When I got the call, I was standing in line for Shake Shack in Madison Square Park on a muggy August afternoon. He introduced himself as Eric Rosenbaum, editor for CNBC's Special Reports.
"Why do you want to work for CNBC?"
A feeling of equal parts opportunity and aspiration comes with the legacy and prestige of the world's most global multimedia business news organization. My first week working for Eric confirmed that feeling, when it became clear that I would be treated as another colleague and not as a subordinate best suited for the morning's coffee run.
Eric encouraged two things in my work for him: pitches and networking. I sent Eric more than a dozen story ideas before I published my first article, yet the sense of ownership I earned from the rigorous editing process made it one of my life's proudest moments when I saw my byline on the homepage of CNBC.
Every lunch hour I met new people: editors, reporters, fellow interns, producers, even make-up artists. Each of them, despite different experiences and roles at CNBC, expressed a noted joy for their work.
While at Special Reports I met Ryan Ruggiero, the respected senior assignment desk manager. My conversations with Ryan led to a second CNBC internship for the News Desk, moving me from CNBC's digital business to TV production. In the first week on the new internship, I found myself sitting across from Andrew Ross Sorkin in NYU's legal library, completing a mic check before Sorkin's interview with former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. That was only the beginning of an experience-packed semester — running scripts to CNBC anchors on the NYSE floor, speaking with former Morgan Stanley financier David Darst, filming aboard a private jet with Robert Frank and receiving career advice from Kelly Evans — to name a few.
My social media skillset also became critical, as I was given authority over the growth of CNBC's Travel Instagram account and tasked with growing the follower base. I learned how to contact multimillion-dollar public relations firms, what tone to use when crafting a brand and why consistency pays off in the social media world.
I continued to write for CNBC.com in my spare time, publishing more articles on a technology beat I developed throughout my time.
