I chose to go into operations and that laid the groundwork for my entire career,” he says. “There were a lot of different aspects of the business that an engineering degree gives you the opportunity to go into, such as design, construction, or engineering. Shortly after beginning at Con Edison, McAvoy decided to build his career in operations. McAvoy interviewed with several big companies during his senior year but pursued Con Edison for several reasons, including its location in New York, his attraction “to work with large pieces of equipment and power plants,” and positive feedback from a friend who also was employed by the company. From Riverdale to the Corner OfficeĪfter graduating from Manhattan in 1980 with a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering, McAvoy began a 34-year career with Con Edison. Prior to that, he took two buses to commute to school. Thanks to his job at the grocery store, McAvoy saved enough money during his sophomore year of college to buy a car and drive from his neighborhood of Parkchester, which at one time was the largest housing complex in the world, in the east Bronx, to Riverdale. “Every step of the way, you pick up some skills, but you also learn a respect for people who do things that maybe you don’t fully get if you don’t walk in their shoes.” My starting role was to clean the meat room and the bathrooms, I was even more proud six months later when I was promoted to stock boy,” McAvoy says. “I was very proud to get that supermarket job.

What do working in a grocery store and engineering have in common? In the case of Bronx native John McAvoy ’80, the skills he received during college and working as a stock boy shaped his career and put him on the path to becoming chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of one of the nation’s largest energy companies, Consolidated Edison, Inc.

Con ed store operations