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College Football Jobs and How to Get Them

Score a life-winning touchdown with these football jobs

Get into the game with these great careers related to the sport of football.
Do you love college football but don’t have the skills (or appropriate age) to play? Well, with thousands of college athletes actively involved in the sport each year, there are plenty of awesome jobs to be found along the sidelines, such as referees, commentators, coaches, cameramen, journalists, team managers, trainers, and event workers.

College football season is back and we are so excited for it to kick off this Saturday.

From tailgate smorgasbords to the thrill of hearing your alma mater’s fight song, there is nothing like this great American weekend tradition. But what if you want to get out of the stands and into the game?

You can. And you don’t have to throw a touchdown to do it.

Let us help you catch a job in football with these tips:

Referee

You can be in the center of the action as a referee. While this is a part-time position at all levels (even in the pros), it is a job that you can work your way up from an entry-level position near where you live.

Check with your state’s sports-governing association for how you can receive training and certifications to become a referee. And you aren’t limited to just football, the National Association of Sports Officials has an introduction to refereeing other sports as well.

Football Commentator/Broadcaster/Journalist

Sports journalism also offers many different careers related to the sport of football. Many of the faces you see on ESPN and network TV got their start grinding out stories for their local or college teams. It’s a tough everyday job and requires as much passion as those who are playing the game.

A degree from a journalism program at an accredited college or technical school is what you’ll need to land a steady sports beat, but you can get your start from different paths. If you have a talent for play-by-play and analysis, consider calling high school games for local radio or on the internet. Or if a career in sports radio is your calling, you can start today by launching your own podcast and team-oriented blog.

The pay may be low, or non-existent, but you’ll build your reputation and have a stack of clips that you can show off in your job interview. If you are interested in sports journalism jobs: click here.

Football Coach

There’s a big difference between being great at Madden compared to coaching an actual football team. Yet, knowing the game inside and out is the fundamental basis of coaching and you may have what it takes to instruct youngsters to play smart and play safe.

The path to a college football coaching career starts at the local level. Start by volunteering for youth football leagues as an assistant coach. From that point, it is a step-by-step process upward on the “coaching ladder” as you put in long hours and travel to different parts of the country to take jobs. It’s a unique lifestyle, but it comes with the rewards of winning and shaping a generation of young men. Here’s a list of available assistant coaching jobs.

If you are currently in graduate school, you can take an unpaid graduate assistant job with the football team. You’ll get the on-the-job training and may even qualify for a scholarship. Undergrads can also get in on the action by joining up with their school’s sports production team, which is the major infrastructure that supports each game day.

A Career Touchdown

Football may be only played in the Fall and Winter, but it’s a year-round commitment that takes a lot of effort. Football is America’s favorite sport and it’s a massive enterprise that brings in billions into the U.S. economy. If you have the passion that is reflected in the fans and players, then there is a spot for you wherever the game is played.

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.