Draft:Erin McGoff
American filmmaker, author, and content creator
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Erin McGoff is an American documentary filmmaker, author, and content creator known professionally as AdviceWithErin. She received a Pulitzer Center fellowship to produce her debut feature documentary This Little Land of Mines (2019), about unexploded ordnance in Laos from the U.S. Secret War.[1] Beginning in 2020, McGoff built a following of over seven million across social media platforms for her career advice content, and was profiled or quoted by Fortune, Newsweek, Business Insider, and Fox Business.[2][3][4] She was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Social Media category in 2025.[5] In 2026, Penguin Random House published her first book, The Secret Language of Work, which debuted on the New York Times Best Seller list.[6][7]
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- Filmmaker
- author
- content creator
Erin McGoff | |
|---|---|
| Born | Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S. |
| Education | American University (BA) |
| Occupations |
|
| Known for | AdviceWithErin |
| Website | advicewitherin |
Early life and education
McGoff grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland, in Montgomery County.[8] She attended American University's School of Communication in Washington, D.C., where she received the AU School of Communication Woman of the Year Award.[9] Upon graduating, she was awarded an International Reporting Student Fellowship from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.[1]
Filmmaking career
This Little Land of Mines (2019)
McGoff used her Pulitzer Center fellowship to travel to Laos and produce her debut feature documentary, This Little Land of Mines. The film examines the legacy of the U.S. Secret War in Laos, during which American forces dropped an estimated 80 million cluster munitions on the country, and follows Laotian workers who risk their lives to clear the remaining unexploded ordnance.[10]
The documentary received several awards, including Best Director at the DOC LA Los Angeles Documentary Film Festival and the Clio Prize for Visualizing History/Advancement for Women in Film.[10] It also won three Silver Telly Awards in the Editing, Documentary, and Social Impact categories.[11] The film screened at festivals including the LA Femme Film Festival, Stockholm Independent Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, and Dallas Asian Film Festival, and was distributed on Amazon Prime Video.[11]
Other documentary work
McGoff directed several additional documentaries, including Southern Sustainability (2018), New York Is Silent (2020) for the Pulitzer Center, and Darrouzett, TX (2020), which aired on PBS.[1]
Career advice platform
In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, McGoff began posting career advice videos on TikTok under the name AdviceWithErin. In a 2021 profile, Fortune described her as part of a growing wave of creators to whom Generation Z was turning for workplace guidance instead of traditional career services.[2] By 2022, her resume and interview advice videos had attracted coverage from Newsweek, which profiled her approach to rewriting resumes using specific, results-oriented language.[3] Business Insider also featured McGoff in articles about career advice creators helping young professionals navigate the corporate workplace.[12][13]
In March 2024, McGoff appeared on Fox News's America's Newsroom to discuss the challenges facing recent college graduates in the job market, where she identified interpersonal skills as a key gap among young job seekers.[4] Her content grew to reach over seven million followers across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.[5]
McGoff became a regular contributor to CNBC, writing for the outlet's "Work It Out" career advice section.[14] In 2023, she founded a production company, Grey Films, and in 2024 she launched the podcast No One Knows What They're Doing, covering career development, financial literacy, and lifestyle topics.[5]
The Secret Language of Work
In March 2026, Penguin Random House's Portfolio imprint published McGoff's first book, The Secret Language of Work: Hyper-Helpful Scripts for Every Situation. The book provides scripts and frameworks for professional communication, covering situations including job interviews, salary negotiations, boundary-setting with coworkers, and workplace conflict resolution.[6] It debuted on the New York Times Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous bestseller list in its first week of release.[7] Forbes reviewed the book upon its release, discussing McGoff's approach to workplace communication.[15]
Recognition
- 2017 – Pulitzer Center International Reporting Student Fellowship[1]
- 2019 – Best Director, DOC LA Los Angeles Documentary Film Festival[10]
- 2019 – Clio Prize for Visualizing History/Advancement for Women in Film[11]
- 2019 – Three Silver Telly Awards (Editing, Documentary, Social Impact)[11]
- 2024 – LinkedIn Top Voice[5]
- 2025 – Forbes 30 Under 30, Social Media category[5][8]