Under the flight path: Childhood fascination becomes internship success for rising selling and sales management senior

Written By: Rebecca Hoffa, rhoffa@purdue.edu

James “JT” Odom’s connection with FedEx came early in life growing up near the company’s headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee, while his father, Barry Odom, served as defensive coordinator for the University of Memphis Tigers football team. An intern at the multinational shipping conglomerate during summer 2026, Odom has found himself back in the city — this time, honing the skills he’s learned as a selling and sales management major in Purdue University’s White Lodging-J.W. Marriott, Jr. School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (HTM).

“The Memphis Airport becomes the busiest airport in the world for a brief period in the morning when all of the FedEx aircraft from around the world land at our sorting center at the Memphis Airport,” Odom said. “Our house, when we lived in Memphis, just so happened to be right under the approach path that planes were coming in. I would hear these enormous planes fly over, and it really got me interested in aviation, logistics and technology. FedEx built itself as a brand in my mind.”

Odom’s internship in human resources information systems focuses on optimizing the experiences of FedEx employees throughout the country, ensuring they have what they need to do their best work. While Odom is an on-site intern this summer, he also experienced a virtual internship with the company in summer 2025.

“FedEx has a workforce of over half a million employees,” Odom said. “When you have an organization that size, you have to manage your human capital in an extremely tidy way. Every day at FedEx, I am communicating between our business partners and the human resources technology team to find solutions to ongoing problems in managing our workforce. It is really fulfilling work because I feel like I’m making a difference in people’s lives at FedEx.”

For Odom, who began his higher education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) before transferring alongside his father when he became Purdue’s head football coach in December 2024, Purdue’s selling and sales management degree stood out because it balanced the hospitality industry in which he’d been immersed in Las Vegas while focusing on communications and business knowledge. He noted the skills he’s learned have been extremely valuable at FedEx.

“Selling and sales management has really taught me how to communicate my ideas in a very convincing and effective way,” Odom said. “A lot of people may look at my position and then look at my major and wonder what the correlation is, and it all comes down to communication and selling ideas. I’m talking to the business side of FedEx as well as the technical side, and it takes a level of understanding on what the needs are of both sides. I’ve used frameworks that Purdue teaches as well as experiences I’ve gained from role plays to be an extremely effective internal salesperson at FedEx — selling new products, selling solutions to problems and selling discovered issues to be solved by our human resources technology team.”

Odom, who was recognized as HTM’s Outstanding Junior in the spring, has an extensive history of hospitality- and sales-focused internships. In Las Vegas, Odom interned at a variety of casinos and hospitality groups, which alongside West Lafayette’s slower pace and Purdue’s reputation of academic prestige, made his decision to transfer to Purdue HTM even easier.

“Those internships were so cool to be able to see that side of casinos and the science behind keeping people entertained and happy in a hospitality environment,” Odom said. “That obviously transferred well into HTM. Those internships make people’s eyes pop because they offer a really unique perspective on something that’s extremely mystified.”

In addition to excelling in HTM, Odom also has a deeper relationship with the university through his father’s coaching gig and his brother Garyt’s role as a Purdue quarterback.

“It really is an enormous blessing because I get to see the student side but also the side where it’s a part of your life,” Odom said. “We’re a Big Ten school, and athletics are an enormous part of our institution, but it’s so cool to just go up to the football complex during the day and visit with him and see how the football team is doing. I’m spoiled with an up-close-and-personal look.

“I played football for two years at UNLV as a linebacker, and then before that, I played all throughout high school and middle school, so football holds a near-and-dear place in my heart. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for the game of football.”

As Odom prepares to enter his senior year in the College of Health and Human Sciences, he’s bringing back a wealth of knowledge and experiences from this summer’s internship experience.

“FedEx has broadened my horizons on what selling and sales could be,” Odom said. “Selling and sales is an excellent major for overall communication of ideas. I think what FedEx has done is allow me to see that selling and sales is applicable in all areas of business. I think with that new mindset and that new attitude towards selling and sales, I’ll be able to better apply myself to my major and better apply the major to myself.”