A high-performance sports career as a signal in the job application process

Abstract

The decision to pursue a career in sports often has far-reaching consequences in the professional career planning of high-performance athletes. Therefore, it is highly relevant to examine how the high-performance sports career is perceived as a signal in terms of the signaling theory (Spence, 1973) during a job application. To this end, an experiment was conducted to investigate how recruiters evaluate job applications from former high-performance athletes (both single and team sports), considering social, motivational, and cognitive competencies. In total, 303 subjects participated in this study. It is shown that the same person as a team athlete was considered significantly more capable for a professional entry than as an individual athlete or someone without a high-performance sports background. Although careers in high-performance sports can be considered a risky way to earn a living, our findings indicate that this is not necessarily the case: athletes who manage to complete an apprenticeship alongside their sport reduce their risk enormously, as their high-performance sports career is interpreted as a positive signal when applying.