Twenty-seven-year-old Tricia Hua faces a new adventure every day as a reporter for Channel 17 News.
“I always knew I wanted to be a broadcast reporter,” said Hua.
Throughout college she was hired for internships and majored in political science while keeping up with a second language on the side. She started out working for Los Angeles news operations, and took an internship in Washington, D.C. in the White House. After returning, she worked entry-level at KNBC in Los Angeles once again and ran scripts to an anchor, proving that staying in touch with past employment worked to her benefit. Because she showed a continuous interest in the broadcasting company, she worked up to where she is today.
“Not only do I like to cover news, I like to uncover news,” said Hua. “I love chasing down stories.”
Her daily job consists of unexpected stories and lots of competition just to cover news to bring to the community’s attention. Her job is to get a good story before her competitors do, and perhaps get a better story; a deeper tale with personal interviews.
“You can’t wait. There will always be another reporter there to get the story,” she said. “I thrive off of that. There’s a lot of adrenalin in the field.”
Aside from reporting, Hua loves to travel, and benefits from her many experiences around the world. She’s traveled to a variety of countries in and around Europe as well as Peru, the Amazon, Morocco and China.
“It gives you more of a worldly prospective,” she explained.
She spent a semester in Spain developing her language skills because she believes “it is important to have a second language under your belt.”
Hua is adaptive and willing to sacrifice. Reporters have to be willing to give up a lot of things for their jobs, such as their personal lives, family, and holidays.
“Don’t be reluctant to move,” she advised. “It’s so easy to get discouraged along the way but stick with it because it is so rewarding … . You do it for the experience and you do what you love to do.”
When it comes to long-term goals, Hua said she’d like to end up in San Francisco, following her own advice, “move up until you get where you want to be.”