Matt Parker spent four years playing basketball for James Madison University, but as much as he loved it, not getting drafted by the NBA when he graduated in 2010 meant he had to find another passion to pursue as a career. He found that although tech startups offer plenty of exciting jobs, the nature of college athletics means that former athletes may not be qualified to go after them. To bridge that gap, Parker founded Gradtap, which will begin offering a training program for former athletes and others who want to get the skills and connections that will make it possible to go after tech jobs.
"D1 athletes are spending 20 to 60 hours training and playing," Parker said. "They don't have time for internships or making connections."
The stereotype about how colleges treat athletes—finessing things so they don't actually graduate with preparation for a non-sports career—has some basis in fact, Parker said. Things are improving, but not quickly.
"Schools not doing as great a job preparing athletes for what's next is definitely true to an extent," Parker said. "It's an old system and very old systems change slowly."
To help make up for that, Parker has created a curriculum for a month-long accelerated program to teach some important skills that most tech jobs require. He plans to bring in experts from companies like Optoro, EverFi and General Assembly to teach those skills and, arguably just as important, give the students a chance to meet and mingle with people from companies that might be interested in hiring them.
"It's not a coding academy," Parker said. "It will teach them a core set of skills and help build a talent pipeline to the kinds of companies they want to work for."
Tuition is $3,450, and will cover classes in pretty broad range of essential computer and Internet skills. There will be some basic coding in CSS and HTML along with other tools like Google Analytics and Adwords, Salesforce, Microsoft Office, WordPress and GoodApps.
Parker's own background includes working in healthcare, consulting and in government. While that doesn't jump out as making him qualified to put together a program like this, his experience in going after the kinds of jobs the students in the program will be training for gives him some important insight.
"I do not believe it is necessary to have direct experience in an industry to be the person to disrupt it."
"I believe I am the ideal person to start this company because I am solving my own problem," Parker said. "I know the pain of aimlessly applying for job after job, handling tricky interview questions, not being able to pass the 'prove it' test and being told, 'We are looking for someone with more experience.' Personally, I do not believe it is necessary to have direct experience in an industry to be the person to disrupt it."
The first cohort for the program will be small, just seven former student athletes who either went to school locally or are from the area and moved back here after college. The graduates come from schools including Bucknell, Loyola Marymount and JMU and were on the school teams for tennis, track, rowing and other sports. What they share, besides their Division 1 sports history, is a desire to get to a point where they can compete for jobs at tech companies, learning the technical skills and meeting the people that can make that goal a reality.
"Students care about making the transition to the job market seamless and being an athlete can make that harder," Parker said. "Gradtap could essentially make it possible for the companies they want to work for to recruit them directly, opening up new networks for other students."
Parker said he looks forward to availing himself of some of what the Gradtap course will teach, even as he leads the overall direction.
"I'll be right there going through it with them, like a player-coach," he said. "There's always plenty left to learn."
