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Submitted by Allison Brown

Allison Brown is an Executive Assistant for Gayle King of CBS News, as well as works in broadcasting, helping with production, research, and prepping King for interviews before the show airs.

Recently promoted, Allison Brown is an Anchor Broadcast Associate to Gayle King from CBS News in New York City. She does executive assistant work for King, as well as broadcasting work helping in areas of production, research, and helping prep King for interviews before the show airs every Sunday.
“Planning her schedule, logistics, travel. We travel a lot. My first two weeks just to put in reference for you, I went to Seattle and LA and Washington DC, and that was in like a week and a half,” Brown said.
“It’s been so great so far, and I just know it’s going to be incredibly rewarding and just to see pretty much the best-in-the-business do her job, is so so rewarding. And I really love that she values my opinion and her whole team’s opinion. She’s just an incredible mentor, I really can’t wait to get to know her better,” Brown said.
As a broadcasting associate, part of Brown’s job is being a part of interviews with her team.
“So we just interviewed Will Smith for something coming up. He was great. So funny, of course. But then we also do really serious ones. We interview political figures. And we just interviewed Trayvon Martin’s mother on the 10 year anniversary of his death, just really all over the scale of news” Brown said.
Brown loves being involved in the news and the stories they are broadcasting. Being able to meet the people behind the stories they put together, allows her to better understand their experiences and the things that are going on in the world. Interviewing people, watching the news in real-time, and overall being a part of the production, makes Brown feel extremely connected to the stories.
“If you’re writing and helping gather the elements and put a story together, you really feel like you’re a part of it and like the story is actually happening. It is very interesting to meet the families that have actually experienced these things because it is hard to fathom what it must feel like to ourselves. I like that it’s also a combination of fun interviews and then really heavy-hearted pieces too,” Brown said.

While senior producers are in charge of reaching the people they get to interview, Brown’s role is more about helping the producers at CBS. She creates interview cards and helps organize and conduct some of King’s research so that King is prepped and ready to go before interviews.
Before working as an executive assistant for Gayle King, Brown went into a CBS page program after college, which led her to find the job she has now.
“At the time, I was working a million different shows. So I was working Stephen Colbert, and I was working [at the show I’m at now] called CBS mornings. So I was going from the news to going to work Colbert in the evening. I was working CBS Saturday morning, CBS Sunday Morning. There are also CBS Sports shifts. There’s a shift at the Drew Barrymore show. Essentially as a page, I was working 1000 different productions and that was great to get a lot of big names under my belt,” Brown said.
At CBS Mornings Brown worked as a talent coordinator, which meant she was in charge of getting in touch with publicistss who were scheduled to be on the show, and guiding them around CBS making sure they got to where they needed to be.
“I felt I had a very important role in the show. And I just think I really tried hard to make myself known at CBS Mornings… no matter how small [the job] could be compared to you know, Gayle’s job, I think that I treated it [with] the same importance, I really valued my role. I tried to be helpful to others, and it was a combo of right place right time but also, I really do think that I proved myself and showed that I wanted to be there. [Gayle’s current assistant] personally recommended me to Gayle, and I went through the whole interview process which was long, really, really long” Brown said.
Near the end of college, Brown felt pressured to have a job lined up before her graduation date like the rest of her peers. She explained that it is often hard to have a job in the journalism industry lined up so far in advance because shows like CBS always need their positions to be filled. Brown graduated in May of 2021 and started working as a CBS page in June.
“I feel like a lot of people around me had things lined up before graduation day. And that made me feel like I had to do the same and that is so not true,” Brown said.
Going into college, Brown had no idea she was going to end up working with CBS. Her dad, who worked with the NFL, inspired her to want a unique job too.
“[He] always got to go to games and Super Bowls and really cool advertising and publicity events. And so I thought okay, I think TV would be cool, but I didn’t know the niche that I wanted to go follow. Then [in college] I did my first internship at the Today Show at NBC in New York. And I just really loved the hustle and bustle of Morning News” Brown said.
Brown struggled to declare a major in college. She took a wide range of classes and explored many different career options before majoring in Integrated Media Arts.
“I did broad things so that I could learn the whole media industry as best as I could. So I did social media classes, social media analytics, data analytics, advertising, and PR journalism classes. I took sports and took a sports production class, like sports broadcasting. I took general business classes, finance, accounting because I’m a business minor as well,”
Brown encourages high school students to follow their passions and explore the things they are interested in taking in college.

“You’re not supposed to see your entire life when you are 17 years old. That’s ridiculous… I feel like it’s ingrained in your brain that you’re supposed to think about money and that be the deciding factor for why you study something. It can be a factor, but you’re going to go through four years of intense schooling, but it’s also going to be some of the most enjoyable years of your life,” Brown said.

For people who are unsure, Brown encourages students to follow things they feel drawn to, and testing them out to see if it’s something worth spending a lot of their time on. While there may be pressure to pick a specific career path right away, Brown emphasizes that change is always possible and that majors will not confine an individual’s path.
“If you’re between things, I would suggest watching YouTube interviews or TED talks about people that are in the profession, and what they have to say about it… getting a college degree can help you get a job absolutely anywhere. So the fact that you’re going to college is going to ensure that you will be successful. But what you major in is not going to determine who you will be, because I feel like people put a lot of pressure on themselves”. Brown said.
Furthermore, Brown explained that many of her colleagues at CBS News have degrees unrelated to publications altogether.
“It’s about what you know, but it’s also just about your personality and your people skills with interviewing and you showing that you want to learn and be there. So just having a degree will help you but you’re not supposed to map out every single step of your life. You’re already on the right track that you’re thinking about it at this age.”

WORK/LIFE is a feature series that offers an inside look into future careers students might consider.