Shibani Joshi, a reporter for Fox Business in New York, began her career as a production assistant at CNN.
From there, Joshi went to Harvard where she received her MBA and then wrote for ABC News for two years.
Realizing she wanted to work on air, Joshi had several jobs over a six month period. She worked for Reuters and Times Now as a freelance producer, then switched to reporting with News 12 Westchester. After a couple months, Joshi did on-air work for a few South Asian TV Networks. Finally, she found a place with Fox Business where she has been working since 2007.
Although an avid follower of news and having an interest in journalism, Joshi did not have any intentions to work as a journalist. Her passion was with business and Joshi aspired to work at Wall Street.
“I was successfully able to do that but then I wasn’t interested in making that my career after two years on the job,” Joshi said. “That’s when financial journalism came to mind. I thought that it would be more logical for me to jump to that field. I leveraged my knowledge of business and wall street experience to get a production assistant job at CNN Financial Network.”
Joshi’s first job was demanding and she worked hard from 3 a.m. to 12 p.m. every day.
“I made banners and created graphics and rolled teleprompter,” Joshi said. “Managing deadlines was a daily challenge. I learned how to write and eventually produced some of my own stuff. Over time, I pitched ideas. A sharp contrast to a year prior, working on Wall Street where I was brokering hundred million dollar deals and speaking with CEOs directly. But that’s the stuff you have to do to break into the business. I learned the business from the ground up and worked really hard. I even worked on the Lou Dobbs weekend program.”
Joshi’s future at Wall Street looked bright, but instead she decided to pursue an MBA at Harvard Business School. During her time at Harvard, Joshi wrote for the newspaper and became the president of the Media and Entertainment Club to keep in touch with the journalism.
Finding a job after Harvard was a difficult task for Joshi, who had to find ways to stand out from other applicants.
“Having a business degree and MBA differentiated me but it wasn’t enough,” Joshi said. “Those freelance jobs and entry level jobs I did where I had to start from the bottom gave me real-life experience that made it easier to hire me. To get the on air experience I needed, I also took night classes at NYU to get some practice and found my way on screen anyway I could.”
Joshi’s experiences have led her to an exciting and hectic career in covering business for Fox News, Fox Radio, and Fox Local.
“I may tell the same story in a different way, depending upon what network I am on,” Joshi said. “Just when you think you may have a boring day, the stock market tanks or Congress pushes the debt ceiling debate back by another day. And then you’re working crazy hours. The people are interesting, coming from all over the world. I talk to CEOs all the time, have to know a little about everything and have to read all the time to stay start. You have to be ok with uncertainty and that’s fun and unnerving at once.”
