Anderson Cooper Tells All

On Thursday October 18th I had the amazing opportunity to join the Temple Community at a Q&A with the talented journalist Anderson Cooper. After being honored at the 2012 Excellence in the Media banquet, Anderson Cooper made his way to the stage of Tomlinson Theater where all the seats were already filled up. After a short bio about himself he began answering questions from the crowd. With each question Cooper inspired the crowd and gave incredible advice.

He spoke of the early days when we was aspiring to be a journalist and took the first step by traveling to very dangerous places with a fake press pass to report on serious issues. He also answered the question, what is the best advice you were ever given with a quote from his mother stating, “follow your bliss.” This was inspiring to hear because he knew just how hard it was to break into a dream career after college with certain obstacles such as student loans and he followed with, “success lies in your dream job”. As far as advice for students in internships or jobs right now he said the way he got noticed was to out work everyone else around you and to make yourself indispensable.

Cooper also offered up tips for the interview process from his experience being the interviewer. He said know the last six months of interviews that the person did and I think that really relates to advertising in the idea that its imperative to know the agency your interviewing with and their past and present campaigns.

Before I knew it the hour was up and sadly Anderson Cooper had to report back to New York but he left the Temple Community with great advice and inspiring stories.

Photos courtesy of journalism & advertising student Ali Watkins.