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Brian Wiedeke, BJ '95

What do you do?
Photograph general news, sports, edit stories, using both linear and non-linear systems.

How did you get your job?
I started in Springfield, Mo. After two years, I moved to Kansas City where I spent seven years with the NBC station. My wife and I decided that we wanted to be closer to family, and really liked the Minneapolis area where most of her family lives. So after many tapes and e-mails with Chief Photographers, we decided to gamble and up and move without a firm job offer in hand. It was probably the scariest thing I've ever done, but also the most rewarding. Two weeks after moving north, I was hired at the Fox O&O station and within a month I was offered a full-time position.

Best professional lesson learned at the J-School?
How to handle different situations, such as covering politicians, and other delicate situations, such as fatal accidents. That, and the concept of networking. So much of this business is who you know, both in day-to-day stories, and in trying to advance your career into other cities.

What would be your best advice to current students?
Learn as much as you can both inside and outside of the J-School. Know other people's jobs. If you want to produce, know what photographers and ENG truck operators face on a daily basis, because what they face will impact your job as well. If your career takes you into reporting work with your photographer as a team, communicate about where you see the story going, and later on what you have to make the story a memorable one. Also go into this career knowing that you are not going to be the next Katie Couric or Matt Lauer. Be ready to work for peanuts in a place you probably have never heard of. Pay your dues in a smaller market, make your "fresh out of school" mistakes in front of fewer eyes, and when you have a more solid base under you and you move into a bigger market you will have the experience behind you to earn the respect of those you work with. To that end I would also say be proud of your education that you get from Mizzou, but don't flaunt it. There are some (a very very small percentage) that have gone before you thinking they were God's gift to reporting simply because they had a Mizzou degree. That small percentage has started to give Missouri a black eye in the eyes of others. Let your work speak for itself, you will come out with one of the best journalism educations available, prove Missouri is one of the best with your work, not a loud mouth.

What makes you good at your job?
I think it is a combination of things. Having a solid background from Mizzou has helped give me confidence through the years, but I think even more important is the ability to keep an open mind, and realize that every day on the job you will meet someone new and learn something you didn't know before. Find your passion. My boss has a simple sign on his office door (among 300 little fortune cookie fortunes) it reads: No Passion, No Greatness; Know Passion, Know Greatness. Eight simple words that are very true in our business.

What do you consider to be your greatest professional achievement?
It may sound silly but still having a job in television news. Moving to Minneapolis without a job is not something I would recommend to anyone. For many reasons this is one of the most sought-after markets for photographers or reporters to work in. The ability to land a job so quickly after moving was a true blessing. At the same time, I firmly believe that you have to be willing to take some risks to gain the rewards. This was without a doubt my biggest risk, but the reward of living where we want to live, and learning from some of the nation's top photojournalists everyday is something I am very thankful for.

What is your secret to success?
If you want to last in this business you have to be able to care and distance yourself at the same time. It sounds like an oxymoron and in many ways it is. But you have to recognize your story for what it is; often we are there at people's low points, death, fires, or other forms of tragedy. You have to be compassionate with these people. Don't treat them as if they are just another story or just another bite you have to get before deadline. If you do, you'll come off as a shallow person and most people won't give you the time of day. At the same time, you can't take their tragedy too personally, because you will be exposed to so much of it in the course of a career that if you take it personally it will eat you up. Finding that balance is a big key. And remember, for all the bad you witness, you'll also be there for some of the greatest things, and you'll be paid for it. I've been to countless house fires, car accidents and homicide scenes; but I've also been up on a refueling exercise with the B2 bomber, two Final Fours, and five years worth of Kansas City Chiefs games.