How to be a little fish in a big pond
My first week at NPR, I was wildly intimidated.
It began with the shiny new building. I’ve never been at a journalism organization that, first of all, has the money to build state-of-the-art offices for its employees — and, second of all, actually invests that money into building it. I’m used to journalism organizations that make employees pay for their own coffee.

This is asking for a great light-in-the-darkness metaphor about journalism, but I’ll spare you. This time.
Then, it was the brilliance of my coworkers and editors. They are all so knowledgable and creative and have Ivy League degrees — well, most of them don’t actually have Ivy League degrees, but that’s how it felt to me. For the first time, I was self-conscious of my state-school alma mater and unranked journalism school.
I wanted to impress my coworkers but didn’t know how, and I didn’t want to come off as cocky. So I constantly humbled myself, to the point where I no longer felt confident.
I was a little fish in a big pond, and I didn’t know how to handle that.Read More »How to be a little fish in a big pond