A degree in the social sciences provides students a valuable platform to enter private industry, open their own business, enter the non-profits sector, or work for the government in a variety of capacities. The skills that employers are really looking for, such as problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, an understanding of data, and effective communication are the foundation of a liberal arts degree. Think you need specific skills? Maybe, but anyone can teach you how to push a button. Knowing why you push that button and the implications of your actions are what employers want to see.

In that vein, here are profiles of alumni from several social science departments and programs at the U of O.

Kevin Barnett, 2010, BS Geography

Upon graduation, a random conversation with a friend turned me on to the local craft beer industry. After some failed attempts at homebrewing, I decided to pursue the emerging market in micro-distilleries—the next logical step in all things fermentation related. After some time contracting with another distillery and taking some business courses through RAIN (Regional Accelerator and Industry Network), I opened Swallowtail Spirits in 2014. I focus on using local ingredients and local partnerships to make small batches of his spirits, and he is working towards organic certification. I am also the vice president of the Oregon Distillers Guild, helping change state regulations around the enormous fees paid by distillers to the state for selling their spirits. Swallowtail is expanding its production globally and has earned several international awards. My connection to place and landscape continues to inspire his desire for local ingredients and production.

Born and raised in Eugene, and having recently graduated from the UO with a BA in Spanish and Geography, I knew it was time to get out. I absolutely loved college (staying up too late to study but still feeling unprepared, meeting new, exotic people [Californians], accidentally buying shrimp ramen when I wanted chicken…) and I was scared when that would be over and I would be asking myself, what was my next step? I didn’t want to stagnate after college; I wanted to give back. I almost felt selfish throughout college- everything I did was for my grade, my degree, my future. This realization helped me to find my next step: AmeriCorps’ NCCCAmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps is a full-time, residential, national service program. 2,000 young adults, all aged 18-24 years old, serve nationwide annually working on a variety of different six-to-twelve-week-long projects related to natural disasters, infrastructure improvement, environmental stewardship and conservation, energy conservation, and urban and rural development. As a Corps Member, I completed 10 months and 1,700 hours of service in the United States based out of the NCCC Southwest Region campus in Denver, CO. My team, “Alpine 2” worked near Divide, CO  (elev. 10,000, *gasping*) with Habitat for Humanity of Teller County for six weeks. We built two homes from the ground up for families in need and assisted in a series of neighborhood revitalization projects. I met so many wonderful people from all over the country, and everything I did was very hands-on, which was a wonderful change after college. It is fantastic to directly see the impact of my effort in the community and feel satisfied after a long day of work.

After this experience, I went to Portland and worked as a Monitoring Specialist for Clark Public Utilities and entered graduate school at Portland State. While there I became a Climate Change Resilience and Critical Services Mapping intern and am now working for the Urban Resilience to Extreme Sustainability Research Network.

Charlie Hockett, 2014, BS Geography

After I finished my degree, I took off on a bicycle trip from New York City to California. I used this opportunity to film a documentary called Westward Wheels, which is about us exploring how American cities can be more healthy, sustainable, and bike friendly. The inspiration I found from meeting bicycle advocates across the US led me to my current work at Cascade Bicycle Club in Seattle, the nation’s largest state-wide bicycle advocacy non-profit. Through what was, at the time, an unexpected turn of events I now run our partnership portfolio which includes national companies like Kaiser Permanente, Boeing, Microsoft, Alaska Airlines and Kind Bar. While it took a little time to learn the finer points of budget forecasting and contract negotiation I have found time and time again that I lean on skills developed by studying Geography. Whether it is making a presentation, writing, thinking from the perspective of a partner or understanding the connection between things like infrastructure improvements and youth health, the Geography program at the UO helped prepare me for a role that requires a wide range of skills.

Jordan Shimabaku, 2018, BS Economics

A couple of years ago, I happened to meet someone that used to work at Goldman-Sachs.  I asked him what he thought about the firm there now that he’d left. He said that at Goldman-Sachs, he was surrounded by some of the most hardest working and smartest people that he’d ever met. When I later interviewed with Goldman-Sachs, I was asked why I wanted to work for their firm. I told them about this story and told them that “I can’t control if I’m the smartest person in the room. I can’t control how I smart I am. But, I can control how hard I work and I want to be surrounded by people who also push themselves.”

I think that’s what they were looking for. The role is pretty technical but they didn’t ask me any technical questions. They just wanted to see if I was teachable and I had the right attitude. The firm is pretty known, as is the industry, for really long hours and a lot of stress. I feel that they were trying to gauge that. There are plenty of smart people. Not a lot of people want to work over 80 hours a week or up to 100 in certain cases. I feel like that’s what they were trying to get at and that was what I was trying to convey.  I might not be smarter than the other people they have in the office, or as smart as them, but, I’m willing to work really hard to get to that level and even work harder than that to advance and excel.

Zack Snyder, 2014, BS Economics

I studied Economics and Mathematics during my time at the UO. As graduation approached, I began applying to finance-related positions, primarily in the Portland area, and eventually landed an offer at Genesis Financial Solutions. I started working at Genesis in August of 2014. During my time at Genesis, I taught myself how to write code for software engineering and development. Once I realized engineering was my true passion, I left Genesis and moved to San Francisco this past summer. Just this week I finished a 3-month intensive software engineering boot camp called Hack Reactor. They offered me a fellowship-type role, which helped me eventually land my current job as a software engineer at Twitter.

In my experience, employers are looking for technically sound individuals that can
communicate effectively and be successful in a professional working environment. As vague as that sounds, I believe it to be true. Employers are looking for individuals
that will seek knowledge for themselves when they encounter a problem and for individuals that realize they need to be an asset to the company and not simply learn new skills.