In a cooperative initiative with the Deutsche Sporthilfe foundation, our HR experts now train high-performance sportsmen and women as part of an effort to hone their job application skills. The idea is to pass on to them some useful (initial) tips and tricks on how to make a successful application. The session included an important component on the use of social networks.
Deutsche Telekom has been a national sponsor of Deutsche Sporthilfe since 2008. The group provides early support for athletes in career planning. Under normal conditions, we regularly train young up-and-coming athletes on how to write and submit their applications via the format of face-to-face a job application event at an interesting location. But now this job application training event has taken place using a digital format for the first time. The 21 attendees were coached via a virtual web conference room.
In the spirit of the slogan, #iwillnotstop until my sport is a respected and recognized point in my curriculum, we dealt with the following topics over the course of the day-long event:
- Tips and tricks on how to prepare application documents
- Creating a professional network with the help of social media and LinkedIn/Xing
- Video interview: what is a video interview and what do you need to know as an applicant?!
- What goes on in an assessment center
My colleagues, Tim Kummerfeldt and Christina Klein, and I guided the attendees through the all-day session. We dealt with all the questions and suggestions that arose during the day with the help of the knowledge we have accumulated from almost 20 years’ experience in recruitment.
Through the use of interactive elements such as an experience questionnaire via Mentimeter and by carrying out a time-delayed video interview using Viasto (in advance), attendees got the chance to reap the benefits of a range of expert opinions without having to subject themselves to a real application situation. The experience was popular among the attendees, who gave overwhelmingly positive feedback on it: “I feel a lot more confident when I need to fill out an application, and I found the video interview training particularly good – the expert analysis that we did afterwards was great!” was the verdict of Michel, a Judo specialist.
The goal of the training session was to emphasize to the athletes the importance of not underselling themselves. And to show them how to give a hugely important part of their lives – their sporting career – the place it deserves in their curriculum vitae. There are very few applicants capable of giving a better example of team spirit or commitment than sportsmen and women.
The course also gave a high priority to emphasizing the importance of the two professional networks Linkedin and Xing want to illustrate to attendees the added value that these platforms can provide in the search for a job and in building up a network. Sharing, commenting, and posting are no obstacle to Generation Y. However, such abilities need to be used with skill in a professional environment.
Whether the application is for an internship, trainee position or for direct entry into a fully-fledged job – there are still so many doors open to the sportsmen and women close to or at the end of their competitive sports careers. A great many enterprises are looking for exactly such profiles and the qualities associated with them. Every athlete has their own story, and it is exactly that unique story that makes each of them special!
You can find more information on Deutsche Telekom’s commitment to Deutsche Sporthilfe here.
