Athlete CV examples for you to use in this year

Starting a career as a professional athlete takes determination, strength and passion. However, there is much more to this role than meets the eye and your job application must reflect those requirements. To secure an interview and stand out to hiring managers, you must create a CV highlighting your skills, experience and education that make you a great fit for the role.

Job seekers should study the job description of the role they are applying for and consider the keywords and requirements that individual employers are looking for. Then, highlight these sought-after skills and qualifications within your professional athlete CV.

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There are three CV formats that you can choose from when creating your CV and you can make your decision by considering the level of work experience you have. Here are the CV formats you can choose from:

• Functional: If you are a student-athlete who hasn’t yet had much professional experience, a functional CV format allows you to showcase your skill set instead of focusing on your minimal work experience. 

• Chronological: If you have more professional athletic experience, the chronological CV format will work well for you, as you can draw attention to your work experience. 

• Combination: If you want your CV to display your skills and work experience, you can use a combination CV format that gives equal importance to both. 

Header

The header section of your CV is vital to provide your contact information to the recruiter. The following details should be included in this section:

• Phone number
• Email address
• Full name
• Location 
• Professional social media links, such as your LinkedIn profile

Professional summary

A professional summary briefly describes your professional profile to the hiring manager, giving them an overview of your skills, achievements and goals. Your summary should only be two-to-three-sentences long yet still relevant to the application and interesting to the recruiter. 

Skills 

Regardless of which CV structure you choose, you will need to include a skills section in your CV. A student-athlete CV should focus more on skills as you won’t yet have extensive experience, so include as many relevant skills as possible. Here are some examples to use as an athlete:

• Teamwork and leadership skills
• Strong work ethic
• Ability to use Microsoft Office Suite 
• Communication skills
• Detail-oriented 
• Experience in running and taking part in training sessions
• Transferable skills, such as adaptability 
• Team member mentality 
• Experience competing in tournaments
• Time management

Work experience 

You may be worried about your work experience section if you haven’t yet worked as a professional athlete. However, it is good to still include a brief rundown of your work experience; there will likely be transferable skills from any past jobs you’ve had. For example, teamwork is a transferable skill that many employers will look out for on athletic CVs. So, if you have previously worked as a team in a professional environment, there is no reason not to include this in your CV. 

Education 

The majority of professional athletes will have taken part in some level of education to help them achieve their physical goals. So, whether you studied for a Bachelor of Arts in Sports Management or maybe you were a member of your secondary athletic department or college athletics, these are all valuable experiences you can incorporate into your education section.

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Now that you have seen a general overview of how a CV should be structured and what it should include, we have set out some do’s and don’ts to help you when it comes to writing your athlete CV:

Do:

• Use CV samples to help you stick to a professional structure. 
• Use bullet points for skill sections to make your CV easier to read. 
• Choose a structure based on your professional experience and skill set to ensure your CV represents you in the best way possible. 

Don’t:

• Write long paragraphs or sentences that will take a recruiter a long time to read. This will put them off reading your entire CV. 
• Include personal details regarding your athletic profile. 
• Include a hobbies section or any irrelevant information. 

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