What Can FSU Do For You? An Interview with Cheyenne Egstad, History Career Liaison, on Success and the Career Center

Florida State University offers a variety of resources to ensure its students’ success whichever career path they pursue in order to promote the ideas of lifelong learning, personal responsibility, and sustained achievement that are critical to its mission statement. One person behind the efforts to bring these resources to Florida State students — specifically those with an interest in the humanities — is the History Career Liaison, Cheyenne Egstad.

Prior to becoming a career liaison for the Department of History, Egstad worked at Florida State University as an adjunct professor for the Japanese language program for a few years after graduating from the university in 2021 with her master’s degree. She found the opportunity to become a career liaison when she set out looking for a non-teaching job in a university environment. “I wanted to do something different,” Egstad says. “I love this age group, I love all the things that universities do, and I love the aesthetic of academia, but I didn’t necessarily want to be a teacher.” The position of career liaison seemed like the perfect fit — “It was very similar to what I enjoyed about teaching: watching students grow and develop skills and helping them along that journey.” The one-on-one connection with students, and the variety in her daily life drew her to apply for the job.

While not a professor in the classroom, Egstad still uses the skills she learned previously to help her help others succeed. Public speaking is one skill that plays a major role in her daily work life. “I often do workshops or host panels, or go into classrooms and give presentations,” she explains. She must be able to convey information in a way that is understandable by her audience so that they can get the most out of her work. She also uses her previous knowledge to break down information for students, go over certain concepts step-by-step for them so they gain a better grasp on ideas and life skills, such as resume writing. Additionally, Egstad mentions, “my understanding of the university and the different levels there are, between faculty, adjuncts, TAs, and GAs, helps a lot with knowing who to reach out to and contact when I need to get things done."

Her position as a career liaison covers a lot of ground. Specifically, she works with students who are majoring in the humanities within the College of Arts and Sciences — like the Departments of Religion, History, English, Modern Languages and Linguistics, and more — on both the undergraduate and graduate level. But Egstad’s daily tasks don’t only involve helping students: “I work with faculty and staff members in those departments to collaborate on programming, set up events, and get the word out to the students about them.” To organize these events, Egstad works with alumni, employers, friends of the university, and people interested in mentorship to get them connected to Florida State students. She elaborates: “Just recently we put together a publishing panel for students who are interested in getting into the publishing industry of mostly FSU alumni.”

To help History majors specifically, Egstad is currently working on expanding students’ understandings of the non-academic careers they can pursue after graduation. To do this, she connects students with alumni who are doing work outside of the classroom. From her experiences, she knows that a large number of students are interested in going to graduate school or law school after completing their undergraduate degree and wants to ensure she is able to help all the different populations of history students. Because of this demographic, she has also finished her training to become a pre-law advisor. Her position also provides her insight into what history students can do on their own to ensure their success. “Be doing things,” she advises. “Join clubs, join student organizations, do volunteer work, don’t be afraid to go for UROP or do undergraduate research, get an internship or a job if you have the time. You don’t have to do something super related to your future career right now, but making the most of your time in undergrad will benefit you in a myriad of ways.”

Another important aspect of success for students is knowing the resources available to them. Egstad explains a few that are offered by the career center. One is the “Mentor FSU platform,” which allows students to create a profile as a mentee and get connected to FSU alumni, employers, people who want to mentor students.” The platform can be used to search for either long-term mentorship opportunities, or one-time informational interviews to learn more about jobs or skills needed in different career fields. Two more resources she brings light to are the career fairs and the professional clothing closet, which provides free professional clothing items to FSU students for job interviews, internships, or other career-furthering opportunities.

To further explore FSU’s career services you can visit the Dunlap Student Success Center, or humanities students can contact Cheyenne Egstad to set up an appointment with her.