Zijia Song is an Emerging Markets Reporter at Bloomberg, focusing on covering Latin American sovereign debt and corporate credits. She was born in China and attended her province's school system until her second year of high school. We talk about the culture of academia in China and why she moved to Minnesota and stayed with a host family for the rest of her high school years. During the transition, she went from being an only child to living with six other kids and many pets. After her experience in the US school system, she chose to stay in the United States for college. She worked with a college counselor while home for the summer and decided to attend Boston College. She entered BC as a math major and added a second major in the Communications department after a journalism internship while home one summer in China.

Zijia was accepted to Bloomberg's Diversity Exploration program during her senior year of college. The program took place the last week of senior year, causing her to miss all the senior week activities, but she says it was well worth it. Before joining Bloomberg full-time, she received a second degree from the Global Journalism Program at New York University. She networked with program directors and was mentored on how to best present herself in her grad school application, which is excellent advice she shares with listeners in the episode. While at NYU, Zijia reported on sex work in the Chinese community. She shows her dedication to her work with stories about spending long nights out reporting and building rapport in the community.

She has now returned to Bloomberg in a rotational reporting program. She was not initially interested in business reporting but gives the advice to take opportunities when presented, even if they are different from what you expect/are comfortable with. We talk in-depth about the elements of good market reporting. Because her reporting is read by many traders who have to make quick decisions with significant monetary consequences, balancing speed with credibility is at the core of her work. She pays attention to all aspects of LatAm markets, from specific names, such as an oil company in Mexico, to the political landscape of Latin American countries to inform on debt performance and developments.

She also gives excellent advice on how to find internship opportunities in journalism as an undergraduate and how she advocated for herself to make all of her accomplishments a reality.