How I Became - a Journalist.
How I Became - a journalist w/ Vandhna Bhan
Welcome to the ‘How I Became’ series where Billie talks to girls across New Zealand who are killing it in their chosen career and see how they got there!
Trying to decide what you ‘want to be when you grow up’ is hard enough as it is and your careers counsellor probably won’t have all the answers you need.
HIB aims to give you a bit of insight into different career paths and what it takes to get there.
Name: Vandhna Bhan
Age: 24
Job title: Journalist
Current job: 1 News Reporter
Firstly, what drew you to journalism?
As cliche as it sounds, I’ve always wanted to be a reporter and have always been fascinated by the news from a young age! Mum loves to remind me how I used to wake up in the middle of the night as a toddler and just watch the BBC news, which played at that time on TV in Fiji, guess that’s where it all started.
What subjects did you take in high school that you think helped?
So I actually did a lot of the science and maths subjects in high school (not helpful for Journalism at all), but I also managed to fit in English, History and Drama (and the scholarship subjects for each of those). I’d also highly recommend Speech and Drama to further enhance that voice of yours!
What did your pathway towards starting your career look like?
While in Uni I started working at the Indian radio station, Radio Tarana, as I’m bilingual. I started hosting their weekly current affairs show every Sunday afternoon where I interviewed members of parliament and other community leaders. I also got to go overseas to cover the Fiji elections and an Indian Academy Award in Bangkok! I got a lot of contacts from this role, and heaps of great opportunities.
So, when I left university in 2019 TVNZ approached me to join them and I’ve been here since (while still continuing my radio show on Sundays). I started off on the assignments desk, where you are looking at all the breaking news situations, and doing quite a lot of admin for the newsroom (these also included many overnight shifts). Then, I went onto junior producing where I got on-air time on Breakfast and the Midday news bulletin. Then, I became the Auckland reporter for 1 News Tonight and now I’ve taken the role of 6pm Reporter in Wellington.
What did you study/where/how long did it take?
I did a Bachelor of Communications, majoring in Journalism from AUT which was a three year long degree.
What’s the best thing about your job?
You get to share some pretty amazing stories and meet incredible people on a daily basis. You also realise your reporting goes so far. It can help raise funds for someone; it can help find a missing person; it can help a family struggling with legal issues or issues with government agencies; it can help reunite a family; it can cause policy changes; it can create so much awareness and the list goes on!
What’s the hardest part?
That ^^^ with that comes a lot of responsibility and it can often be stressful if you get too involved in a story and want the best for the issue/person but it’s just not happening. There’s also so many stories out there! And we can’t cover them all on television so we have to prioritise. Then there’s the backlash we get as “the media”. You have to learn to not let anything get to you and understand that your work matters. There’s a huge anti-media rhetoric out there these days and it’s gotten worse during the covid pandemic, which can be quite stressful and demoralising to deal with when you’re out and about reporting. You can never please everyone.
What surprised you most about your job once you started working?
It’s a huge team effort that goes into television news! You might just see the reporter at 6pm but during the day we’ve often had help from a cameraman of course, a junior and senior producer, a video editor, a graphics team, a library/archive team, planning producers, lineup producers and directors!
What does an average day look like for you?
No two days are ever the same. Everyday you’re meeting new people, covering new issues, and hearing new stories. We could be spending a day scouring for news and then at 5pm we’re out in the field for breaking news.
We could be out from 5am for a flooding event till 8pm in our gumboots, then the next day we’re glammed up for a fashion show.
We could be spending hours chasing after politicians or protestors, to no avail sometimes. You come to work in the morning not knowing what the day is going to throw at you and I think the unknown is quite exciting for us journos.
What advice would you give to those looking to follow a similar career path?
Be patient, keep chipping away at stories, and be brave to just get out there and ask for a job in person/over the phone with your CV in hand, rather than waiting for a role to open up and just applying online. Also, don’t read the comments section on your stories, especially if it was a controversial one
What are the biggest challenges in your opinion to getting into journalism?
New Zealand doesn’t have a big media industry and covid has meant it’s gotten even smaller. There is so much competition out there to get an ‘in’, so you really have to find what sets you apart from the rest of the journos. Be bold. The field is full of extroverted personalities and you’ve got to find your place in that.
What kind of skills does your job require?
Multi tasking, common sense, a breadth of knowledge around current affairs, a good voice and on screen presence and making sure you can make diamonds under pressure!
What part of your job gives you the most satisfaction?
When you’ve done a story about someone's hardship/dilemma and they get back to you thanking you because since the story went to air raising awareness about their issue, their situation changed for the better all because of that. And that could mean the situation has changed for many others in a similar boat.
What has been an absolute highlight of your career?
After one of my live crosses for the 1pm briefing - a very basic live cross and by this stage I was over covid like every other person - I got a message from a random mother on my social media and it read “I just wanna say my 4yo daughter loves seeing someone that looks like her on the news. Thank you for inspiring her without knowing it”. That made me cry. I love my job and the stories I cover (and even the mundane days like this one), but never did I realise until this message that an Indian being on national TV means so much more, especially to little girls like her, and it’s changed the way I look at my work now going forward!
What’s an unexpected element to your job that people don’t realise you have to do?
Everyone asks me if I get my makeup done or my clothes picked for me… no, no I don’t. Quite often we’re doing our makeup and hair on the side of the road, while trying to write our notes and get our earpiece, camera, lights and mic ready before we go live on air, sometimes in the pouring rain - television is not glamorous for a reporter!
Describe your job in three words
Influential. Crucial. Exhilarating.
