Student-Athletes Network with Several Employers at Fourth Annual Career Fair

BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Florida Atlantic University Student-Athlete Center for Academic Excellence hosted its fourth annual career fair Monday at the Delray Acura Club. There were 241 student-athletes in attendance who exchanged their résumés for business cards, put their firm handshakes to use, engaged in good conversations and developed multiple valuable connections.

"The goal of SACAE is not only to ensure our students excel in the classroom, but also to prepare them for life after their sport," said Nicole Alderson, director of student-athlete development. "The career fair provides the student-athletes an opportunity to network with employers and learn how to market themselves professionally to hopefully land a job or an internship position. Student-athletes have a unique skillset, making them very desirable candidates to employers."

This year, there were over 20 employers in attendance, including recruiters from City Furniture, Enterprise, Northwestern Mutual, Chick-Fil-A and more. No matter where the student-athletes were at in their career search, they got to engage in a powerful activity: networking.

"Networking is really important, especially for me being a golfer and being able to meet a lot of people on the golf course," said Brain Dolehide, senior men's golfer. "The career fair has given me another chance to meet new people who are this time hiring for internships and jobs."

Just as athletes need to practice their sport to get the results they want, the same goes for preparing for career and networking events. SACAE hosted a career fair prep rally the previous week to help prepare the students for the main event. Student-athletes had the opportunity to learn how to mold a winning elevator pitch, attain key résumé tips, understand how to dress to impress and for some, learn how to tie a tie.

Student-athletes who attended the event last week, as well as took advantage of the help their academic counselors were willing to provide, highlighted how they felt more prepared for what to expect and how to best approach the employers.

"All of [the pointers] seemed pretty basic at the time, but when I actually got to the career fair and started talking to people, I realized how prepared I was," said Joaquin Garcia, senior and captain of the men's swimming and diving team.

The business economics major teamed up with co-captain Jason Woodburn by practicing their elevator pitches on the way to the event. They both took advantage of the career fair the most they could, knowing graduation in May will be here before they know it.

"[The career fair] is really good practice," added Garcia. "It gave me a little taste of how the employers will interact with you and how you should approach an actual interview better."

Preparing for life after college can present stressful times, but thanks to career development opportunities put on by SACAE and the academic counselors, the FAU student-athletes feel more prepared to tackle their next opponent: the real world.

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Student-Athletes Network with Several Employers at Fourth Annual Career Fair

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Student-Athletes Network with Several Employers at Fourth Annual Career Fair

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