Division 1 College Football Player
I recently graduated from Tulane University in December with a degree in business management and minor in legal studies. Unlike most of my peers I did not have an internship with a company because my summers were devoted to football training.
I am realizing that playing football these summers has affected my job possibilities.
But on the plus side, even though I did not have an internship I was able to develop my own business and successfully sell it while in school and playing football at 22 years old.
My questions are, do I have to settle for an internship even though I am out of school? Or will the full time job position just be an extremely tough route? Did playing division 1 football really put a burden on me looking for a job? Is owning and selling my own company a good way to show my ability, even though it may not be in the same field?
I played D1 Ball as well. Was certainly a big reason why I got caught behind the curve. Just utilize it to your benefit from a networking standpoint (especially with you having played down in the South, there will be plenty of people who love football working at boutique banks)
Worked out for me in the end, and the lessons football taught you will be valuable.
I was a D1 golfer in college and my experiences are very similar to your own.
I was very flustered my senior year while trying to job hunt due to the dream of the PGA Tour trending towards 0%. I was expecting every interviewer to laugh at my resume because it was filled with a majority of non-finance pieces. But what I expected to happen and what actually happened were substantially different.
Every IB that I interviewed at didn't seem to mind and actually kept complimenting me on my accomplishment of actually becoming a D1 athlete. I specifically remember an interviewer saying she viewed my experiences learning to compete at a high level in a sport outweigh a SA stint.
I now work at a Middle Market M&A firm, I had no connections, no internship, or job experience (this is my first job).
Point is you never know what a job interviewer will be looking for, just be yourself and good things will happen.
You should post your story on WSO.
I agree, hearing how people break in is always nice.
My MD and an analyst at my firm were both D1 athletes and neither had an internship. I would buy the most premium LinkedIn there is because you could do some very targeted networking, I'll bet in Houston or Dallas there are a lot of former athlete bankers.
Current Division 1 wrestler here, didn't have any super great internship experiences prior and for this upcoming summer I received attention from a lot of great corporations that liked the fact that I am a collegiate athlete and still have good grades.
Valencia is going to win a title this year. Count it! That superduck he hit during the Pac-12 Championship was insane.
Yeah, he's slick. I just hope we are in the run for a team title next year.
Out of curiosity, what business did you sell? I think it's really impressive you were able to manage a company while attending school and playing football. Wish you all the best in your endeavors!
I opened up a luxury, collector, and exotic car storage and management facility in New Orleans. Managed approximately $10m worth of vehicles.... Received lots of press, I am wondering if that is scaring some people away...
Cool business. But you may want to change your username for anonymity sake.
Yeah very cool business, also very good advice.
changed...
Hey. Good on you man. D1 sports, especially one's that are huge time sucks like football, are generally viewed fairly sympathetically by "wall street". Think most guys know football dominates your life in school, and it sounds like you're an ambitious and commercially minded young guy that, if it were me, would assume you'd have some good internships on your resume if you hadn't been playing ball. I think what people are going to really look at is your major, business school - that's good, and your GPA. Again, I know it's pretty tough to make top grades as a football player, but there are some exceptional young guys who do.
I think you're okay going either route, internship vs full time. Unfortunately, I think you'll probably be disqualified for summer internships with the big banks but certainly not with much smaller banks and companies. Just depends what type of opportunities present themselves to you. I wouldn't get hung up on internship as a graduate, just go with whichever opportunity is better. You've got a pretty marketable story, so don't sweat it. Good luck!
Great idea, I am going to go after the boutique banks.
D1AA football > IB > PE here. I also never summered in IB.
So its definitely doable
Nice. Where'd you play?
that is the route that I think I may want to take and seems standard
1AA Football as well. Currently 2nd year at a MM shop. Given you were a december grad, another option you may consider is doing an MsF at a Vandy / WUSTL or MS Commerce at UVA. This will open doors additional doors and get you back "on-cycle" in terms of recruiting.
Out of curiosity, did you go through any FT recruiting this past fall?
FT recruiting? Full time?
No I did not because I was not planning on selling the business until end of the year.
are you the blind guy or the other guy? only 2 long snappers on tulane's roster...
no offense intended, I think it's awesome to balance D1 athletics with trying to launch a career
Not the blind guy. Do not worry.
By describing your business, your school, sport, etc. I was able to Google your school, sport, and business category and I found your exact profile and multiple articles about you. Very cool that you accomplished all that but if you're trying to remain anonymous, you should edit your posts.
Not trying to remain anonymous just yet, once I get hired, different story.
I looked at some of the articles about you, you seem to be a serial businessman, I say fuck working for someone and use the money from your business sale to start another enterprise.
Sometimes it's best to start working for someone else first in big business.
Here in oil pretty much everyone who has their own firm worked for a multinational or someone else at a point in time, very few exceptions.
I have yet to see being an athlete hurt anyone's job prospects. Assuming you have a good gpa, it shows that you know how to put in the work.
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