CNBC’s Epperson on helping viewers protect and grow their money

Sharon Epperson

Sharon Epperson, senior personal finance correspondent at CNBC, spoke with Kit Warchol of Career Contessa about how she became a personal finance journalist.

Here is an excerpt:

How did you ultimately land at CNBC, and what are your responsibilities as Senior Personal Finance Correspondent?
I became a member of the National Association of Black Journalists when I was in college, and I have gone to their national convention every year. I knew when I was at Time that I was interested in television because in addition to working at the New York Bureau at Time, I also worked in what was called the New Media Department where we did a lot of video pieces. I’d worked as an assistant producer on television projects for NY1 and PBS NewsHour, so I had some interest and experience in TV. I also had my one philanthropist story that was in the business section of Time, and because I loved the story about this woman so much, I included it as my first clip to show to recruiters.
I went to the NBC booth at the convention career fair, and the recruiters there were impressed that I was interested in business news and that I had a strong writing background. They also liked that I already had some exposure to television. They were looking for reporters at CNBC and I was hired 20 years ago along with two other magazine reporters to come to CNBC and learn TV. It was absolutely because of the National Association of Black Journalists and the recruiters at NBC that I got my start at CNBC, and that is why those two organizations are so important to me.
My responsibilities as Senior Personal Finance Correspondent include covering all sorts of personal finance topics from retirement, budgeting and student loans to credit cards and estate planning. Pretty much every aspect of personal finance touches my beat. My focus is really on how I can help the viewer learn how to best manage, grow and protect their money. Those are the three things I always keep in mind and that is also my favorite part of the job. I also enjoy getting comments on my stories or on Facebook about how I am helping people. What I like the least about my job is when someone tells me that something was wrong or didn’t work for them, but it gives me the opportunity to look into the story a little further. Viewer comments can be a double-edged sword—sometimes they can be helpful and show me how people receive the different topics and stories that we do, and then if something does not work, that can often turn into another story for me.