The fourth edition of The Post Game Newsletter features Parul Khosla on episode #79 of the podcast. Prior to co-founding Arena Talent in 2024, Parul worked in talent acquisition at the NFL, NHL, Disney, and Madison Square Garden. She is also a “LinkedIn Top Voice” with nearly 40,000 followers on LinkedIn.
Parul and I met earlier this summer at a Sports Business Leaders event, where she represented Arena as one of five startup companies given 90 seconds to pitch their businesses to a room of around 100 people.
She ended up winning the competition - I thought it was awesome and was pumped to host her on the pod.
Here are a few takeaways from our conversation:
What Actually Happens to Your Job Resume
Parul explains how an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) works behind the scenes as a recruiter. She says the reality is, new jobs posted get about 300+ applications the first 3 days of the posting, regardless of what the role is.
A recruiter is only spending 15% of their time sifting through resumes, so if your resume doesn’t check boxes specific to the role applied for, it’s probably going into a black hole.
The Reality of Starting a Business
She talks about the side of starting your own business you DON’T always see from the LinkedIn influencers, Twitter bots, etc. The fact that it’s pretty damn hard, she doesn’t have a steady income coming in, there’s no guarantee this will even work, and raising money from investors is tough.
Reminded me of what Jared Doerfler, found of Hanna Golf, said about quitting his successful sales job to start milling putters in his garage: “I’m dumb but I’m not stupid”
The Sports Industry’s Networking Problem
She goes into what’s on the horizon for Arena and touches on the barriers to entry in the sports industry (expensive conferences, location-dependent events, etc.).
She just announced it on LinkedIn yesterday, Bumble / Tinder for sports, media, and entertainment pros: Arena PowerMatch.
Check Out the Full Episode here:
Other Cool Things
Spent some time down in Chincoteague, VA last week. Old school campground, boat, crabs, not staring at 3 screens at once.
Always enjoy a WFC (Work From Chincoteague) week.
Derek Jeter on planning for life after baseball while still wearing the pinstripes and his fear of being unprepared.
I started this podcast called The Post Game Podcast 2 years ago to talk to athletes about the transition out of sports into what’s next.
It’s led to some incredible relationships, new friends, etc. But sometimes it’s easy to forget what the real reason I started it was…
— #The Post Game Podcast (#@JoePod24)
8:28 PM • Aug 25, 2025
Opendorse College Football Kickoff Report
The more conversations I have with people deep in the college sports world, the more evident it is that some of the headlines you see about NIL and college athletes making boat loads of money these days, doesn’t capture the full story.
This report from Opendorse was awesome - it breaks down what college football players are making across conferences, by position, and what players are building the biggest brands. The vast majority are making well under $10k.
I still would have taken a free chicken parm sub in South Orange.
A new report from @opendorse says that less than 1% of all Power 4 football players are earning $500,000 or more in NIL money. Most players (66.5%) are earning less than $10,000 annually.
— #Joe Pompliano (#@JoePompliano)
4:23 PM • Aug 27, 2025
Some Upcoming PGP Episodes:
9/3: David Fales - Former NFL Quarterback, San Jose State legend, and currently working in tech sales
9/10: Matt Hochberg - Founder of Hochberg Sports Marketing, an award-winning, full-service, and FIFA-certified women’s soccer agency
9/17: James Grugan - Founder of Five Star Hiring. He doing a great job bridging the gap between elite student-athletes and top-tier employers in the Philly area.
Thanks for checking out Newsletter #4 on this beautiful Thursday morning before Labor Day. Feel free to pass along to anyone you think would enjoy reading!
We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled program next Wednesday morning.
Appreciate the support,
Joe