Now as a graduate, the communication major is making his way in Madison, Wis., as he begins his career at Epic Systems, a health IT company that’s changing the way the world manages health records.
Quinn Anderson ’16, Litchfield, Minn.
Major: Communication
You began your college career at another school. Why did you decide to transfer to Concordia?
I transferred for a variety of reasons, but one of the biggest ones was that I felt lost at a large public school. With many classes of 300+ students, it was challenging to build relationships with my peers and my professors. This lack of a sense of community made it difficult to get involved on campus and, after a high school career where I was heavily involved, it was not an easy transition.
What advice would you give a prospective student?
My advice would be threefold.
1. Be intentional about seeking out and utilizing on-campus resources like the Career Center, your advisor, etc.
2. Get involved. This doesn’t mean you need to be class president or devote huge percentages of your time to groups or clubs, but by getting involved you get to learn about your campus as well as meet people with similar interests (even if it’s just the monthly donut club).
3. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. There seems to be an immense pressure not to ever fail, and the opposite should be true. Try new things you might not be good at, make mistakes and learn from them, embrace the occasional failure because it’s the only way you’ll grow.
Did you have any internships during college?
Following my senior year, I was an intern with the local independent professional baseball team, the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks. This opportunity came to be for two reasons: The first is that I was provided encouragement and transportation to attend a career fair at the Fargodome by the Concordia Career Center. The second is that a fellow Cobber and friend, Liz Knisley '16, gave a good word to the supervisor at the RedHawks as she had interned there the previous summer. Before attending Concordia, I had heard of the strong networking between current students and graduates, but it was awesome to see this play out in my own life!
How did the Concordia Career Center help you in your job search?
The Career Center was a crucial resource for me in my search for both my internship and my full-time job. When I came to Concordia, I was an exercise science major and when I left I had a degree in communication. Nonetheless, I didn’t have much of an idea of what I wanted to do post-college. The Career Center welcomed me with open arms and helped me look for opportunities even when we didn’t know what we were looking for. They helped me , revise and re-revise my application materials. The Career Center provided mock interviews to develop those skills and was just support throughout it all. They provided me with alumni contacts that I was able to network with and ask questions to, which is how I found a job opening at Epic, where I am now employed.
What is your new position at Epic? What and where is Epic?
My role is a project manager, where I get to collaborate with colleagues and have interaction and form relationships with customers as well. Epic is a healthcare software system located in Verona, Wis., that provides software for hospitals around the world.
Published January 2017