bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

Lavender Cheung Wang-yim, 33

Lavender has been working at Cable News Channel as a chief news anchor since 1993. It was her first job after leaving university. She says that being able to witness the changes in the Hong Kong media and teaming up with hard-working professionals keeps her going.

What qualifications do you need?

Usually you need to be a university graduate, but not necessarily a graduate of a journalism

department. You might have some advantage if you studied journalism as you are more knowledgeable about the media world, but the most important thing is your attitude and ability. Your performance at

interviews is also important.

What sort of person does the job suit?

Be responsible and expressive. You also need to adapt to the surrounding environment. You have to stay calm and have a clear mind all the time, even if you witness a horrible [event] like the 9/11 terrorist attack.

What's the best way into the industry?

There are always cadetships recruiting young people. These provide training and the cadets can go on rotation to experience different aspects of news gathering. But whether you can stay on as a long-term employee depends on your performance.

What work hours do you keep?

Because this is a 24-hour news channel, we works shifts. It's very unstable. Sometimes I start work early in the morning, sometimes late at night. But I usually work a 10-hour day.

Is there a clear career path?

According to our company's system, at the beginning you are news anchor number three, then later you might be number one, and with more experience you may become the principal anchor. You might also need to host special programmes and translate foreign news stories into Chinese. You might also become an editor of a newscast.

What's the best part of your job?

It is very exciting. Because we always go live with our newscasts, we get to experience the development of a news event.

What's the worst?

Doing live news is very stressful. You can't make a

mistake or say the wrong thing.

Who is your role model?

No one in particular. I just do my best.

Last words?

For those of you who are interested in getting into journalism, you should always bear in mind that

you cannot think about taking things for granted. You will have to be willing to work extremely hard, and to think hard.



I wanna be a news-reader