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That was a turning point of my life. It’s when I realized for the first time what I really wanted to be. When I was in university, I didn’t have a clear idea what I wanted to be. I was very sure I was not interested in anything related to accounting, finance or information systems, and I actually had a phobia with numbers. I liked to work with different people and I had little patience. Now that I look back, I realize that theater is the perfect job for me; as a theater practitioner, I am to surprise myself constantly in the creative work. But back then, I had no idea what being an actress entailed; it was a simple act of following my heart.
Go ? Go ! Goal !
Although I seemed to have found my dream job, I didn’t know how I could make a career out of it with business and social sciences degrees. After I had decided to become a fulltime actress, there was a lot of waiting and searching. I didn’t have any trouble finding my first acting job, but the hardest thing was what was next: No theater company would hire a fulltime actress without prior professional acting training. I therefore took up a part-time job at an art gallery. I also finally had the courage to call myself an actress. What I’ve learnt in my first few years in this industry is the importance of having the courage to make a decision that seems “wrong” in many people’s eyes.
One day, a friend asked me whether I wanted to teach drama in English. English? Yes I do speak English. But drama? I am still a baby. It turned out that there was a company which was starting to expand and was looking for people who could teach English
through drama. I met their artistic director over a drink, together with my friend. One week later, I joined the company and worked there
for a year, before I went to Europe for my professional theater training. It was the first time I was introduced to the concept of Drama Education. It’s more than just sharing one’s creative work with an audience; it’s applying theater to different contexts such as education, training and therapy.
Enjoy every flop
One of the biggest challenges, as a performer, is to face and even enjoy every flop. The work of an actor/actress is a process of constant self-discovery and everyone is unique. There are times when one has to face their weaknesses at work. It might be playing a character that is too difficult to handle, knowing that the ideas you have in mind don’t work, or feeling that you are nobody. In moments like these, it’s easy for me to choose “flight” instead of “fight”. The challenge is to accept our own weaknesses and turn them into something useful instead of covering them up. Once,
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I took the step to try what I thought wouldn’t work. This inspired the director and things turned out even better.
There were times when I doubted whether I should be doing something else instead of theater, but I really could not think of anything that I would enjoy more than it. I have a need to create, to act, and to emerge myself in scripts, music and literature. It is also this urge that makes me want to share everything I have learnt with my students when I teach. Rehearsals, teaching and even struggling with different roles energize me more than anything else I do.
As a drama facilitator and actress, almost every job is a new challenge for me. It is never the same; even if I conduct the same class, the participants are different, and that would make the class very different. I could never anticipate what their reactions would be, but that’s precisely one of the things I love the most about my job. I remember that the first time I conducted a teachers’ workshop for the Education Bureau, I was very insecure as I knew the participants in the room had had much more teaching experience than I had, and they were probably not used to running around or lying on the floor in a class. However, once my session started, we had so much fun. Using the same theater game I had done with children, I discovered so much with this group of adults. I’ve come to realize that all I need to do is to focus on my goal and go for it, and this also reminds me that it’s the passion I have towards theater that keeps me going.
I guess it’s hard to say whether one has a successful career. It depends on what one focuses on. If one has achieved what they have planned or even more, perhaps we could say they have built a successful career. You could say yours is successful because of your achievements, awards, accomplishment etc. At the same time I think everyone knows in their own heart what success looks like and we all see it differently.
Live your life to the fullest
Fresh graduates have the privilege to ask about anything they don’t know. I don’t think any of us expects a fresh graduate to know a lot, but I do appreciate someone who is open in accepting new ideas and curious about things around them. This makes them a pleasant person to work with. Developing own sense of critical thinking is also very important. When I teach university students or adults, the factor that differentiates the outstanding ones from the rest is their critical thinking skills.
I don’t believe there’s a perfect job for everyone. Some might be very determined from the very beginning; others gradually discover their passion over the years. Yet I think it’s important to find one’s own pleasure and enjoyment at work. This is the biggest motivation to continue with what one is doing and to develop one’s skills to the fullest.
University is a place with a lot of resources and a good place for making connections.
You never know what you’ll get from a visit to the Career Center, a mentorship program, joining a sports team or simply chatting to the person next to you before an interview. These were actually all situations in which I met people who are still playing an important role in my life now.
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S
hortly after graduating from HKUST, I joined Pacific Advantage, the company I am still working in today. It is an IT outsource company which has helped many overseas technology companies expand into the Asia-Pacific region.I was fortunate enough to begin my career journey in this company – I started off as an Office Administration Assistant responsible for general office support and travel arrangement. The work environment in my company began to change when some sales and technical colleagues started traveling very frequently around the world.
My first impression of these colleagues was that they looked very sharp, and were knowledgeable and experienced. I started dreaming to become a very knowledgeable professional who would travel frequently to different places. I also told my senior that I was interested in marketing and that I wanted to have more opportunities to travel. A few years later, with more experience and knowledge in administration and marketing, I began to take care of different sales and marketing