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Why Student
Athlete’s Succeed After Sports
–
Ray Lauenstein
5/03
When people ask if playing
sports in college helps you after you graduate I always
refer to what a college friend and Division III College All-American told me. After undergrad she worked
in Career Services at Babson College, a respected
business oriented school outside of Boston, MA
“When corporate recruiters
came to Babson, they said ‘Show
me the resumes of your athletes first.’
Companies believe that there is a good chance these
candidates have the traits for success they are looking
for.”
Success can be defined in
numerous ways, but for these purposes lets say that
success equates to being a productive professional. In
no way am I arguing that persons who do not play sports
are less capable either. Each person has his or her own
capabilities to succeed.
Suppose you are a former
college athlete and you are on your first job interview.
You have little relevant work experience at this point
in your career, so you need to show potential based on
past performance and experience. How can athletic
experience be used to build a case for why you will be
successful?
Outlined below are several
assumptions that you can use in an interview. Not all of
them will be needed, and some are better suited than
others depending on the circumstances of the job or the
person interviewing you. Think how these might apply to
you!
Teamwork
–
Corporate America always
throws this buzzword around. “I have to email my team
about this project.” Or “My team has an off-site
meeting next week.” Or “The brand management team is
compiling their recommendations for the quarterly
meeting.”
Typically, you are part of a
team that is the company, a smaller team that is your
business unit, and a sub team that is your group. Each
team has people who specialize and have strengths that
compliment those of other team members. You are expected
to “coach” younger team members, to “assist” on
projects, to “execute” a strategy, etc. Even the
lingo is borrowed from team sports.
Having been a team member
means you understand these concepts of teamwork. That
there is a boss, that you take people under your wing
and “mentor” them, that each person does a small
part in the big picture to make things work.
Hard work and persistence
yield improvements –
Work ethic is highly
regarded in this country, at times almost too much. But
in areas such as sales, persistence and hard work are
sometimes the only keys needed for success.
Behind the big sales deal, a
new product launch, critical media blitz, or end of
month deadline are countless hours of mundane work,
setbacks, obstacles, strategy adjustment, and late
nights. Just like game day when everything comes
together in the 2 hours you compete – how much work
did you put in during the week, off-season, all the way
back to junior high, to make that one game a success.
The sprints ran, the film you watched, the repetitive
drills you did – they all add up!
You have a perfect analogy
to explain how you understand the keys to success!
Take
instruction/criticism –
The last thing a manager
wants is a know-it-all entry-level employee. A company
hires you based on potential, knowing that you need to
be “trained” and “coached” to pick up the finer
points of industry and business. If you are a handful to
manage because you overreact to coaching from your
managers it will be a short career or one that does not
advance.
There is no way a college
athlete gets off the bench if they do not take well to
coaching. Even when you don’t like what you are
hearing, you have to accept it, that is part of sports.
So, for argument sake, you
can show how this would transfer into making you a quick
learner at work. You listen and use the constructive
criticism you receive, because you understand that
others have more experience than you – just like you
would be crazy to think you know more about basketball
than a 20-year coach does.
Perform Under Pressure
–
Grades can look great on
paper but what can you tell about the person when things
are on the line. How would you respond to the following
statements from your manager –?
- “There are 3 days left
in the month and we are 20% off goal, find your best
prospects and hit the phones people!”
- “The consultant the new
CEO brought in has recommended that our brand has 6
months to turn things around or they should consider
cutting their losses. Emergency meeting at 4 PM in the
conference room.”
- “The delivery date we
promised our clients is in jeopardy due to the
earthquake damage at our plant in Mexico. Find me two
other vendors to possibly outsource the work by 10 am on
Friday.”
- “I need the all the
historical data on heart transplant malpractice suits in
the past 20 years summarized by 8 am!
Only experience and time
will show how you do in these cases, but a potential
employer would love a predictor of how you would
respond. What stronger argument could you have than
examples of clutch performance, gutting through an
injury, game-winning shots! Some people thrive and are
energized in pressure situations. Do you?
Understand Goal
Progression –
Goals are integral to sports
performance. Every team has them and a plan to achieve
them. From experience you also know that an end goal is
simple a product of hard work and the attainment of
dozens of other goals: successful off—season, strength
and conditioning, spring practice, pre-season camp,
weekly practice, games, playoffs, etc.
As a sales manager, I want
to know that my employee can understand that the goal of
100 sales by month’s end, directly correlates with the
ground work he or she lays on days 1-29. Phone calls,
follow-ups, thank-you notes, referrals, etc. all play a
part. In fact they might not pay-off until for three
months, but those efforts do pay off.
At an interview –
especially a sales position – use this argument. You
know that putting your time in, as unrewarding as it
might seem at the moment, is the ultimate key to success
down the road. Lets face it, few people truly love
making 50 phone calls a day! But most love the $3,000
bonus they make for hitting goal! See the point here?
Leadership –
A potential employer should
know that from sports you understand and respect
leadership authority and have the potential to lead
yourself. Your ability to take coaching and buy into
what a manager or director says is key to a companies
success. Just like with your coach, you might not always
agree, but you have to support them until a change is
made.
Where you a team captain,
did you organize off-season practices, scrimmages or
conditioning activities? Mention it if you did.
Initiative is a great asset in an employee.
Maybe you hardly ever played
in your four years, but you showed up to every practice,
every off-season session, every team meeting, you never
missed a thing! This is leadership by example –
highlight it!
Prioritizing Time On Task
–
The speed of business has
increased, in large part due to technology and
globalization of the business community. Because of this
you will invariably come face to face with more work
than you can possibly do at the same time. This is where
you have to prioritize what you have going on.
Effective managers have a
keen understanding of the needs of the company and which
projects are the most important towards meeting those
needs and goals. This is a constantly changing list. You
might have five main priorities and a sixth comes along
that supersedes the others and moves to the top of the
list, forcing the others to take a back seat for a while.
Imagine your roll as an
athlete – depending on the needs of the team at the
time, you might have been asked to focus more on defense
over offense, or rebounding versus scoring. Suddenly the
clock is winding down and you are called upon to take
more shots. You just re-prioritized on the fly.
Business Example: If the
company needs new business, your calls to existing
clients should only be to get referral leads, otherwise
they do not meet the needs or priorities set forth.
Your built in argument that
you understand prioritizing is grounded on managing 20
plus hour weeks of sport commitment, with the demands of
course work, social and family obligations. On any given
day you had to manage your prioritizes and change them
depending on the circumstances (extended road trips,
mid-terms, finals, playoffs, etc.)
Network of fellow
athletes –
Athletes support each other!
Because of what you go through in college, the bond of
respect and friendships is stronger with a larger group
of people than if you did not play a sport in college.
An athlete’s stereotype of other athletes helps as
well. If I played college hockey, I will presume to know
the basic traits of another college player- usually ones
I admire and respect. So, if I enjoyed playing with guys
like that, why not work with them?
Success in business, and
just finding a job, is as much who you know as what you
know. An alumna’s phone call can easily get you an
informational interview that might lead to employment.
Summary –
While there is no specific
study showing that athlete’s perform better on the job
than non-athletes, that is not the case you are trying
to make. Your plan is to convince an employer that you
are right for the job and deserve them taking a risk.
You can minimize the risk by using your experience as a
college athlete to outline key traits you have from the
experience.
Preparation Task:
Using the list above think
through your athletic experience and create a concise
statement supporting each with your experiences. The
outcome goal is to have response ready for use at an
interview without having to think about them at the
time. You will be able to pull one from your arsenal of
responses.
Example: Leadership
Interviewer:
Tell me about your how your leadership skills can be
used at ABC company?
Answer:
I relish being a leader! In fact, this past football
season I was the only starting upperclassmen in the
defensive secondary. My role was not just a player, but
player coach on and off the field. I held group meetings
to watch extra film and made sure that each individual
practiced hard each day in preparation for the game.
At ABC Company I can see
myself being a person who tries to rally co-workers and
keeps an eye on new employees. I enjoy being part of a
team and think coaching will be a strong point for me
once I am experienced at ABC Company.
Try this for all the topics
in the article.
About the author:
Ray Lauenstein is a Sales
and Marketing manager in the Boston area, and was a two
sport collegiate athlete. He holds a master’s degree
in Sport and Exercise Psychology from Florida State
University where he worked in the Athletic Department
and coached high school baseball. In addition to his
job, Ray publishes www.athletesadvisor.com
and has written a book on college recruiting. He can be
reached at ray@athletesadvisor.com. |
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