For many years, I was a skeptic of school-based athletic programs. As a student government, newspaper, and drama club nerd, this was more than likely an expression of jealousy over who gets plaudits, attention—and dates.

While I still think it would be healthier for everyone if competitive athletics were separated from education, I’ve also come to believe that what students learn from sports is increasingly critical to their future job prospects. As artificial intelligence shifts demand away from repetitive, technical skills, the value of implicit, noncognitive skills—the ability to read the room (or playing field), problem solving, and teamwork—is becoming increasingly important and valued in the workplace. Whether student athletes are aware of it or not, they have worked hard at developing these types of skills. Several years ago, the New York Times highlighted how recruiters using AI-based hiring tools helped identify how unconventional signals can reveal hidden, transferable skills (e.g., chess players being good coders, basketball players being strong in sales). 

A new analysis from LiveCareer suggests that student athletes don’t take athletics seriously enough as a feature of professional development. Their resumes tend to track with the entire job-seeking population in emphasizing their technical training while underplaying some of their most important differentiators: critical thinking, problem solving, motivation, and initiative. 

In my interactions with the students who take part in AEI education programs, I’ve encouraged them to think about noncognitive skill development, as well as strategies for highlighting them during their job hunts. Employers already have a pretty good idea of how to measure technical ability, but measuring noncognitive skills is trickier. Student-athletes can gain an edge by reframing their sports experiences as lessons in leadership, organization, and resilience and putting those at the tops of their resumes and interview talking points, rather burying them among “hobbies” as an afterthought. 

As the school year begins, and you find yourself sweating through daily-doubles for school and intramural teams, remind yourself that nothing you do or try to do in life is wasted. In success and failure, you are learning constantly. Athletics may end after graduation, but the skills built along the way remain assets for life.