CEO of Discovery shares his path to his dream job

By John Bartlett 03/05/15 12:39am

Not every graduate has the courage to leave a set career path for a chance at a dream job.

Discovery Channel President and 1983 College graduate Rich Ross spoke in the Hall of Flags on Wednesday, using the tale of his own curriculum vitae in an effort to inspire interested students to pursue their passions in arts and entertainment. This discussion was only a small part of the annual trip Ross makes to his alma mater, joining a meeting with the career planning office and a lunch with passionate undergrads among other things in a trip he has now been making for 28 years.

Ross discussed how, surrounded by the pragmatic environment of Penn, many students often feel pressured to go into banking or law to be more financially secure than they might be in a career they're actually interested in. Ross himself was a law student in college, but as soon as he passed the bar he vowed to himself that he would never work in law, instead choosing to follow his interests in TV production.

"I want to inspire students to dream," Ross said, "and if they want to be storytellers or part of something interesting that they explore that and they aspire to that and they do something about it."

Oftentimes in his career, already settled into fairly secure jobs at prestigious companies such as Disney and FX Networks, Ross hesitated when offered the chance to relocate and do something new. In 2009, for example, he was offered the chance to switch from the world of television shows which he had come to know well to become Chairman of Walt Disney Studios, a position which would involve the overseeing of moviemaking for the company. He had never made a movie before, but the idea of passing up a "dream job" level position such as this wouldn't let him say no.

Though he often had no experience at these new "dream jobs" being offered to him, Ross said, he couldn't miss the chance to try something new, to evaluate it and see if it was something he wanted to continue to do with his career.

This was a lesson he stressed to the young crowd before him, in year number 28 of a campaign for creativity and relentless dream-chasing. "I come every year with the hope that more and more kids do [pursue dream jobs] and find that more and more students have," Ross said, "so I haven't stopped coming."

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