There are no trains, and there are no stations.
That was the central message Andrew McGill delivered to Collegian students this October as he led a roundtable discussion about career paths and outlined the various steps he took from Collegian managing editor in 2010 to owner of his own consulting and software development company in 2024.
As McGill retraced the various steps he took between those two points in time, he illustrated the concurrent shifts in the media landscape that also contributed to his non-traditional path to success.
As he set out to pursue the career he envisioned – writer of long-form journalism at a big-city daily newspaper – McGill encountered a mentor who delivered to him the “no trains, no stations” advice, a lesson he took to heart, realizing that he could break the mold he had in his mind for so long.
“So much was changing,” said McGill, who ultimately found his niche in online, computer-assisted and interactive news, and now owns and operates The Andrew McGill Co. “The economics of media have shifted so much.”
That ever-changing landscape may be scary for soon-to-be graduates, but it also provides a wealth of opportunities for new entries into the business to create their own paths, just as he did, McGill said.
“If you graduate and you take a job at a news organization, it is not like a vow,” McGill said. “You’re not locked in. There is room to do something different.”
To view McGill’s discussion click below:
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The AIG’s next roundtable discussion, with 1992 graduate Kevin Naff, will take place at 6 p.m. on Nov. 14, on the topic of finding new models of operation and new funding streams in a shifting advertising landscape. For a link to the Zoom meeting, send an email to [email protected].
