Journalist Tu Minh Chien: "I remember failures more than successes"

Sharing about the opportunity to become a sports reporter, Mr. Chien said: “I don’t remember exactly when I chose to become a sports reporter. I have loved sports since middle school and read many books, newspapers, and watched TV about this field. When I was a student at the Institute of Journalism, I started participating in and organizing a football tournament for students in the Faculty of Journalism - Tu Hung Cup to satisfy my passion and practice working and writing articles. Tu Hung Cup is a playground that helps me connect with more relationships and develop my future professional skills. After that, I was guided by a close brother to do an internship and become a reporter until now.”

The difficulty for all reporters when they first start working is the source of information. In the early days, I did not have many sources of information so I had difficulty finding topics. When I had a topic, I lacked sources to provide me with valuable content and opinions.
Equipment was also a difficulty that I and many other colleagues encountered when I first started working. Modern journalism requires reporters to have multimedia skills, not only writing but also knowing how to take pictures and shoot videos. The first camera I had was a "bad" one, but I had to save up and spend all my savings to buy it. Although the quality was not really good, it helped me complete my first products.

I don't think I'm better than other reporters, but I think I have strengths and I have to try to sharpen them: carefulness and discipline. Every time I work, whether at a big or small event, I check carefully and meticulously in every step and every stage. I always remember a sentence in a book I read: If you want to be good at something, you have to practice it for 10,000 hours. During my years of working in practice, I had many encounters that made me mature very quickly. I accumulated a lot of life and work experience, developing and perfecting my working skills every day.

PV: Can you share your most memorable working memories?
I don't have the habit of remembering what I have achieved, I like to remember what I have not been able to do. In 2019, I went to the United Arab Emirates. At that time, I was in the East and the event was taking place in the West and there were only a few hours left before the event started, the traffic there was very difficult. My boss asked me if I could go to cover the event and I invited my colleagues to go with me but no reporter agreed. Because traveling in a foreign country is difficult and expensive, I did not go and that choice is what I regret the most until now.
It’s not that the event in the West was anything special, but what I missed will never come back, just like opportunities in life. If I don’t go, I won’t know what’s waiting for me. After that time, whenever I had the opportunity to go far away, I took on the task of gathering news and writing articles, and thanks to that, I met many people who left a deep impression on me.

PV: You shared that you remember your failures more than your successes. Can you share which failed work experience you remember the most?
In 2022, I was assigned to interview Joseph Schooling, a Singaporean swimmer, and the interview failed. Finding every way to interview Joseph was a key task during the 22nd SEA GAMES held in Vietnam. Through the international journalist network, I found the phone number of Joseph's representative to discuss, but she refused because she did not want Joseph to be disturbed during the competition preparation period. I think it was the representative who refused, but Joseph was not sure. Before the swimming competition day of the 22nd SEA GAMES, I sneaked into the hotel where Joseph was staying. He was very surprised and said that if I had arrived before the manager announced, he might have accepted. The interview with Joseph Schooling failed. That is the memory of my failed assignment that I remember the most.
PV: During your work, is there any character that you remember forever?
In 2020, I had the opportunity to interview Do Hung Dung. At that time, Dung "chip" was one of the best players on the team. He was also the owner of the Vietnam Golden Ball that year.
During the interview, Hung Dung shared: "Dung was advised not to do anything else after retiring, people advised Dung to just be a player, to do what he is best at and loves the most". I really like that saying and used it as the conclusion of my interview, only do what you are best at and love the most, then you will do the best.

The Institute of Journalism not only provides a solid foundation of journalism knowledge, access to all types of journalism such as print, electronic, radio, television, etc., but also creates conditions for me to practice working in many student activities such as Tu Hung Cup, Lien Chuong (Humanitarian Journalism Festival), Singing Journalism, etc. I think that being exposed to and practicing many types of journalism helps students after graduation have a solid foundation of knowledge, many opportunities and conditions to develop into comprehensive multimedia reporters.
Besides, Journalism is a challenging industry, requiring you to be careful and highly disciplined in your work. At the same time, you must cultivate and learn soft skills, operational skills and be "shameless" to be able to withstand pressure and do well the assigned work.
The last thing is that loving the profession and pursuing it to the end will help you gain more motivation later.
Thank you very much!