Name:Â Anna Therese Day
Age: 23
Job Title and Description:Â Independent journalist & producer
College/Major:Â Political Science with minors in Middle East Studies, Ed Policy & Leadership
Website:Â www.AnnaThereseDay.com
 Twitter Handle: @AnnaOfArabia
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Her Campus: What does your current job entail? Is there such a thing as a typical day?Â
Anna Therese Day: In my experience, the lifestyle of a freelance journalist couldn’t be further from the traditional 9 to 5 schedule. The only constant from day to day is my obsessive consumption of news from dozens of different outlets and my addictive tendency to refresh Gmail/Twitter far more times than necessary. The flexibility and independence of the job is ideal for young journalists looking to get their foot in the door and impress that veteran producer. If you have the perseverance, curiosity, hustle, and ambition, freelancing allows for the freedom to pitch and produce as much content as there are hours in the day. When you manage to delve into that missing angle or to beat a bureau to a certain story, it’s easy to hide your age or limited years of experience with the quality and ingenuity of your work.
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HC: What is one thing you wish you knew about your industry when you first started out that you know now?
AD: It’s never too early to start your career. We live in a unique age of citizen journalism and social media connectivity – there are more opportunities than ever for young people to jumpstart their careers and to leverage the advantages of our Internet literacy over veteran journalists. I insist that there are always stories all around us, leaving plenty of room for citizen journalism, but, if global issues pique your interest, Twitter, Facebook, and even Google Translate bridge international divides in unprecedented ways. My greatest piece of advice is to stop hesitating and take the plunge – reach out to a young activist that you read about on HuffPo over Twitter or Facebook and see if you have any luck scoring an interview.
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HC: Who is one person who changed your professional life for the better?
AD: One of my mentors, veteran journalist and professor Abdallah Schleifer, has inspired my career in a countless number of ways. Schleifer committed his life to journalism in the Middle East, serving as NBC Cairo Bureau Chief and Al Arabiya DC Bureau Chief and then founded the Adham Center for Television and Digital Journalism at American University in Cairo (AUC). The Center’s mission is to train the next generation of journalists in the technology of our day. I had the opportunity to enroll in his class “War Reporting: Covering Conflict in the Middle East” while studying abroad at AUC, and his enthusiasm and insight from a career in the field was contagious and inspiring. I was soon reading any thing I could get my hands on related to modern Middle East history –  history that he lived, documented, and understood on several levels as a veteran foreign correspondent. The course addressed both the challenges and opportunities of the career and gave a personalized understanding of what it takes to make it in the field. Since his class, Schleifer has helped me navigate my career and given me context when I get bogged down in the grind. Schleifer is a mentor to many of his students, and I’ve been very lucky to find someone who shares my approach to journalism who is willing to invest in the next generation.
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HC: What words of wisdom do you find most valuable?
AD: “You can sleep when you’re dead” and “Bring extra batteries”.
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HC: What is one mistake you made along the way and what did you learn from it?
AD: Totally captivated by the spirit of Tahrir, I ignored some very pertinent advice from my mentor, Jennifer Loewenstein. Jennifer, a well-known journalist, activist and academic, explained to me patiently that the competition in journalism – particularly among freelancers – is cutthroat and to protect my stories and contacts accordingly. This advice proved to be quite true, and I quickly discovered that the camaraderie of the revolutions did not extend to the circles of many of my journalist colleagues.
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HC: What is the best part of your job?
AD: Curiosity and feedback from my audiences is a really rewarding part of the job. Many of my contacts on whom I produce stories entrust the urgency or severity of their story in my ability to humanize their issues to audiences around the world. When I get an email or tweet asking how someone in the US can take action on a story I produced, that’s the moment that I finally breathe out and remember the power of storytelling.
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HC: What do you look for when considering hiring someone?
AD: As I mentioned previously, our greatest strength are our digital capabilities over our veteran colleagues. That being said, you need to make sure you’ve honed these skills, that you really can be a one-woman-show. You need all the production skills – from web design to editing – and a fluency with social media platforms and new technology. Lastly, language skills or a background in the region are a must — this depth will set you apart from “parachuting” journalists and will ensure that you actually keep up when you get the job.
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HC: What advice would you give to a 20-something with similar aspirations?
AD: Stop procrastinating and dive in! Your youth is your greatest weapon – no one expects much from our age-range so when you achieve early and often, you’ll always impress someone. If you’re still in undergrad, make sure you’re taking full advantage of your university’s resources while you have them – equipment and editing software is expensive in the real world. Also, make a commitment to your language study, as communication without a translator will, more often than not, change the entire angle of your story.
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