Ask an Alum: Alex Scoggins ’14 on Making Pivots, Combining Passions

Ahead of this year's SAAS in the City on April 25, we catch up with our alumni panelists, who will share more about their journeys at the event. Learn more about SAAS in the City and get your tickets here. 

Don’t be afraid to change directions. That’s Seattle Academy alum Alex Scoggins’ advice, and a lesson that led him to a career sweet spot: combining his enthusiasm for people and data as a relationship manager at the Seattle financial firm Pugh Capital. 

As a SAAS student, for example, numbers weren't Alex's strongest suit, but after college, he took an internship at a finance firm. “Now I love finance and numbers, and I have a master's in Business Analytics,” he said. During his undergrad, he started at California Lutheran University sure he would go to law school but then switched tracks to marketing, since he loved interacting with people. That willingness to pivot has served him well. 

“You never really figure out who you are or what you love or what you love to do, until you start trying multiple things to get to that point,” Alex said. Luckily, SAAS “gets you comfortable being uncomfortable in different spaces and trying new things.” 

Ahead of this year’s SAAS in the City, where Alex will be one of our featured alumni speakers, we chatted with him about life at and after SAAS. 

How did your experience at SAAS prepare you for your college experiences and the next career steps you took? 

SAAS taught me a lot of fundamental skills that I realized not a lot of other high schools teach their students—for example, presentation skills, public speaking skills, communication skills, how to write an essay, research skills. A lot of people coming into college don't have all those skills.

SAAS also got me comfortable being on a stage—presenting, speaking, singing, dancing. Now I'm in a role where I present to clients, prospects, consultants, people in boardrooms. I feel so comfortable doing it because I started so much earlier on. 

Were there any adults at SAAS that made a big difference in your life? 

Megan McCall and Sarah Smith both had really big impacts on me. When I was at SAAS, I probably wasn't the strongest student. I had a lot of learning struggles. Those two were both Study Skills teachers at the time, so they helped me out with homework, planning out my week, giving me tips to study, and helping me understand what teachers are asking for in essays. They were really patient and very, very fundamental in not only how I passed SAAS, period, but also how I understood myself as a student. They gave me the skill sets to become the most successful student possible. Anytime we see each other, we get the biggest grins. They're just such great people and they really contributed to me being as successful as I am now.

After studying marketing at California Lutheran University, where did your career take you next? What have been some of the highlights? 

After I got my undergrad in marketing, I had an internship at the company I'm at now, Pugh Capital. My summer internship was in the marketing department, planning the company's 25th anniversary celebration. 

I got to work with a lot of our clients, as well as with some of our other stakeholders and shareholders, and I really loved the environment. It's a really diverse firm, and everyone was so willing to teach me new things. They gave me a job offer right out of college, and I was very quick to take it. 

I knew I wanted to go back to school and get my master's, but I wanted to give it some time so I could have a better understanding of what I wanted to do. So I worked for two years, thinking to myself, if I were to ever leave the job I'm at, what would be a degree that could benefit me across industries? 

Then I learned about Business Analytics, and I was like, that sounds like a pretty cool degree—coding, economics, finance. A lot of really great skills. So I entered the program at Seattle University, and I loved it. 

How is Business Analytics different from a typical business degree? 

There are a lot of components that go into it. There's econ, finance and investments, data visualization, data analytics, and machine learning. The degree teaches you how to take a lot of data and either make it a visualization or communicate it in a story. How do you turn it into something actionable? How do you explain it to someone so it makes sense? 

Can you tell me more about your current role, and how it connects with your degree? 

My main role is relationship management—so I’m responsible for some client relations, as well as some business development and prospecting. That’s probably where I spend 75-80% of my time. The rest of the time I'm doing data projects, which is how I utilize my master's. It worked out perfectly. 

How do you feel about participating in SAAS in the City this year? What does it mean to you?

I really appreciate being asked to come do this—it's a fantastic opportunity. I really love being able to share whatever wisdom or experience I have that can be the most beneficial to others.