Ben Durham

CSN 220
Informational Interview:
Julie Muggli:
Senior Manager, Labor Economics at United Airlines | Chicago Booth MBA Candidate
United Airlines
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Chicago, Illinois

For my second informational interview I reached out to Julie Muggli who received her
B.S. in mathematical economics from Wake Forest in 2010. Julie currently works in labor
economics for United Airlines, specifically in their labor relations department. Most of her time is
spent working with unions the company employees are members of as 80% of their workforce are
represented by a worker union. Her job involves validating union contracts by approximating to a
value what the contracts being passed by the unions are costing the company. However, it is
ultimately up to the employees working for United to ratify any new contracts. Part of this job
involves the important process of comparing wages to that of other competitor companies. Julie
had to ensure that United was industry leading in paying wages and also makes sure wages are
paid. Although we didnt get into too many of the specifics, her job requires a lot of analysis and
financial comparisons. On a daily basis she is pulling various sources for data to answer cost-
minimization questions and to maximize efficiency. The actual job functions changes day to day
as it depends on whatever problems come up during that day aside from the long term tasks at
hand. Julie mentioned that to no avail whatever problem that may pop up, it always requires
constant problem solving. Her favorite part of her job or the part that gives her meaning is the
ability it had in enlightening her to the human resources area. As an undergraduate and early into
her professional career she was taught and learned only about the numbers side of economics/
financial analysis, and not the human side to it. United opened her mind up to the skills she
needed to have in order to communicate and negotiate with people based on the needs of both
parties and the statistical analytics to backup her claims/ proposed ideas. She said, negotiations
are very interesting to take part in as you need to fully understand the objectives of the other side
first. Understanding what makes people tick and seeing how people think through the patterns
they create is another aspect that makes her job so interesting for her. Her least favorite part of the
job is the constant problem solving, as it makes for a very unpredictable environment. Stressful
environment. She also said that being tasked with trying to create a solution to problems that
seem impossible to solve can also make for difficult days in the office. In terms of industry
mobility she said that recently everything has been going much faster. Going from an analyst and
IT for two years to a manager position in one year. Her work environment seemed quite
traditional as she works in an office in a tower in Chicago that is open structure and very
interactive. On days when she represents United to worker unions she either wears business
formal or business casual depending on the union and how many employees the union represents.
I asked her to compare which work environment she prefered more, the government job or the job
at United. She said she prefers working for United because while she was working for the
government she worked from home and found it challenging to keep motivated while working
from home everyday. However her job at United requires a lot of travel. She travels every other
week! Hours can be somewhat flexible but she said generally people come in at 8:30am and the
first people to leave leave at 5pm.
Before working for United Airlines Julie was hired by the GSA (Government Services
Administration). She worked there for three years and six months as a Financial Management
Specialist for two years and then as a Senior Data Analyst for one year and six months. Julie told
me she went into the federal agency and worked in a general rotation program as a financial
specialist. However, to my surprise she said she wouldnt do it again because of how dry and
basic the work and work environment she was in and working on was. She reflected on it as still a
good experience because after working for the government she went to United and worked as the
IT. She also worked on vendor management, which is a very technical role. This gave her the
opportunity to work in labor relations at United which she enjoys much more although originally
starting out in strictly financial analysis.
In terms of preparation for her professional career Julie mentioned that as an
undergraduate she seeked internships that were relevant to her desired job that also aligned with
her major. She found jobs in her hometown but none that were relevant enough to her desired
path. She also mentioned and advised that some companies have rotation programs for
undergrads, but theyre slowly becoming not as prevalent as companies are moving away from
them; but to do them because it's very good for experience and networking. In addition she said to
focus on skills that differentiate me from other candidates. General skills that are transferable to a
lot of different jobs. As an example she said that for analytical skill gaining in marketing there are
certificate programs to show extra know how that separates me from other candidates.
Overall I found Julie an excellent source of new information and also a fantastic person
to know in the field of financial analysis. I definitely gained interest in human resources as I
never before realized how a math major like Mathematical Economics could produce an effect
HR manager. I like the business side of her job but more importantly the human interaction
aspect. Negotiating and representing a company sounds although busy and stressful, extremely
experiential. I think Julie and I have a list of similar interest from an academic standpoint (both
being economics majors) and also have skills in the social interaction/ effective communication
area that both of us use to our advantage. I would like to do a job shadow and see what a day is
actually like at her job. My next step will be seeking opportunities to attend one of these
programs to help me gain additional hard skills necessary to make me a competitive applicant