Schultz first met the Chicago Tribune correspondent, Richard Henry Little, at a party thrown in 1919 by a Jewish family she tutored for. “Dick” Little remembered attending a party in Chicago at the Schultz home, and quickly became acquainted with Sigrid.

When her hometown newspaper sought an interpreter fluent in both English and German to translate for Little, Schultz got the job. Known for his interviewing skills, Little taught Schultz how to make interviewees feel comfortable—using humor and social events to provide introductions and conversation. Even from a young age Schultz had been taught to rub shoulders with the elite as she traveled with her father on wealthy commissions in Europe; she capitalized on the additional methods Little taught her. “Let the facts speak for themselves,” was another lesson Schultz attributed to Little. 

The pair were a somewhat humorous sight, as Little reached the height of six foot six, while Schultz was barely five foot. This unusual duo took advantage of the situation during potentially uncooperative interviews; “they’d start laughing, and they’d start talking.”

Schultz rose through the ranks of the Berlin office, became the paper’s bureau chief for Central Europe in 1926—the first woman to hold that position for a major American news service.