Posts Tagged: college athletes

This is a guest post by Eileen Wisnewski.

Graduation often signals the end of competition for most college athletes. This can be an emotional realization, as many graduating athletes would love to play just one more season.

While competing, the level of time and commitment college athletes give to their sport sometimes prevents them from properly planning for the next step in life after college. This can result in recent graduates feeling underprepared to start their professional lives.

The good news is that across career industries, many employers truly value and seek out the skills and abilities athletes possess. Whether they realize this or not, athletes develop some very important and marketable skills while playing their sport.

Victory comes to those athletes who are able to 1) identify these skills, and 2) communicate them in a resume, cover letter or during an interview. Here are three examples:

1. Teamwork
Athletes begin developing teamwork skills as early as elementary school. They realize the importance of working with others for the desired positive outcome. Each player must contribute for this to be achieved. Employers want to hire candidates who aren’t going to be showboats and who recognize that everyone contributes to the success of the team.

How to express this:
“While playing college soccer, I developed strong teamwork skills and understand the importance of working together to achieve success. An example of this was when…” (more…)