Perseverance is no stranger to Chris Call—especially when outdoor pastimes are involved. The lessons Call learned from activities such as road cycling and skiing have helped him find his niche in the business world and reach out to his peers at the BYU Marriott School of Business.
Call has been a self-proclaimed avid outdoor recreationist since he was a kid growing up in Orem. One person who cultivated Call’s love for enjoying life out in nature was his uncle. Whatever Call’s uncle did, Call wanted to pursue the same hobbies. “I started road cycling because he road cycled,” says Call. “I started rock climbing because he rock climbed. I took hang gliding lessons and started paragliding because he was one of the pioneers of hang gliding in Utah. I ski because he skied. In many ways, I followed in his footsteps as much as I could.”
One of the biggest lessons Call learned from those experiences was the value of hard work and perseverance. Since a young age, Call has gained perseverance from participating in a variety of sports where he competed against athletes who were stronger than him in different ways. Call had to find ways to improve on skills his competitors had that he lacked. “I learned early on in life that there was likely always going to be someone more talented or skilled than me,” says Call.
While a student at BYU Marriott, Call knew he that he would have to figure out how to differentiate himself from the rest of the class, just like he had found other ways to outwork athletes in sports competitions. During this process of self-discovery, Call decided to develop a positive mindset and think to himself, “I may not be a top student academically, but I’m not going to let that stop me from having a successful career.”
Call knew he wasn’t going to be getting any awards for his classroom performance, but he worked hard to develop strong networking and leadership skills. Realizing that his strengths could contribute to the BYU Marriott community, Call became vice president and a founding member of BYU Marriott’s Corporate Finance Club. While leading the club, Call reached out to students who struggled finding their niche. He taught them how to network through LinkedIn, participate in job interviews, and write résumés and cover letters.
Through hard work and dedication, Call graduated in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in finance and now lives in Salt Lake City, where he works as a product manager at Facebook—a position typically not given to finance graduates. “I didn't follow the traditional path to product management,” says Call. “I was able to find a way to arrive where I’m at today by working with people, creating relationships, and understanding how processes and systems work within a business.” Call shares that much of the success he has achieved in his current position has come from his willingness to go above and beyond others’ expectations. He leveraged his “skills and strengths to perform in an unexpected way.”
Call is most proud of is his ability to help drive outsized impact and growth for each of the products he has worked on during his time at Facebook. Call says that the work he’s contributed on various projects has helped drive some of the largest growth for the Messenger, Stories, and Reels products. One project Call worked on helped Facebook achieve more than a one percent increase in the Stories feature’s top-line growth, an accomplishment Call takes particular pride in. Call hopes that his continued work on new Facebook products will help build stronger relationships and communities for those who use the company’s services. “I’m able to do something I love and make an impact on billions of people while working with some of the smartest people I know,” says Call. But for Call, self-improvement and achievement will always be a journey—one that has existed since he began road cycling and will continue at Facebook.
Whether he’s developing his character or a new feature for Facebook, quitting is not an option. “I’m never going to be someone who gives up and says, ‘I’m not good enough; I can’t do this,’” says Call. “I’m always going to find a way to succeed, even if it means creating a new way to succeed.”
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Writer: Rebecca Nissen
