I can say, “Look, I have experience being one of the best college runners in the world. I know what it takes to be the best. I will bring that to the job and be world-class at my Big 4 work”.
Thoughts?
You think someone with these credentials would have friends to discuss this with instead of a message board.
This. I was a mid-pack division 3 athlete with average grades in engineering and I used that experience to help differentiate from other students being interviewed and said that I did it because I love the sport and that I was a competitive person but actually found that [maybe something unique to cross country] is that it requires a lot of hard work, uncomfortable work, and pushing myself to reach goals, that we trained for meets that were months away so it also taught me discipline, focus, sacrifice, teamwork and how to keep making myself better. That And, this of course are useful life skills that I would bring to the challenge of this position. I am a hard worker and would not disappoint. Did it work in all interviews? Probably not but use it to differentiate and sell yourself. I got more offers than a lot of my classmates with better grades because it personalized me and showed I was serious. Maybe less of a nerd and more personable than other engineers too? And more important, do your research and ask them questions that show you are thoughtful and did your homework on them. You are interviewing them too and showing you have made an effort before the interview sends a strong message. Good luck, you got this!!
I was not an All American, but was on a team that made it to D1 NCAAs. I had an interview where I was asked about my decent, but not spectacular grades and I mentioned being on a demanding team and having a part time job to pay for college. The interviewer told me I should have quit athletics for better grades. So in that case it did not help me. I have had other interviews where they were like "cool, tell us about your experience in this field."
What I have done since is state that I was on an excellent track/cc team and reached a high level of sport and it taught me about defining both long and short term goals and chipping away at those goals everyday for years to reach the previously unachievable. I also learned to be part of a cohesive team with a common goal despite various personalities. This applies to ALL fields.
Good luck.
When sports are mentioned all they want to hear is the generic points. 1) builds character 2) builds leadership 3) builds teamwork 4) deal with adversity 5) discipline.:, they could give zero funs about anything else
I can say, “Look, I have experience being one of the best college runners in the world. I know what it takes to be the best. I will bring that to the job and be world-class at my Big 4 work”.
Thoughts?
I hate to break it to you, but you aren’t “one of the best college runners in the world” by being 20th in one country.
I can say, “Look, I have experience being one of the best college runners in the world. I know what it takes to be the best. I will bring that to the job and be world-class at my Big 4 work”.
Thoughts?
I hate to break it to you, but you aren’t “one of the best college runners in the world” by being 20th in one country.
I hate to break it to you, but if you finish top 20 you are one of the best runners in the world. Many runners who have finished out of the top 20 are.
I can say, “Look, I have experience being one of the best college runners in the world. I know what it takes to be the best. I will bring that to the job and be world-class at my Big 4 work”.
Thoughts?
As a long-ago college athlete, and currently part of my company's hiring group, I would see your background and not get carried away with it. But I would note it as a potential plus factor because I know how hard it is to excel at athletics and academics (hopefully you did at least decently) during that time. Maybe we'd talk about it a little, but mostly I'd be looking for you to say more about how it taught you discipline and a work ethic, and not so much about your times, as you already seem to realize.
If you already know what answers you want, then why don't you just fill them in for every candidate and move on to questions that actually illustrate something more about the candidate than whether they know what the right interview answers are?
B4 only recruit at a handful of schools. Bring your full DEI portfolio/creds to the table. Fishbowl and reddit would be better forums to post and get answers as talent/hr frequently lurk there.
My buddy applied to a firm that takes the corporate challenge and adult rec sports extremely seriously. He wasn't the best candidate for the job based on academic performance and experience, but he was hired because he dramatically improved their corporate challenge team (he was also athletic enough to add depth to their basketball and softball teams).
They have to bring it up, not you. How do you induce them to raise the topic?
Here's what I did.
First add a tiny section at the bottom, innocuously called 'Personal.' It contains two items. The first one is 100% boring, e.g., 'raised in New York.' The second is ONE (I repeat: one) is a specific running achievement. I have used my marathon PR, marathon win (id with year and city), and similar at different times.
The effect of this was to turn many of my interviews (this was finance for stuff that was sought after) into hearing all the details of the interviewer's jogging program. The challenge was to look engaged. Perhaps it's more interesting than accounting convos.
I did generally get the jobs and m a y b e the addition made my resume stand out to these folks. Really though, I'm pretty sure it was the quality of my scarce skills (which were provable so no need for additional testing or chatting about them) that mattered most.
Oh! one additional anecdote... I expected that my somewhat public involvement with competitive running would hurt me because my lack of complete dedication to the job would be obvious. No! Strangely (to me) the interpretation leaned more to viewing me as super disciplined & hard working.
Help us build the best running shoe review site for a chance to win a LetsRun t-shirt.Help us build the best running shoe review site for a chance to win one of 10 LetsRun t-shirts.