Name: Gitika Ahuja
Age: 31
Location: New York, N.Y.
Education: B.S. in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Spanish from Boston University
Job Title: Producer for ABC News, Good Morning America
What She Does: Gitika works behind the scenes at ABC News to produce stories for Good Morning America. She has traveled all over the world, covering issues ranging from the war in Iraq to the legalization of gay marriage. In 2001, Gitika won an Emmy Award for “Instant Coverage of a Breaking News Story” for the Elián González controversy.
How She Got Her Gig: Knowing she wanted to go into broadcast journalism, Gitika did several internships in the field during college, including one at CNN and during semesters abroad. After graduation, the newly minted journalist “started working for a former professor, [who] basically hired me right out of college. She gave me the confidence to do what I’m doing today. I’ve been really lucky to have really amazing mentors. I just fell in love with producing.”
Reporting From the Trenches: Though Gitika has a degree in journalism, she says that successful journalists come from all types of backgrounds. “Journalism is about experience, not so much traditional education, though of course you need a Bachelor’s degree. The education you receive by living life and seeing stories occur is much more valuable than anything you can learn in a classroom setting other than writing. You go in the morning and you don’t know what you’ll be doing that day. That’s very exciting!”
On-the-Job Advice: Getting along with a variety of personalities is essential to many fields, but especially ones like journalism, where building relationships and conducting interviews is a daily part of the job. “They don’t teach you office politics in college,” Gitika says, “but more than half your job is understanding how to manage personalities and yield the best result for everybody. Leave your emotions at home. There’s isn’t room for that. You have to be mature and diplomatic. The way I try to function at work is I sort of live by the mantra that ‘All I have is my reputation.’ Every story that has my name attached to it is about protecting my credibility.”
This Job’s for You if: You have the curiosity to sniff out a story and the organizational skills to meet tight deadlines. “Curiosity is number one. Writing skills, people skills, and the ability to multitask. Producers are really Jills of all trades in television news,” Gitika says. “The overriding idea is [learning to] get more done in less time. We need more smart people to enter this line of work.”
