But years later, in 2001 and at 25 years outdated, Pak broke limitations by turning into MTV News’ first Asian American correspondent. She would seem on TV screens throughout hundreds of thousands of dwelling rooms over the subsequent decade-plus, reporting on all the things from celeb purple carpets to presidential elections to worldwide aid efforts.
It took her years to really feel like she was the actual deal, Pak tells CNBC Make It, and even her mother and father weren’t completely satisfied of her journalism career. Pak was in her 30s when her mother joked it wasn’t too late to turn out to be a lawyer. (Her mother and father ultimately got here round after Pak’s third time on the MTV Video Music Awards, when her look was written up by a Korean newspaper. “I do not forget that being framed within the kitchen for a very very long time,” Pak says.)
Since leaving the MTV News correspondent job, Pak has reported on ABC, NBC, Discovery Networks, Oxygen, and E!. Most not too long ago, she became co-host of the podcast “Add to Cart” and contributed the introduction to MTV Books’ “My Life: Growing Up Asian in America.”
CNBC Make It spoke with Pak, 45, about why a survival mentality, connecting with co-workers and having enjoyable are key to constructing a profitable career.
Taking dangers with a ‘survival mentality’
“I did not see different faces like myself aside from Connie Chung on a nationwide stage,” Pak says. “And so for me to pursue this model of my career, I needed to have a sure mindset of: ‘This is it. I haven’t got a plan B. I’ve obtained to make this work.’ So there may be that survival mentality a whole lot of entrepreneurs, particularly immigrant entrepreneurs, have that has pushed me.”
It’s all about having the braveness to push previous discomfort and check out new issues, she provides. “You need to say sure to issues that are not acquainted to you, or that you have by no means completed earlier than, to succeed. That’s one thing that I’ve seen my mother and father do many times on this nation as they’re making their their manner.”
Breaking limitations as a first
A turning level got here when she led “My Life (Translated),” a documentary sequence that adopted teenagers from immigrant households as they skilled courting, promenade, school and all the trimmings of younger life.
“That was the first time that I actually understood I might discover a lot satisfaction in speaking about who I used to be, within the absolute sense,” Pak says. “I might speak about being Korean American. I might speak about my household. I might let folks into this private a part of my life and know it might be accepted, and that it might be celebrated.”
What to search for in a career
“At MTV I obtained to consider, what do I wish to spend my time doing? What do I wish to do on daily basis? What emotion do I wish to drive most of my day?” Pak says. “It’s not going to be on a regular basis, however can most of my day be thrilling and attention-grabbing? Can most of my day be impressed? Can most of my day really feel new?”
It was a giant shift, Pak says, “as soon as I spotted a career is not only a place the place you’re employed, however a career is one thing that informs your total life.”
For folks constructing their career or determining a subsequent transfer, Pak places it this manner: “There’s a whole lot of stress to determine what your career is. What it’s important to actually give attention to is the standard of the time that you just spend someplace.”
Self-advocacy within the office
As the one lady within the newsroom for a lot of her time, not to mention being an Asian American lady, Pak needed to be taught to advocate for herself shortly.
She was usually assigned to interview feminine pop stars however labored to pitch “meaty interviews,” she says: “It’s nice to dress up and stand on a purple carpet in heels. But it is also nice to placed on a helmet and fly in a helicopter to cowl warfare and rescue efforts.”
Finding a mentor
Pak says probably the most essential methods she’s progressed in her career has been by way of her community of former MTV colleagues and connections. “It’s loopy that I’ve had a career virtually solely primarily based on folks I’ve labored with,” she says.
People, regardless of the place they’re in there career, ought to make it a precedence to discover a mentor at work. It would not need to something formal, she provides. “It may be fostering only a relationship with somebody that you’ve a reference to.”
Opportunities can come from surprising locations. In 2019, Pak met her “Add to Cart” podcast co-host Kulap Vilaysack within the AAPI breakout group of Time’s Up Entertainment. “I used to be making an attempt to get extra numerous voices combating for illustration within the media,” Pak says, “after which I met my co-host.”