Scott Landis

Scott Landis, a native of Australia, moved to the United States in his early 20s and attended BYU-Idaho, where he graduated in communication focusing on organizational communication. Years earlier, Landis, a business management major, realized he wasn’t on the path he wanted to be on.

He began looking into other majors and found that communication offered more classes that were suited to what he was looking for. He didn’t view himself necessarily as a photographer, journalist or even Web designer, but liked that communication offered courses that pertained to real life, many within organizational communication.

Ultimately, Landis knew he liked the classes offered through communication and really liked the people side of it, but he couldn’t exactly put a finger on what he saw himself doing with a communication degree. He says that he experienced a “stupor of thought” (Doctrine & Covenants 9:9) through not being able to pinpoint what he wanted to do within communication and attributes that experience to leading him to where he needed to be, human resources.

Landis stresses that if you are on a path that it isn’t necessarily what you are looking for, there is a way to get it. “What do I enjoy doing, how can I tie that into the business world, and what courses can I take to help me get to that point?” Landis suggests to ask yourself.

Building and expanding skillsets is something Landis recommends. He said that once he found out what he wanted to do, he wished he would of gotten the experience within that field while still in school.

Landis had the opportunity to work in an HR department in Rexburg, but this position offered him would have meant giving up  management position at another organization, so he didn’t take it.

He says he wishes he would of taken a part-time job and made a little less money than what he was making in his management position at Broulims and then taken the HR job.

“Sometimes you just have to do something because it is going to pay off in the long run,” Landis said. “Short-term loss for a long-term gain.”

Landis says that employers look at the experience you have. He says that he, in particular, doesn’t necessarily chase a 4.0 GPA but seeks someone who is both book- and street smart.

He says that he is looking for a 3.5 person, not a someone who isn’t doing anything, but the someone who also has the social aspect of being smart.

On top of that, Landis says he wants someone who has a “can do” attitude. He stresses the importance of a person being able to assess what needs to be done, figuring out how to do it, then getting it done.

This “can do” attitude is what has carried Landis throughout his career, he said. He said that he is always going to look for the opportunity and fight for it. This led him to graduate school at Utah State University.

From there he joined the Rio Tinto global mining company, where he took an entry-level HR position. He was with that organization for a year and a half and then took a position with Pepsi, which offered him a job as a senior HR representative. He has since taken promotions with the company.

Landis said that in order to be recognized by Pepsi, he just worked hard. “If you say you are going to work hard, then do it,” said Landis, and that is what he has done.

Although he now holds a senior position at Pepsi, he says there is always more to learn.

He gives BYU-I students two pieces of advice: be real/be yourself and take advantage of BYU-Idaho.

“A lot of people are chameleons, but you have to be yourself,” he said. “Be genuine. Be a person that people can trust and rely on.”