A letter from Jane Bernhard
I believe in the power of telling stories. Coming from a 10+ year background in media & entertainment, I am driven by connection and personal narratives.
I began my career as a professional television and theater actor (HBO, Discovery, Oxygen). As a creative, I have always believed that the best way to find meaningful work is to create it.
After a decade in the industry, I determined that I needed to understand how business worked in order for the stories I create and share to have more of an impact.
So, I pivoted and got my MBA from Columbia Business School. I didn’t have connections in business before I pursued my MBA - and pivoting took a lot of diligence, hard work, and thousands of hours invested in learning from people generous enough to share their story and advice with me.
Because my career before business school was acting - I did not know what types of roles, companies, or opportunities would be a good fit for me when I was in school. The only way I knew how to figure out what might fit - was by interviewing people in different fields on their industries and career paths and seeing what inspired me.
Hundreds and hundreds of conversations later - I realized that what I loved most - and what I wanted to focus my career on - was actually asking all of these questions and then sharing them in the hopes that they help someone else with their own growing pains.
This is why I have written career advice for CNN Opinion and Poets & Quants - and is why I launched my new podcast Your Career, Unscripted - where I interview business leaders and rising professionals and share career stories to inspire you to build a career on your terms.
If there is anything I have learned through all of these conversations - it’s that everyone is different. Everyone’s path is different. So I hope these conversations help you embrace what makes you unique, and help you chart your own path.
On the show, I have interviewed the former Chairman and former CEO of Sony, Global VP of HTC, the Founder and CEO of The Female Quotient, The Founder and CEO of TRIPP, Director of Digital Innovation at HBO | MAX, VP of Immersive Content at Lucasfilm, a two time Emmy award winner, and the Director, Customer Success Modern Work/Converged Communications | Americas Enterprise at Microsoft. Here is my media kit to the show.
Please subscribe below for my interviews and articles. And do feel free to reach out if something about my work and these conversations resonates with you - I genuinely would love to know and it is my mission to pay all of this advice forward.
