By Julia Comerford

When he was a kid and was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, Bryan Dufour, FCRH, ’18 said, “I always wanted to be a sports agent ever since I was six years old.” Now a current intern and future agent for the most powerful sports agency in the NFL, Athletes First, Dufour is living his dream. “I constantly collected stats and kept tabs on all my favorite players as a kid and now I get to do it as a job. I am living the dream because it does not seem like a job for me because it’s fun.”

Dufour did not obtain his dream job easily. Getting a position in a sports agency is known be difficult, but Dufour defied the odds. Dufour’s first step was to reach out to a family friend who was involved with the company. The family friend said that he could not help him get the job but he could put him down as a reference. With only a reference, 20-year-old Dufour was left to catch the eye of the top sports agency in the NFL on his own.

Dufour applied to be an intern for the agency for the summer of 2016. In his first interview he was asked broad questions, such as, “Why do you want the job?” As he advanced in the interviewing process, he was asked more pointed questions such as “Who is your favorite player and why, and what do they do on and off the field differently than other players?” and “If you were recruiting a college kid, what would be important attribute to look for in them?”

Dufour went through a series of six interviews. The company was hesitant to put him through the entirety of the interview process because, at only 20 years old, Dufour would be its youngest hire. The first four were over the phone and for the fifth, Athletes First flew him out to its office in Laguna Beach where he was questioned by five company executives.

Dufour was one of 10 prospects to make the final cut in the interview process. The final cut and hires were based off of a final marketing project that each potential intern submitted. This project was a true test of who would be the best for the job. In one page using no words, the interviewees had to market the company on a personal level to superstar quarterback for Clemson University, DeShaun Watson, who is a current client for Athletes First and is expected to be a first or second round pick for the NFL Draft this Thursday.

Dufour was hired as an intern for the summer of 2016. He had the summer of his life working for Athletes First not only because he got to do what he loved, but because he was also a part of a company that was like a family.

“Athletes First prides themselves in being heavily invested in their clients which includes helping them in family life. While most sports agencies only do contracts, and, what makes Athletes First so successful, is that they know each of their clients on a personal level and they know what makes them tick,” he said. He worked with some of the biggest names in the NFL. “Our clients, such as Aaron Rodgers, Steve Young and Von Miller — all players I grew up watching — were in the office space all the time,” he said.

“Although the people I worked with were celebrities to me and what I was doing was a dream, it was still a business and I had to treat it as such,” Dufour said. Overall, he said it was a big learning experience for him.

After college, Dufour plans to get his MBA and pursue becoming a certified sports agent with Athletes First. When asked to give one piece of advice to anyone pursuing a career in sports management, he simply said, “You just have to really want it.”