Since you cannot be a college athlete forever, and you will probably not play professional sports, you need to look into getting a “real job”. To find out what job will best fit your needs, a self assessment can be very helpful. Decide what your strengths and weaknesses are. In Great Jobs for Communication Majors the author Blythe Camenson (2-24-10 p. 3) suggests the reader to:
Understand your personal traits, Indentify personal values, Calculate your economic needs, Explore long term goals, Enumerating your skill base, Recognizing your preferred skills, Assessing skills needing further development.
Just like athletics, every person has something unique to bring to the workplace. It is good to find a job where your own unique personal skills can best be applied to the workplace. You should highlight your strengths and unique skills learned from your student athlete experience on your resume. You have an asset on your resume that will help separate you from other potential candidates. You have to remember that most employers are not aware of all the education gained through your college athlete experience. Think about what you did while playing your sport and how can you successfully communicate this to a potential employer. Use strengths such as “team communication,” “leadership,” or “performance under pressure.” Being a college athlete you learn things like how to take orders from superiors, and how to perform under extreme pressure situations, don’t be afraid to highlight these on your resume.
As you research your career, it is helpful to find the appropriate Job Titles that you will hopefully soon acquire. It can be very valuable to network with people to find out different job possibilities. People that are already in the work force may have a good since of what is the right job fit for you.