Rachel E. Watson

It's week three on the job in my life as a business reporter, and I'm learning more each day about this work and about myself.

Here are a few examples:

1. I CAN get on stage in front of 300 people and present awards without mispronouncing anyone's names or tripping or getting stage fright. And I did so at Tuesday night's 40 Under Forty Business Leaders event at Grand Rapids Civic Theatre, hosted by my company.

This is me at the 40 Under Forty cocktail party. In the middle is my co-worker Sarah and on the right is my co-worker Tom.





2. I keenly feel my newbie status when juggling a lot of stuff. Literally. This week I had to go to a job site and wear a hard hat and neon vest and ask questions and stay out of the way of two TV crews while taking notes and carrying my tote bag and climbing flights of stairs inside the building under construction. I'm out of breath just saying it! And at one point while I was interviewing an official I heard one of the camera guys say, "She's nervous!" Great. Thanks for picking up on that.

3. There is an inverse relationship between typing speed and accuracy. During phone interviews I find myself rushing through typing a sentence so I can get the whole thing before the source moves on to the next point. When I read the sentences back to myself I see that words like "partners" became "patrns" and phrases like "policing initiatives" became "policng inititatives." Please tell me it's OK to invent alternate spellings. Productivity would go through the roof!

4. Most of us are learning on the job. I have a co-worker who's been a reporter for something like 10 years and she still has to spend tons of time trying to decode unfamiliar terms, prep extensively for complicated interviews and find new ways of saying old things. It's not. Just. Me.

That's all for this week. Come back next week for more!