What do you include in a baseball player's resume?

There is nothing wrong with listing teaching and coaching baseball as his prime work- and volunteer-related skills. He is, after all, a college student. His resume won’t look like that of a professional whose been out in the workforce for several years, and the schools won’t expect it to.  

The resume request is probably the result of the school trying to be more inclusive - there are a lot of kids who can’t afford to play travel sports, who have to work to help pay their way through college, or have a heavy load of unpaid labor, such as care for young children or other family members.    

Did his team ever do any charity or volunteer events? If so be sure to include those.

@Iowamom23 I can send you my middle daughter’s resume if that would help. I think they are the same age and in a similar position in terms of ability to work. Has your son worked any camps?

P.S. hers was for applying for jobs in marketing and front office work in sports. I think if he is looking to coach it would be a totally different approach and @TPM would be the best source!

IowaMom23:

Has he selected his Major? I have a old Term paper for his Post Grad work.

"interactionary Behavior of Professional Baseball Players"

Bob

“Played 4 years of  College Baseball for the Iowa Hawkeyes” is a good place to start.  Include the head coach and recruiting coordinator as referrals.

But he likely did more than just play there, right?  Didn’t he help out at their camps, too, for instance?  I think Iowa has a Fall League for high school kids, too, did he help out there?

No stats. Just years of play. Okay to list individual and/or team awards if they are significant.

When I look at fresh out resumes I want to above all get a sense of how the applicant spent their time at university. I want to see breadth of experience but also an overall load that suggests the applicant can juggle priorities and still excel. Sports is a tremendous resume asset in this respect. Achievements and leadership should be included (the 'excel' part above).

Based on the above it won't surprise you that each of my immediate reports (six) is a former college athlete.

Your son must have an academic and an athletic advisor to advise him.

So he'll get a degree in history this spring after 3 years, then has to reapply to go into the college of education (that's who asked for the resume). Good point on the camps, he did a few of those his first year.

Did include his all-acdemic BIG10 and dean's list. Honestly, his academic and baseball advisors were a huge help in getting him through a degree in three years, but getting a kid who is graduating back into school seems to be a challenge for everyone to wrap their minds around.

Have gotten some good help from his PC and the compliance department to make sure what he does fulfills all the rules.

Iowamom ... My son did what your son is doing. He entered college six courses into his freshman year. He had to catch up four to graduate in three years. He emphasized while playing summer ball he had the focus and made the time to take the other four classes online. He had summer ball and summer school on his resume at the same time.

The team required all players to volunteer in the community even if it wasn’t much. Visiting a hospital, senior home or school once a semester was enough.

The reality is if your son has remaining eligibility, has decent grades and doesn’t screw up the application process he’s in.

My eldest son, who went through the graduate school process says that the written statement is a big part of it all.  Anybody can crunch the numbers in terms of GPA, class rank, etc but if you can pull at an academic’s heartstrings a little with the written statement, it gives you an edge.  Worth putting time into and even having a pro help edit it, if necessary.

I think, as RJM alludes to, being on the Baseball team is a pretty big edge, but the above is some extra perspective from a non athlete who got his grad degree

The cover letter/statement are a guide to the rest of the application.  So, he should emphasize in the statement what he wants people to take away from his resume.  That would be a place to explain that playing college baseball limited his other work experience, but gave him leadership and teaching-type skills to go with his academic skills.  Teachers have to work as a team, too.

He is a scholarship player at P5 conference who graduated in 3 years. If the coach wants him he is going to get in. Relax make it look nice, as long as he isn’t drooling he will be accepted

From my 2015's experience, he had plenty of opportunity for interviews.  A lot of companies hire "people" and not so much as to what  they know at this point in their careers.  Student Athletes are desired for their ability to multi task with navigating between sport and school for the last 4 years.  They are coachable, they understand how to be part of "Team", they can take direction and they are disciplined.  a Student Athlete would not last with their program if they weren't!  I would highlight those attributes on the Resume

Student Athletes have experienced a lot that perhaps are not work related.  Many of his interviews would turn into talking about his summers in Northwoods or games played against power house programs  of which some of the programs were where the interviewer graduated from.

Under work experiences, I'd put something like:

NCAA D1 Athlete 2018-202x, Big 10 Pitcher of week/month/year xxxxx (list awards)

I see a lot of resumes, and college athletes need to treat this like the job that it is.   I would call out that he finished his undergrad in 3 years and grad school in 2 years in a cover letter.

Good luck!   

Thanks all!!! Appreciate the many great suggestions.

Since he is applying at his own college, I think the information on baseball is very minimal.  Just that he played in X number of games in 19, 20, and 21.  Any awards or accomplishments.  His resume will be very small and should suffice to get him in the grad school there with help from his advisors and coaches.  I will say make sure his advisor knows and coaches know and put coaches down as references.

@PitchingFan posted:

Since he is applying at his own college, I think the information on baseball is very minimal.  Just that he played in X number of games in 19, 20, and 21.  Any awards or accomplishments.  His resume will be very small and should suffice to get him in the grad school there with help from his advisors and coaches.  I will say make sure his advisor knows and coaches know and put coaches down as references.

Thank you. Good point on his coaches--got his PC to help out. One note — it would have been smart of him to do all this BEFORE baseball season started, and smart of his mother to bring it up back in January. Sigh.