This study examined the career development experiences of one African American man, a former student-athlete in a Division I revenue generating football team. This study focused on his experiences as a student-athlete who participated in football as he transitioned out of elite athletics. Division I collegiate athletics represents a highly sought opportunity (NCAA, 2015h). However, this opportunity may reduce college completion and disrupt maximal career development (Hartman, 2014; Van Rheenen, 2013). This qualitative case study of one participant explored the nuanced influences and pathways the participant used to enter his current career after completing college. Mark Savickas’s (2002) Career Construction Theory (CCT), a constructivist non–a priori narrative theory, served as the theoretical framework. Qualitative interview data were collected during a progressive series of three separate in-depth, face-to-face interviews. Data were first analyzed using an inductive, open-coding process. Four patterns emerged from the data relative to the participant’s career development experiences: ambivalence, performance prioritization/competitive spirit, practical mind-set/good judgment, and value of selected communities, which helped him decide on the ideal career environments. Findings were then analyzed via the Savickas CCT tenets of successful career construction that include life themes, self-concepts, and life design. Findings include (a) the participant executed a largely linear pathway developing his career since retirement from elite athletics, (b) the participant experienced minimal challenges to reaching his current level, and (c) that participation in collegiate football provided valuable career development experiences. Additionally, the findings demonstrated a positive career development based on the participant’s alignment of CCT tenets life themes, self-concepts, and life design.

Using Krumboltz's (2009) Happenstance Learning Theory as a theoretical framework, the three constructs of human agency, hardiness, and proactive personality were identified for their effectiveness in facilitating proaction and resilience during transitional and stressful circumstances. The purpose of this study was to explore whether human agency, hardiness, and proactive personality predict a successful college-to-career transition, measured by the confidence and readiness factors on the Career Transition Inventory (Heppner, 1991; Heppner, Multon, & Johnston, 1994). Linear regression analyses found that each of the study's independent variables predicted both the confidence and readiness factors. In addition, a stepwise regression analysis selected proactive personality as the strongest predictor of readiness. With proactive personality in the model, the stepwise analysis chose hardiness as the next strongest predictor of readiness. Proactive personality and hardiness together explained 38.2% of the variance for readiness. When a stepwise analysis was run with the three independent variables and confidence as the dependent variable, hardiness was selected as the strongest predictor of confidence. With hardiness in the model, the stepwise analysis chose general self-efficacy as the next strongest predictor of readiness. Hardiness and general self-efficacy together explained 28.1% of the variance for confidence.