By Shelby Storm, Schieffer Associates 2024
Joel Anderson ’00
Joel Anderson is a writer and podcaster who lives in the Bay Area of California. He graduated from Texas Christian University in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree journalism. Since then, he has had a fast-growing career working for The Associated Press, Shreveport Times, Tampa Bay Times, BuzzFeed, ESPN, Slate, and The Ringer. From working at these companies, Anderson has learned much about journalism and shares how he got to where he is today.
Tell me about yourself. What is your background? What brought you to TCU?
I am originally from Houston. My parents are both from Arkansas. They were both college-educated and wanted me to get a good education, whereas I thought I was picking college for football. They were most excited about TCU as it was close to home, it had an accredited journalism program and was just a protective bubble. It was a safe, comfortable environment for them.
Picking college back in the day was a very different thing. I didn’t spend much time thinking about it until it was really upon me. They helped point me toward the schools they thought would be best for me. When I went on campus at TCU, I thought it was pretty, and I thought it was not too far from home. I had family in the D-FW area, and I thought to myself, I could make four years work here.
What did your career path look like after graduation?
I worked at The Daily Skiff, covering the football team, being a sports editor, an opinion editor, and then worked my way up to editor-in-chief. Because of that, I got the opportunity to intern at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Then, my last two summers in college, I interned at the Associated Press.
It used to be that if you completed your internship at the Associated Press in good standing, they would hire you. I know that sounds crazy now that an internship would lead directly to a job, but that was one of the reasons I took that internship and stayed in it. I had one more semester of college to finish, and that’s when the summer I was editor-in-chief.
As soon as I finished my internship in the summer 2000, I started working full-time at the Associated Press main bureau in Dallas a month after graduating. It was a comfortable adjustment for somebody like me who had just not been to many places and had yet to see much of the world. It was just, again, a very comfortable environment for me.
What at TCU made you feel the most prepared for your career?
We had a strong journalism program, and I got to do a little of everything. In addition to the journalism program, working at the Skiff was important because you got to do some of everything right there. Whereas, at the Daily Texan, so many people are trying to get so few positions in the newspaper. At The Skiff, they need to get everybody that can pitch in.
This allowed me to do many different things and get a semi-professional experience. It also put me in touch with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram because they were looking for people.
By the time I had graduated, I had a lot of experience and an uncommon amount of professional-level experience when I started work.
The small class sizes and the ability for my professors and the people in the journalism department to reach out and touch you and talk with you really helped me get started once I was working. I was used to this pace of work.
Hard work was not hard for me, and good work was not hard for me because I’d already been doing some of that at TCU.
Did you know what you wanted to do when you came to TCU? How did you decide?
When I got to TCU, I wanted to play in the NFL. I figured out pretty quickly that that would probably not happen. I knew that I always wanted to be a journalist. I had been writing since I was five years old and worked on my middle school newspaper.
I didn’t know about other journalism programs, but I knew that TCU had a very good journalism program. That was part of the reason I picked TCU in the first place.
I realized if I was not going to be in the NFL, then I could cover and write about the NFL someday.
What’s one piece of advice you have for current students?
“Slow down and enjoy it. Have fun and learn for the sake of learning.”
If I had one regret of my college years, I spent so much time trying to get jobs and be a professional. I’ll never forget a month before I graduated, and I was walking across campus and saw these kids throwing Frisbees around in the yard. It was a beautiful day, and I was like, ‘Man, I really should have done more of that.’ I know that might not have been a problem for other kids, but I wish I had slowed down and made fun more of a priority.
The thing is, you can make a decision about the career that you want to have and the things you want to do, but some of that is out of your control. There are so many fewer journalism jobs today than when I left school. So, learning for learning sake and becoming a versatile person who knows a lot about the world is important. I really believe in just slowing down, having fun, making the most of it, and not being in a rush to go anywhere.
I’ve been working for 23 years now, and it comes so fast. Make sure to slow down to make the most of it.
Has TCU helped you in your career after you left?
I moved away, so my connection to the school and the program is important, and I take a lot of pride in it. I know that TCU prepared me very well—that’s all I would have expected TCU to do for me.
I’m on the Board of Visitors at Schieffer College, so being connected and talking to people on the board that I’m friends with … having that connection to the university is meaningful to me.
Anything else you’d like to share?
If you have the opportunity, do as much writing as you can. As a journalist, I think it is important to really soak up your opportunities and experiences.
Also, have fun with it. Go talk and interview people. Sometimes, I would just call people and write stories about them just because I found them interesting.
The thing about TCU is that you can really reach out and touch people. It’s a small school with a small alumni base, so you can use it if needed. Take advantage of the fact that you don’t go to a school like UT or Northwestern with thousands of grads. TCU is a school where everybody is within reach, and you should take advantage of that. I don’t know if I did that as well as I should have, but if you can take the time to do that, you should stay connected with everyone.
Use the connection. TCU is a special place. I didn’t appreciate it as much as I should have while I was there. When you get away, you’ll find out that not every place is this beautiful. When I come back to Moudy South, I think to myself about how cool place of a place it is. You can stay connected to people if you go to TCU, and you should make the most of it.
And again, have fun.