Indeed Career Coach launched for high-performance athletes
Global job site and proud partner of Team Ireland, Indeed, has launched a new Indeed Career Coach programme which aims to tackle the core issues high-performance athletes encounter when transitioning to life outside elite sport.
Indeed have collaborated with key sporting figures from the Olympic Federation of Ireland (OFI), Sport Ireland Institute and the high-performance director of IABA and former boxer Bernard Dunne to develop a bespoke programme that tackles the core issues and unpredictable nature of elite sport retirement.
Speaking at the launch of Indeed Career Coach, Dunne said: “Transitioning from being a full-time athlete into the workplace can be a challenging experience. When you’re an athlete, all you identify as is an athlete. When you retire from that, what are you?
“That transition is difficult because you’re leaving a world that you have invested so much of yourself in, a world which you have the skills to work in. To then transition into the unknown can be a daunting experience. Going into a world that you know nothing about, it’s very easy to get lost.
“I have experienced first-hand how difficult the transition is and have always wanted to do more to help athletes during this challenging time. When the opportunity arose to work closely with Indeed, the OFI, the OFI Athletes’ Commission and Sport Ireland Institute to develop this new Indeed Career Coach programme, I was excited by the potential of the project.
“We have ensured the programme is specially designed around athletes' needs and is equipped with all the tools and supports essential to preparing for life beyond being an athlete.”
After a successful pilot programme in 2020 with over 80 participants, Indeed is committed to further helping hundreds of Irish high-performance athletes, current and retired, unleash their talent by providing practical career tools and supports needed to plan for a professional career beyond sport. Career tools include virtual workshops, career advice and dedicated resources, available at indeedcareercoach.ie.
Indeed Career Coach highlights the key skills of each individual athlete and outlines how these skills are transferable to specific jobs in the wider workplace, with the ultimate goal of identifying, planning and placing athletes in a rewarding future professional career outside of sport.
As athletes spend their lives dedicated to their chosen sport, they often don’t consider life or work beyond competing, creating several concerns when later searching for a job.
Indeed Career Coach helps athletes tackle common issues such as:
- Planning: helping athletes consider how their skills are transferable to different roles
- Transitioning: helping expand their horizons into other passions so they don’t feel they are moving from the top of their game to the bottom of the workplace
- Identity and self worth: helping athletes identify themselves through a separate lens beyond being ‘an athlete’ and supports personal growth
- Tunnel vision: helping highlight the importance of thinking beyond training, competition and results with a wider bigger picture view of their lives
Commenting on the announcement, Conor Byrne, director of marketing at Indeed, said: “We were all reminded of the importance of sport last year, its ability to bind communities and provide an outlet is something many of us didn’t realise we relied on until it suddenly stopped.
“For the athletes themselves, the pandemic emphasised the unpredictable nature of sport as a career. Our mission is to help people get jobs, so we are delighted to be able to offer some of our expertise to them during this time. We are also excited to offer free digital career guides to the wider public through the Indeed Career Coach website.”
Welcoming the launch of Indeed Career Coach, Peter Sherrard, the CEO of the Olympic Federation of Ireland, commented: “We have been working closely with Indeed to create this programme that will benefit all Irish athletes. Naturally, a huge amount of our focus is on athlete performance, but athlete care and transition post-Olympics is a strong priority for the OFI and our Athletes’ Commission.
“Indeed’s strong commitment to provide tools and career transition advice to support Team Ireland and the life-skills work being done by our partners at the Sport Ireland Institute is very positive.”
Indeed partnered with the Olympic Federation of Ireland (OFI) in April 2019 to become a partner of Team Ireland for the Tokyo Olympics through its campaign #TalentUnleashed. Indeed Career Coach will be the legacy supporting Indeed’s partnership with the Olympic Federation of Ireland and Team Ireland, strengthening its commitment to supporting Irish athletes as they aim for a place on Team Ireland.