When a business reporter gets to cover the COVID pandemic

Wall Street Journal reporter Allison Prang was interviewed by the newspaper’s “Women In” newsletter about her career.

Here is an excerpt:

WSJ: What was the last big win you experienced?

AP: I got to spend two months recently on the U.S. News team covering the Covid-19 pandemic. I’d report on the daily numbers and what trends they were showing and what was happening in different states. That was really rewarding work. I talked to nurses who traveled from one virus hotspot to another and was able to interview the governor of Arizona, both of which were really interesting and rewarding to get to do.

WSJ: What advice would you give to your younger self at the start of your career?

AP: Career paths are often very curvy and they have twists and turns and triumphs and setbacks. Your career might not go where you expected initially and that’s OK. I was interning in New York after I graduated and then got a full-time job in South Carolina at a metro paper. I hadn’t spent any time in that state before. After a year or so, I returned to my beloved New York to work for a trade publication and over a year later ended up back at WSJ. Even though you don’t start where you want or doing what you want doesn’t mean you can’t — or aren’t — going to get there.

Read more here.