All it takes is one person to give you a shot. Jenna Bush Hager cries while thanking Holda for her big break. The one person who changed the course of Jenna’s career is Hoda. When Jenna made this statement, both ladies were reaching for tissues.
You see, it’s not easy chasing your dream job. The pair were inspired after sharing a story they learned about from a recent viral LinkedIn post from Sophia Cheong who navigated 357 rejections and 40 interviews before landing a job.
“I remember when I was looking for my very, very, very, very first job and I thought … I kind of thought I was going to get a job right away,” Hoda said, “And I remember the first time I got rejected to my face, I was so surprised because I had a tape and I went to college, and here’s my stuff. He’s like, ‘Well, you’re too green.’”
She recalled how hard it was being rejected over and over those first few months after graduating. “It just kept going and going and going and going and going, and I kept going and getting the rejection,” she said. “There is a point when you get so many that your whole self-esteem just goes down the toilet. You start thinking, I made a mistake. Because all these people can’t be wrong.”
But you just need one person to give you a chance and for Hoda it was a man by the name of Stan Sandroni in Mississippi. Stan believed in Hoda and helped launch her journalism career.
“You just need one person to say you can do it, and my one guy’s name was Stan Sandroni, and he was in Greenville, Mississippi. He hired me when no one else would,” Hoda said. “This guy believed, and that’s so shocking because it was like, you just need the one.”
At that moment, Jenna began to tear up because the one person who gave her a chance was sitting right next to her. That one special person was Hoda. “Do you know who my one would be?” she said to Hoda. “You.” Jenna added, “You asked me to fill in with you and I’ll never forget it, so my one is you.” The pair were silent for jus