know where you want to finish to be able to know where to start!

You need to know where you want to finish to be able to know where to start!

Below are some great resources for starting your research:

  • Family, Friends, Mentors, Coaches, Professors, Counselors, etc. – Talk to everyone you know! You would be surprised how much you can learn just from the people around you
  • Attend job fairs, meet with career services, job shadow your friends or family
  • Salary.com to help better quantify what your skills are worth in a given industry/region
  • Job sites like CareerBuilder.com, Indeed.com, ZipRecruiter.com, etc.
  • Yahoo.com is now owner of Monster.com, you can not only find job postings but articles about the job market and recent trends and predictions
  • The Federal Reserve Bank publishes an economic trends report for specific industries in specific geographic regions
  • Be sure to read through your local publications like Crains, Smart Business, etc.
  • Last but certainly not least, check your local newspaper for daily articles on companies growing, closing or relocating, industries that are tanking or taking off, etc.

We will be back next week with our next installment of this three part series: Rules of the Resume

In the meantime, be sure to follow our pages below for more insights, career tips and new job opportunities:

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  • Staff
  • Job Search Tips
  • October 9, 2014

NCAA launches Former NCAA Student-Athlete Career Center

The NCAA has announced the launch of a new initiative directed at celebrating the successes of their former student athletes as they transition into the professional world following their time spent competing at the collegiate level. The initiative aims to highlight the staggering number of contributions former collegiate athletes have made to the corporate world and society as a whole. In fact, many former athletes attribute their current successes to their past academic and athletic experiences, something employers are certainly taking note of. To read more, visit the NCAA’s website.

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