"I use data to tell stories. This often requires looking outside the box, thinking critically about the subject matter at hand, and exercising a lot of creativity to shape points of data into a compelling narrative."
When did you graduate from BYU?
BA English 2017
What is your job/position? And how would you describe what you do in that job/position?
Client manager for NielsenIQ, a global market research firm that measures what people buy in grocery stores. We use that data to tell stories that our clients use to make critical business decisions.
Describe the path that you took from your BYU English degree to your current career, highlighting the important realizations and turning points that paved the path for you.
I decided to take a marketing class after a suggestion from a friend and ultimately added a business minor (global business and literacy). I had a few market research and brand management internships before I graduated. This gave me confidence to speak to the requisite experience my company was looking for.
What are the specific skills that you cultivated as an English major that you now use in your professional life? And how do you use those skills in ways that set you apart from your colleagues?
As I mentioned, I use data to tell stories. This often requires looking outside the box, thinking critically about the subject matter at hand, and exercising a lot of creativity to shape points of data into a compelling narrative. I find that my peers from business backgrounds are often good at replicating a good business process or project, but they are not always good at coming up with a new, creative one. The outcome of this difference evolved into me receiving all the ambiguous and challenging business questions that no one has a sure hypothesis about. I get to live in a creative sandbox all day to search for and create answers to their questions.
What are some of the surprising ways in which your English degree helped you in your life?
It’s given me tools for how to tackle the ambiguity present all around us. Life is rarely binary; decisions involving people are never black and white. Knowing how to think, and not just what to think, is the most critical skill I learned.
What do you wish you had known as an English major? Is there any advice you’d like to share with current students?
Explore your passion beyond English as a major if you don’t see yourself in the primary pipeline in academia, education, writing, or editing your whole career. Our skills are very marketable, especially paired with relevant experience. Getting an internship under your belt will help you to speak with credibility that you know what you want to do and have the skills to do it.
Contact
rweller486@gmail.com