I work in the technology and product development division at The New York Times. We build the entire digital experience and the content management tools that the newsroom uses. I’m the senior product manager for the story team, and my scope is user experience. My team ensures that every article maintains the premium New York Times feel and offers a reader experience that matches the quality of the journalism.

I know people don’t encourage majors like English now—it wasn’t too different when I went to college—but at a school like Penn, you absolutely have to study what you care about and what makes you happy.

Part of being a product manager is knowing how to speak the language. Talking to a group of engineers is totally different than talking to a room of reporters, a room of editors. You have to put on different hats constantly to understand how to talk about something to the newsroom and then translate that to the engineers who need to code it. That being said, we’re one company. The culture is not intimidating. It’s not cliquey. Everyone respects and appreciates each other. I love talking about writing, so it’s amazing that’s the nature of the company.

At Penn I was an English major. I worked at the Kelly Writers House. I took a bunch of classes in the Kelly Writers House and was taught by amazing professors. The conversations that we had around writing and reading in my classes, and the writing that I did myself—they helped me to officially see myself as a writer. Friends who went to other colleges didn’t get to do the types of projects that I got to do at Penn. They didn’t get to meet the types of writers and people who I got to meet. It provided me with actual skills that make me confident in the caliber of my writing.

I know people don’t encourage majors like English now—it wasn’t too different when I went to college—but at a school like Penn, you absolutely have to study what you care about and what makes you happy. Doing that makes the experience more magical, meaningful, and manageable. And it will pay off. There’s nothing about an English major that says you can get a job in tech, but I did. If you study what you feel passionate about, you’ll be excited, you’ll be able to sell your skills and yourself. — March 9, 2024 • Photo by Brooke Sietinsons