Don’t Take No for an Answer

Last Updated on Friday, 12 February 2010 02:47 Tuesday, 09 February 2010 23:49

Bloomberg Television anchor Margaret Brennan is profiled on the News on Women site, where she talks about how she got into business journalism.

Here is an excerpt:

“Frankly, if you told me at age 18 or even at age 22 that I’d be doing this for a living, I would have laughed out loud. For most of my academic career, I thought that I was going to work for the State Department or conduct foreign policy work. That is why I studied Foreign Affairs and Middle East Studies as an undergraduate at University of Virginia. I minored in Arabic because I saw that there were more layers to understanding situations than simply studying theory. I wanted to learn the stories of the people living the experiences that I was consulting on in some fashion. It was a very romanticized view of the policy work that actually takes place!

“Thanks to my talented Arabic professors at UVA, I was fortunate to qualify for a Fulbright Hayes grant to study abroad in Jordan. When I returned home, I no longer wanted to work in policy. My mom suggested that I try broadcasting and I was lucky to land an internship at CNN headquarters in Atlanta. I interned on the international news desk and loved working in a newsroom. I was fascinated by Christianne Amanpour and the work that she had done in Bosnia, Iraq, and other war-torn nations.

“Much to the chagrin of my academic adviser, by the time the summer was over I was pretty certain that I wanted to work in TV. I struck a bargain with my adviser: I’d go into academia if I didn’t have a successful TV job in five years. I took my first job – working for Louis Rukeyser as a researcher – and I ran with it. Four years – and many, many long days of work later – I officially made the transition from full-time producer/occasional air reporter to full time correspondent. And after seven years at CNBC, I joined Bloomberg this past July.

“My advice to anyone looking for a job in financial news or simply in broadcasting is to stay nimble, stay informed, have fun and don’t take no for an answer.”

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