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A Missouri Educational Foundation:
My degree from MU continues to elicit positive comments even from those not in the journalism/PR world. It's always amazing to me that some health care executive or banker knows how prominent the Missouri School of Journalism is. At the time it was great coursework, helpful professional connections and good competition/camaraderie with other students to get awesome internships. Also, I got in with my company because of a recruiter that came to MU. ACBJ came to campus often, and I made sure I met with every single person from the company who hit the campus. By the end of my time in Columbia, I knew the main recruiter well enough to e-mail him and say where I wanted to work, and it was from him sharing with the editors throughout the company that I got my first job.

Finding a Specialty:
I never envisioned I would ever do business reporting. My parents moved to Kansas City my freshman year and the Johnson County Business Times was about the only paper in town that offered a paying internship. So I met with the editor, not dreaming he'd give me the job, as I had absolutely no business experience. I'm convinced my answer to his question about how I would write about business got me the job: I told him that business was just like any other topic, and I'd just ask questions until I was sure of the subject. Shortly after that, he called me back with an offer and that was my start in business. I ended up doing two summer internships there and by then was convinced business reporting was for me. So, I guess the moral of the story is "Keep your options open, because you don't know what you'll find."

The Job Search:
My job search was a bit scary as the economy was tanking and I was getting a lot of "We wish we could hire you, but we're in a hiring freeze." Finally, because of my well-rounded resume, it started turning around and I had several offers to consider. The editor I ended up working for actually contacted me (the ACBJ recruiter had told her I was looking, and recommended she contact me) and I almost deleted her e-mail as spam. Luckily, I didn't, and in the last part of my job search I flew to Louisville, Ken., for my interview. I went in with a list of requirements they had to beat for me to move there...and they beat every one. I found I liked the staff and the town. It wasn't bad at all. Soon after that, I was packing my stuff to move to horse country to start my first real job.

Starting Your Job:
During the first few weeks and months of my Louisville job, I remember thinking, "This is great!" I'd always reported while taking classes or done newspaper design, so it was a relief to be doing the job full time. And all those internships really paid off because I felt so prepared and had observed so many working journalists that I knew which habits to take and which to avoid. My biggest challenge was convincing people I knew what I was doing as I looked young coming out of school. I luckily had a trump card with an internship I had done that instantly commanded respect for anyone in the financial field, so that helped me some. But the rest were easily persuaded once we got started. After about three years in Louisville, others started asking when I was going to move on to my second job. I wasn't seriously searching but one night I randomly saw a career opportunity in Dallas and everything just clicked together. A few weeks later, I moved. I've always been intrigued by Dallas and wanted to get back to a bigger city, so I was excited to make the move. My job is less stressful, less hours, more money and more to do in Dallas, so you can't beat that. It was pretty scary making that first leap from a good job where I was well respected and had free reign to do the stories and projects I wanted, but it was the best thing to do. I advanced my career (and salary, plus city size) and ultimately I'll be better for the move. My favorite thing about my job is meeting new people and learning new things. I love both, so it's great to be paid to do them every day.

Reality Check:
I still think about journalism the same way I always have. As I said, I did internships dating back to high school, so I had realistic expectations going into it all. Internships are so valuable and they make the transition much easier.

Being Successful:
You need time management skills and the ability to meet deadlines. I've always had editors count on me because they knew I could write a bunch of stories and, with very rare exceptions, get them in on time. Other things are perseverance (it took me five months to get in with one company, but I eventually did because I contacted them every week), good relationship skills to form lasting bonds with sources (I once had one call me from his vacation to ask what he should do because the daily reporter was calling him regarding a story I'd already worked with him on and hadn't run yet) and curiosity about anything and everything. Finally, you need to be willing to put in the long hours to really, really understand your beat. It makes all the difference with sources. School can teach you a lot, experience at internships can teach you other things, but ultimately you have to figure out what works best for you by yourself.

Career Advice:
My advice would be to do as many internships as you can possibly do. By the time I started my first real job, I'd worked for a banking industry daily newspaper, large metro daily, two weekly business papers, the Missourian, The Maneater, and the Mid-Missouri Business Journal, plus stuff in high school. That showed me where I really wanted to work and gave me the experience to be able to "wow" sources at the depth of where I'd been even though I graduated in 2001.