Help my D3 Coaching Resume

Really? No one is going to take you seriously if you can't even write your own resume!

dude......its a question...lay off

Good luck in landing the job; it is certainly tough to get into the business. Usually it is less of a "what you know" and more of a "who you know."

That being said, it might be in your best interest to sign up for Level I certification and other clinics/conferences and put the pending date on your resume. That way they can see your intention as far as that is concerned. I would also suggest putting anything work you have done within the educational system on your resume (teaching degree, substituting, anything in this realm). I know it helped me. The administration that hired me liked that I have a degree in teaching and my teams achieve the "All-American Academic" status every year.

It is not much info, but hoefully it helps a little....good luck!

In the Running wrote:

The cover letter is fine. I have a lot to say there.

Careful with that. Your cover letter should be consise and to the point. If you ramble on, you're going to lose them real quick and it won't matter what your resume looks like.

Keep in mind that d3 (in theory) is about the total student-athlete experience, and not just winning and setting PRs. You have to be committed to developing your athletes and working with runners of all ability levels (even 30 minute 5K runners). You have to understand that academics come first, and that being on the team contributes to their development of their character as much as their fitness. Etc etc. This is stuff that the AD wants to hear; the AD probably doesn't care too much that you run 100 mile weeks and personally coached yourself to a PR (or whatever). He really doesn't. If you come across as too intense, that may work against you.

From the information in your post, it sounds like the school you're applying to will be happy to have a warm body that a) is committed to the student-athlete experience b) has experience running and/or coaching and c) won't make waves.

From there it's pretty much a crapshoot. Good luck.

Concentrate on what you would do with the "great resources" the school provides, rather than trying to legitimatize your value as a runner/coach. Don't talk about yourself, because most likely they don't give two craps about that stuff and want to be sold the best product top-to-bottom. They are stupid consumers, so you need to play the part and play to their ego a bit. . .

Talk about how you KNOW you could turn their program into something special, play up their weakness as strengths;

-If it is a small school, talk about the great educational value in small class sizes.

-If they have no track, talk about the great running trails in the area, and how they are conducive to perfectly fit your training philosophy.

-Talk about the school as a name brand and how honored you would be to work for them.

-Talk about how your coaching values and the overall vision for the team falls directly in line with the school's mission statement-- about how it will build better human beings in the game of life and blah blah blah.

Pretend you have some ultra secret training program and that you are able to implement it successfully anywhere. Talk about how you will relentlessly search for hard working student-athletes who will make the school proud both athletically and academically. Talk about the great things that are possible with you AND YOU ONLY as the coach at this piece of junk school.

They will buy it.

It is that easy.

And that right there is how 1/2 the coaches get their start (the other half pay their dues by standing in line for decades).

Thanks for all the responses.

I will definitely list the classes/certifications as pending if I can find dates for them.

With the cover letter, I'm keeping it pretty short to the standard three or so paragraphs. In there I can mention random running jargon in noncomplex ways that show I know what I'm doing. I also do have a pretty good pulse for the school itself, so will play up their qualities.

A lot of the great ideas we're sharing go over well in an interview. I'm looking forward to an interview. Landing the interview is the foot in the door I need.

As far as the resume goes, I guess at this juncture I'm scrapping a "skills" section. Probably best that I play up anything administrative or developmental I did for the local running scene.