Margaret Brennan of Bloomberg Television Says "Don't take no for an Answer"

Margaret Brennan is the host of "InBusiness with Margaret Brennan" which airs daily from 10am to 12pm on Bloomberg Television. Margaret tells us how she got started in the news business:

 

"I've been a news junkie for most of my life.  From the time I was a little girl, I loved reading the paper and watching the news.  I just didn't know that I would end up with a career on television, telling the stories of how the financial world is shaping the global power balance.

 

Gravity is shifting. The social, economic and political world order is changing and some of the biggest changes are taking place in the financial marketplace. My desire to report with a greater international perspective is what brought me to Bloomberg Television six months ago. Since then, I've covered business news from Dublin to Dubai to Davos, Switzerland. Hosting the first live Bloomberg Television show from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia just two weeks ago was one of the best moments that I've had in my career.

I love having the opportunity at Bloomberg Television to talk to smart people everyday, and ask what are the smartest people in the world doing today? Covering the financial crisis was also a great reminder of the centrality of economic news to the everyday lives of even the smallest participants in the financial system. Connecting those dots is what keeps me excited about the stories that I get to tell everyday.

 

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."

Comments

[Wm.David Wilhelm]

Congradulations on your career move ,you are very fortunate ,best wishes to you ,I watch In Business With Margaret Brennen on Bloomberg when I have enough time in the morning ,Keep up the great show