Last week, we compared the similarties of the job search process to the recruiting process. As part of that analogy, I mentioned a discussion I had with a young junior football player recently. In case you missed that article, feel free to check it out here.
For a quick recap, this young man had some wonderful athletic and academic accomplishments that for the most part had gone unnoticed by college coaches despite his efforts. Those efforts included researching 15 schools and sending his recruiting profile to the coaches at those schools. At the time of our conversation, he had received about four letters from college coaches expressing what can only be described as mild interest at best. On the surface he is doing everything right, isn’t he? Let’s break this down even further while sticking with our theme from last week…
Distribution
If you were looking for a job, would you send your resume through the corporate website? Apply on a website like CareerBuilder or Monster? Wait around for employers to request it? Have a third party the employer knows and trusts pass it along? They are all options that are chosen by job seekers every year. Which one would you pick?
In our scenario, the young man had taken the initiative and combed through 15 college websites to find the email addresses of the football coaching staff. He then crafted an email from his personal address and sent his recruiting resume to those coaches. Unfortunately, he really has not received a lot of interest from college coaches based on his efforts. Why?
While his distribution method was well intentioned, is it the best way to reach a college football coach? Possibly, but keep in mind how many other student-athletes are doing the exact same thing given the accessibility of the email address. That student-athlete better hope that his recruiting resume is so impressive that it seperates itself from the rest, or else it might never be seen by the college coach. While there is nothing wrong with submitting a resume online through a corporate website, is that the best way to go? There are a lot of options, but at the end of the day your goal should be to make sure you do everything you can to actually get your resume to college coaches. Make sure to keep that in mind when you evaluate distribution options.
Timing
If you were looking for a job, would you wait until most of your peers had heard from dozens of employers, gone on interviews, and possibly received offers? Or would you want to get ahead by starting early and being prepared?
The student-athlete I spoken to had waited until junior year to begin dsitributing his information to college coaches. Heck, he even waited until Junior year to really begin researching colleges and building a resume. Why? 
This process starts freshmen year or earlier. Serious student-athletes will begin researching colleges and universities in addition to starting to build their athletic and academic resume. At the risk of sounding like a broken record to our regular readers…the recruiting process will impact the next 40 years of a student-athlete‘s life. Wouldn’t you want to start as early as you can and gain a competitive advantage over youre peers?
Numbers
If you were looking for a job, how many potential employers would you contact? While that number will certainly vary based on the candidate and the industry, if you sincerely want a job, wouldn’t the answer always be, “as many is it takes.” After all, a job is not a luxury, is it?
Even if the student-athlete in our example only qualified athletically and academically for one quarter of the schools offering football in the country, he still only “applied” to around 8% of the opportunities. Why?
Just like the job search process and just like the way college coaches pursue recruits, it’s a numbers game. Play it. In order to create enough interest and provide enough opportunities to generate leverage for a recruit, they should initially involve 100-200 college programs in their search. Again, if you really want to paly in college, why would you limit yourself to a fraction of the opportnities available?
Follow Up
If you were looking for a job and sent your resume to employers and they responded with interest, would you follow up? (I would hope so) What if they did not respond? If you really wanted that particular job, would you follow up to make sure they got your resume? In the job search process, follow up is critical to obtaining an interview and ultimately an offer. The same tenacity is required in recruiting.
When I asked the student-athlete in our example what sort of work he had done since he sent his recruiting resume out, he indicated that he had returned / responded to all four questionnaires and letters that he had received. When I asked him if he had followed up with the 11 other schools, he shrugged and said, “Not really I guess.” Why?
Of course this student-athlete simply did not realize that follow up is a critical part of recruiting which was why he 
had yet to take those stops. However, he represents the majority of recruits who believe that simply “getting your name out there” is all the process requires. The reality is that 80% of the recruiting process actually involves building relationships with college coaches. Exposure is a small, initial step. Most recruits ultimately separate themselves by their follow up efforts. It is vital to understand how to properly navigate this portion or else another; more prepared recruit will impress in their “interview” and receive the “job” even though they might have similar qualifications.
Selecting a college, much like finding a job, is a life changing process. With any process, there will always be several methods and avenues to pursue. However, if you attack the recruiting process the same way you would seek a job, then more times than not, you will find success.
