My FUTURE NOW Experience: More Than a Media Tour—A Glimpse Into My Future

It was my first time at the FUTURE NOW Media and Entertainment Conference, and I didn’t know what to expect. The promise of industry leaders at my fingertips felt almost too good to be true. I was pleasantly surprised, however, to find that promise come to life: these mentors, firmly established in their careers, with jobs and kids and many other things to worry about, were conscientious and invested in all of us students, and took the time to share a great deal about their own experiences with us to help guide us. 

I was impressed by the diversity of mentors and conference attendees, and I learned a great deal over the three days. As a student at a liberal arts college, I had never met anyone with multiple pre-professional majors like business, marketing, or advertising, and I was quite inspired by the clarity my peers had about their career paths. Every mentor I met at the conference was eager to impart wisdom and discover more about my interests. I was touched by their thoughtful and engaged energy, even after a long day of networking with students. 

My favorite part of the conference was discovering how different people found their path to the media industry. After speaking with so many people with pre-professional majors, I had become convinced that my prospective major of sociology was impractical for the media careers represented at the conference. That is, until I went on the media tour at Google and spoke to someone who had two degrees in sociology.

I was pleased to see that the analytical lenses of the discipline could be applied to jobs like his, analyzing Google’s data to improve the experiences of the users of tech and entertainment services. It was inspiring to hear him share about how the tech industry is building anti-racist systems.

I think it’s difficult to comprehend what the day-to-day of many jobs looks like — especially those in the media and entertainment industry. That’s why I valued my media tours so much: they allowed me to understand what a job at Good Morning America or Google would feel like. 

Our host at Google, Jane Park, invited us to eat lunch in their cafeteria before our tour and panel, and it was a highlight of the trip to get our complimentary drinks and food and see employees chatting next to us at the long wooden tables. The cafeteria was incredibly crowded, which Park said is the norm, and it was nice to see how welcoming and social the work environment was. 

It was also incredibly fun to see the people behind a product I consume in my day-to-day life, like the fact that the guy managing the Good Morning America set has a New York accent (shout out to Eddie Luisi!).