What is your job/position?
I am a Communications Specialist at Southwest Airlines. My audience is our 10,000+ pilots, and my job is to strategically communicate company news, operational updates, and anything our pilots need to know to do their jobs well. We handle a dozen or so newsletters, produce videos and a podcast, do some basic graphic design, and host events.
Describe the path that took you from your American Studies degree to your current career or life situation.
I cultivated a professional relationship during my Washington Seminar internship that led to an internship with Sutherland Institute in Salt Lake City right after my graduation. While interning there, I met the opinion editor of Deseret News, and it so happened that he was hiring for an editorial assistant position. I had done a bit of essay/opinion writing while in school; in fact, I once took a paper I wrote for AM ST 304 and whittled it down to an op-ed that I shopped to Deseret News, which they published. I learned the opinion editor who published my op-ed was the same one now hiring for an open position. I reminded him of the piece I had written, and he was impressed enough with the writing that I eventually got the job. I spent four years at Deseret News working my way from editorial assistant to an assistant editor of the opinion section to a writer covering politics and the West. These turning points all share a thread: mentorship and networking (a word I abhor but which comes in handy). Being a hard worker, friendly, reliable, and eager to learn put me in positions to gain the trust of others who could open doors for me. Their friendship is invaluable. The next stop in my career—Southwest Airlines—was possible because of the foundation of writing, editing, and communicating that I had built. I had admired the culture of Southwest Airlines for some time and thought it would be a neat place to work. After following job alerts for nearly two years, something popped up one day that I was qualified for. I applied, and that's how I ended up where I am today.
What are the specific competencies you cultivated as an American Studies student that you now use in your professional life and that set you apart from your colleagues?
Research (even knowing how to use Google is something a lot of people don't get). Writing (I can't stress this enough. I am where am I am because I was forced to learn how to write). A holistic view of the American experience was invaluable while writing and editing for Deseret News. And all of those "soft skills" people talk about aren't overrated; they make a difference. An attitude at my current employer (a company of 70,000 people) is that it's easier to hire the right person and teach them the job than to hire a skilled candidate who is inarticulate or a jerk or whatever.
What are some of the surprising ways in which your American Studies degree has helped you in your professional or personal life?
Hardly surprising, but my American Studies degree has filled my life with a richness that I don't believe I would have received through another avenue. I love weaving art, history, literature, and politics in my personal conversations and in my work. It adds depth to whatever I'm doing.
What do you wish you had known as an American Studies student? What advice would you share with current students?
I wish I had set clearer career goals for myself. I loved the major and always told myself I would find something to do after graduation, but I could have been more deliberate about mapping out my plans. I'm grateful doors have opened for me, but as the scriptures remind me, "where there is no vision, the people perish."
*You can contact Christian with questions about his American Studies story at christian.sagers@gmail.com.