How Did You Get Your Start?

My first TV job was an unpaid internship at CNN the summer of 2001 in Atlanta. I was lucky I had an aunt and uncle who let me live with him and commute to work.

When I graduated UVA, I got my first paid job at CNBC in the financial news network. It was the first place I saw the mechanics of television and learned production.

I didn’t feel entirely fulfilled by the job. I wanted to be the one going out telling stories and investigating, but I was told no due to my young age and experience level.

I thought about returning to academia, and came quite close to it. I gave up on my apartment, was sleeping on my best friend's couch in New York, and was going to move overseas for a fellowship.

My boss asked me to give it a few months – he didn't think I should go. “Trust me on this,” he said. That boss ended up becoming the head of the network and offered me an on-air reporting job, with the condition that I would be my own producer.

He was taking a risk on me, as I was on him. I was around 25 at the time and really pained over the decision.

I took the job, and that’s how I got my start.

Currently, I’m the moderator of Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan at CBS News. Face of the Nation is one of the longest running news programs in the history of television – it features interviews with prominent American officials, politicians, and authors.