David is an editor and reporter with substantial experience covering business, finance, the economy, technology, government and politics. These days he covers financial crime as an editor at Bloomberg News. He spent more than a decade at The New York Times, where he helped lead national security reporting in Washington and banking coverage in New York. Before that, he covered Internet technology for long-gone magazines like InternetWeek, CommunicationsWeek and Network Computing. He got his start covering high school and college sports for Newsday and has taught business reporting at George Washington University.
Company: Bloomberg News
Degree Type: Bachelor of Arts in Multidisciplinary Studies and Journalism
What’s your 30-60 second elevator pitch?
I am a journalist whose career has spanned the Silicon Valley, Washington D.C., and Wall Street.
Did you consider any other careers as a student? If yes, which ones? What changed your mind?
I started college thinking I would become a history teacher. Then, my interest in politics compelled me to join SBU’s campus newspaper: The Statesman. When I joined their team, everything changed. I was instantly hooked. Cliché alert: I didn’t choose journalism; it chose me.
Who or what experience influenced your career growth the most while at SBU?
After The Statesman stoked my interest, two adjunct professors from Newsday gave me the know-how and confidence to make a career in journalism: the legendary Bob Greene, who taught me about the power of investigative reporting to effect change; and even more so, Paul Schreiber, who taught me how to report with compassion and write with authority.
What do you wish you had known as a student?
There is more to college than earning a degree to get a job, and there is more to campus life than partying and doing the bare minimum of work. College is your first opportunity to experiment and learn things you did not even know you are interested in. Go exploring. Discover people who aren’t like you. You may not have another chance in your life to learn just for the sake of learning.
What piece of advice would you offer students looking to get into your area of interest and expertise?
Pair your journalism instruction with an entirely separate discipline. Learn a second language. Study statistics or computer programming or economics. Minor in art history. Take up auto repair. Successful journalists of today and tomorrow will be experts on the topics they cover.
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