“You’re too accessible.”

That’s what Susan Zirinsky, the new head of CBS News, was told early in her career — because she was seemingly everywhere at once.

It was during that era that she agreed to meet with a young woman named Hannah Yang, who was on the verge of quitting what she had thought would be her dream job — working for Charlie Rose. She was troubled by the workplace environment and had decided to leave, but was convinced her career in journalism would be over.

Ms. Yang had only briefly met Ms. Zirinsky, then executive producer at “48 Hours,” but decided to ask for a meeting. She expected Ms. Zirinsky to say no. Instead, Ms. Zirinsky ended up giving her the most valuable advice of her career: to pursue the business side of media.

Eighteen years later, Ms. Zirinsky — known to many as “Z” — is president of CBS News, brought in to run the news division following a massive company crisis over sexual misconduct that included the firing of the company’s chief executive, Les Moonves, and Mr. Rose. She is the first woman to hold that job. Ms. Yang is a business executive at The New York Times, who said she now makes a point of making herself accessible, too.