In a new series of columns, each week an alum of USC Annenberg will share stories of their time at the school, discuss their career, and offer advice to students.

Before I started my career, hearing about the “Real World" filled me with fear and distress. Both the reality show and the post-graduation destination seemed fraught with unknown dangers, from mean bosses to crazy housemates. Relatives, family friends and working professionals warned that things were going to be different there; that my days would be longer and more stressful, that I would have to be aggressively competitive to achieve success and that finding friends as a working adult would be hard. So three weeks after graduation, I moved to San Francisco unsure if I could take on a city and a newsroom I didn't know.

I was leaving a newsroom I knew inside out. I spent almost all my time outside of class in the Annenberg TV News basement studio (now housed in the beautiful Wallis Annenberg Hall). I could recognize that a producer had been sitting in a particular seat from the potato chip crumbs he left behind. I cut my first VO, voiced my first package and I set my first show lineup there. My time at ATVN taught me how to test the concepts I learned in USC Annenberg classes and introduced me to some of my dearest friends. While the long days and the hectic environment tested my patience and stamina at times, working for ATVN never felt like work.

So when I started my first day in the "Real World", I expected Bloomberg TV to be nothing like the ATVN newsroom. I got up three hours before our 7 a.m. editorial meeting to read up on the latest business and technology stories, hoping that my research would prevent me from looking completely incompetent. However, my first Bloomberg meeting sounded very similar to the ATVN morning meetings I had participated in for the last four years. I recognized every broadcast term a producer used and understood how the team analyzed stories thoroughly for unique and balanced angles.

Every part of my first day followed a similar pattern. The graphics and rundown software Bloomberg used was very similar to the programs I had worked with at ATVN. My experience as an anchor and camera operator on the ATVN studio floor helped me understand how the Bloomberg West set functioned. When I was asked to find sources for a breaking news story, I picked up the phone without hesitation due to my assignment desk training. As I ended day one at Bloomberg, I was shocked — and impressed — by how much I knew. I

t turned out my boss and co-workers were impressed as well. At the beginning of my third week on the team, my executive producer asked if I was ready to produce my first live segment. All my fear of the "Real World" returned. Live? Five minutes? On international television? Me? My anxiety impelled me to start searching for an excuse to say no. But again, my ATVN training forced me to dive in and try it out. In that basement newsroom, we experimented with editing effects, shot angles or ways to read a script. Many of those experiments resulted in disaster, but every failure taught me how to prevent mistakes for the next attempt. Fortunately, my first segment for Bloomberg TV aired without a hitch — correctly spelled lower thirds and all!

USC Annenberg provided me with an array of classes, connections and experiences that helped prepare me for my career. But the most impactful part of my journalism school experience was treating Annenberg TV News more than a learning lab requirement. ATVN didn't just equip me with the skills to work in any part of a professional newsroom; it also gave me the confidence to put those skills to use as soon as I entered the "Real World.”