Virginia Tech Student-Athlete Development held its annual Career Jumpstart event on Monday, Oct. 17 at the Beamer-Lawson Indoor Practice Facility, sponsored by Kearney and Company.
"Career Jumpstart is an event open exclusively to juniors through graduating Virginia Tech student-athletes and provides them with opportunities to enhance their career development skills," said Sarah Lage, the Senior Director for Student-Athlete Career Development within the Lombardi Student-Athlete Development Center at Virginia Tech. "Our main goal every year is to connect student-athletes with professionals in a variety of industries in order to strengthen their networking skills and jumpstart their post-graduate opportunities."
Held yearly since 2009, Career Jumpstart provides student-athletes with an opportunity to connect with professionals in their desired field, while also applying relationship building and conversation etiquette in a professional setting.
The event's main objective is to provide student-athletes with an opportunity to meet with organizations that value their professional skills, in addition to their academic and career goals. On top of that, it also provides student-athletes with the opportunity to receive a professional headshot, which can be utilized to enhance their online professional profile.
"It was really interesting to talk with different companies and see what opportunities are out there for student-athletes," mentioned Marley McCall, a senior on the track and field team. "I feel like it's easy to get consumed by the athlete life and not really have that career life set up for you, so it was really nice to have that foot in the door with them."
"[It's nice] to be able to learn how to use your abilities that you have as an athlete to network with different employers and also discover maybe an area that you didn't even consider you were interested in," added junior Katie Andreini, a member of the women's tennis program. "This kind of opens your eyes to all those things, so it's a good way to get your feet wet in post-graduate opportunities."
The career fair style-event hosted 26 different employers that were available to present to the student-athletes. Those in attendance were then divided up into three different groups that would rotate through 25-minute breakout sessions to help maximize the amount of time spent with each and every employer.
"You can tell everyone's work ethic is super strong," praised Makenzie Shearson, the University Relations Manager for event sponsor Kearney and Company and a former soccer player at the University of Pittsburgh. "It's just awesome to network and help them in any way that I can.
"Whether that's for our company or just in life, it's been so rewarding just to give [student-athletes] advice. If we can hire them, great. But even if that doesn't align with what they want to do, it's just been really nice to be able to talk to these student-athletes and try to help them out for what's to come in the future."
One of the major talking points of the evening remained consistent when interacting with different student-athletes, which was the advantages each and every individual will have when they venture out into the real world.
"A lot of employers I talked to tonight talked about how whenever they see that an applicant was an athlete, it really stands out to them," Andreini explained. "They know that student-athletes are driven and passionate, [they] have great time management skills. That's something that can really apply to a lot of team activities that you'll participate in in your future career."
"Hearing professionals talk about how excited they are for student-athletes to work for them, it really is an extra motivator to be like 'I can do this, I have these skills that companies want,'" McCall admitted. "It's really exciting to be [in that position], it's easy for us to think it's not a big deal."
So for those who attended, what's the pitch to convince other student-athletes to attend for the 2023 version of Career Jumpstart?
"If you're thinking about doing it, or you're on the fence about it, I'd definitely say go for it," acknowledged Matt Johnson, a redshirt junior on the football team. "[Career Jumpstart] can get you out of your comfort zone and build up your social skills. I'm not much of a talkative person off the field. But that's one thing you have to be when you're trying to network and build relationships."
"It's never too early to start thinking about your life after graduation at Virginia Tech," Lage pointed out. "Let's get them on track. Let's start doing it.
"Whether they're planning to go pro or not, you never know who you're going to meet. It's always great to begin to build that network, and we'll do anything we can to help."
Gallery: (10-24-2022) 2022 Career Jumpstart
