May 8, 2017
San José State University student-athletes attended the annual Spartans to Success networking event at the Boccardo Business Complex.
The event featured classes with tips on interviewing, resume building, and personal branding. The program gave the opportunity for roughly 125 student-athletes to network with over 20 organizations.
"We're really proud to be one of San Jose State's largest employers," said Enterprise Rental Car recruiter Casey Porter. "We have over 60 Spartans that work with us. We just love hiring your students. They are competitive, want to do well, want to be successful, they are driven. Those are traits that are hard to teach.
"(The administration) cares about our lives after sports. The reality is everybody is not going to get play professionally. Some sports don't have professional teams. It shows they care about our education and our future," said Chad Miller, a safety on the football team,"... Networking is really important, because it's not about what you know. It's about who you know. Networking can help you get a job."
Kendal Watts, a women's gymnast, reflected on some of the skills she learned in the workshops at the event.
"I think the one of the most important skills we learned today is how to approach an interview. We have always been taught a lot of different ways, but actually hearing from real businesses, and people that have been in the struggle. They have been in the interview knowing it's okay to be nervous. It's okay to ask questions."
The San José State Athletics Department sponsored Spartans to Success with the objective of assisting its student-athletes identify jobs after graduation.
| Participating Employers | |
| Apple | Quicken Loans |
| Bay 101 | RPM Mortgage |
| Betts Recruiting | San Francisco 49ers (NFL) |
| CEFCU | San Jose Earthquakes |
| Clifton-Larson-Allen, LLP | San Jose Police Department |
| eBay | San Jose Sharks (NHL) |
| Enterprise Rental Car | Santa Clara Police Department |
| Evolution Surgical, Inc. | SJSU Career Center |
| Orchard Supply Hardware | Splice Communications |
| PepsiCo | Xactly Corp. |
| Price Waterhouse Coopers |