In Conversation With A Wall Street Journal Legend: Jim Pensiero
Jim Pensiero is a humble figure — a WSJ veteran, he served multiple positions over his 31 years at the Journal, culminating into his role as Deputy Managing Editor. Now enjoying a busy semi-retirement, one of Jim’s passions is helping young and emerging professional journalist by passing down his well-earned knowledge.
For an hour, in early May 2018, 16 young journalists from the University of Oregon sat down with Jim in a New York City hotel conference room and listened to his advice.
What Jim wanted us to know: 5 key takeaways
1. Your job is the business side — the other stuff is commerce.
How often as journalism students have we heard reference to the business side of journalism? Specifically, the part that involves accountants, lawyers, strategists and advertisers. Obviously these people are important. They are the revenue strategists who help keep journalists employed.
But Jim’s point is that journalists are part of the business too.
Without journalists there are no news stories. No content. No product.
So, instead of referring to the journalism and business sides as two separate entities, Jim advocates that journalists should argue they are part of the business side of journalism, and that the other half — the one with the accountants, lawyers, advertisers et al — is commerce.
2. Be aggressive. Show that you’re interested — and get their business cards.
When it comes to getting hired, it’s okay to make it clear that you are interested in a position or company, Jim told us.
Too often young and emerging professionals hesitate, in case they come off as too pushy and persistent. We want to appear humble, and hope to gain notice through our hard work.
But, Jim says, that often will not work.
If you want to be noticed, you need to be assertive and demand attention.
One way to do that involves asking for a business card and offering yours. Then follow up, and if you don’t hear back, follow up again.
Rejection is hard to take, Jim reminded us, but you’ll never progress if you don’t ask for their consideration.
3. Reputation: the hardest thing to get and the easiest thing to lose.
This goes for both you and the company you’re working for.
You should work hard to build up your reputation by being a diligent, candid and a hard working employee. This is your name and your reputation being attached, so don’t try to take the easy way out.
And you should also remember that you are a reflection of the company you work for and that hopefully you care enough to hold up their name too.
If your values don’t line up with theirs, and you don’t care about their reputation, then why are you working for them?
4. Have the common touch — you should be able to talk with a CEO or a parking lot attendant.
Be humble and be confident. Don’t let your ego or self consciousness stop you from interacting with anyone.
You should be able to speak with a parking lot attendant and treat them and their story with as much dignity as you would when talking to a CEO of a big corporation.
According to Jim, if you can master this skill, then the doors of opportunity will open up for you.
5. You’re only going to be young once, so have fun.
Make time to go to your friend’s weddings, take that vacation and prioritize your own self-care.
As Jim puts it, you’ll be working at your job your whole life, and the notion that you need to sacrifice your personal life for your job isn’t necessarily how it should be.
Life is about finding grace in balance, and you can still be driven and climbing the career ladder while living your life. You should never feel like you have to sacrifice one for the other.
