Careers

What kind of career can you get with language skills? As the alumni profiles below demonstrate, language study can take you just about anywhere! And where are our other graduates? Click here to find out more.

Financial Analyst, Amazon

Ian Schneider

Ian Schneider, '15

Majored in: German, Economics  Minored in: Business Administration
Language: German

While at UO working on his Economics, German Studies and Business Administration degrees, Ian secured an internship at Amazon as a financial analyst. His studies and internship led to a job there upon graduation, and he's had the opportunity to work across the accounting and finance organizations within the company. He currently works as a financial analyst II for the Alexa Shopping team, helping launch new voice products and features for Alexa. Throughout his career, Ian found that the ability to speak the language of the largest foreign markets for a large global company to be a great asset. While at UO, he was a part of Alpha Kappa Psi, the largest co-ed business fraternity, and Delta Phi Alpha, the National German Honor Society. In addition to studying German at the UO, Ian also studied at the Economics and German Studies Institutes at the University of Heidelberg. 

Head Writer, Arcad Software

Carlie Rames

Carlie Rames, '09

Majored in: German, French   Minored in: Business, Italian
Languages: German, French, Italian 

Working for a global software company in the Alps region of France, Carlie manages a team of four technical writers, three of whom work at the headquarters in France and one in a branch office in India. She also works with the company’s software developers in research and development, helping ensure that the visual presentation of the software is coherent and user-friendly. She began working at Arcad as a translator of software manuals and documentation from French into English.

Quality Assurance Engineer, Indeed.com

Christopher Kuzma

Christopher Kuzma, '12

Majored in: German
Language: German 

Christopher ended up pursuing a German Studies degree after first starting his UO career as an Accounting major. After using some extra credits to take German, he discovered his love for the language and dropped his business major in order to go work abroad in Germany. Since then, Christopher has had a varied career in technology. After graduating from UO, he earned a master's degree in Computational Linguistics from Indiana University and secured an internship at IBM. This led to a full-time job at the tech giant for a few years, then a role at Amazon working on the Alexa team, and now a position as a quality assurance engineer at Indeed.com. While at UO, he was a part of Delta Phi Alpha, the National German Honor Society.

Risk Analyst, LegitScript

Grant Barba

Grant Barba, '11

Majored in: German, Political Science   Minored in: European Studies 
Language: German

Grant chose to major in German at UO on a sort of whim, without anticipating it to lead to five years of international work. During his early career, he worked primarily in the education sector, including jobs at the Spanish Ministry of Education and the Portland Montessori School. He moved on to apply his German and Political Science degrees at the German Institute of Global Area Studies, before landing at LegitScript where he analyzes emerging trends in e-commerce risk and detects transaction laundering threats. Several years ago, Grant received his master's degree in Politics, Economics, and Philosophy at the University of Hamburg on a DAAD Graduate Scholarship

Study Abroad Director, University of Arizona

Harmony DeFazio

Harmony DeFazio Davies ’99

Majored in: German   Minored in: Italian
Languages: German, Italian

When she was a UO undergraduate, Harmony studied abroad in both Germany and Italy and traveled extensively throughout Europe. Now she helps students pursue the same life-changing experiences, as director of the study abroad program at University of Arizona. Harmony also has a master’s degree from the UO in public policy.