Epidemic forces student to postpone her career

Wang Chunhua, a 24-year-old postgraduate student majoring in Chinese language at Wuhan University.

I had two plans for my future. Plan A was applying to study for a doctoral degree at an overseas university, but it's falling apart as I did not score very high on the IELTS test and was put on the waiting list by the universities.

So I've focused all my efforts on Plan B－becoming a reporter.

I have sent more than 10 resumes to some well-known national media groups since late October. But reality is cruel－I haven't received any response from them yet. The competition in the job market is really fierce and the situation seems to be harsher these days. Then I sent my resume to some local government and commercial media groups and finally got a response.

I was really lucky as I went to a couple of interviews and got an offer from a local media group in Zhejiang province in January. Where there is a will, there is a way. Then came the epidemic, which forced my employer to postpone the health screening that should have been carried out in March in Hangzhou.

After landing the job, I went back to my hometown－the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region－from Wuhan on Jan 16 for the Spring Festival holiday.

I heard about the epidemic in late December after some cases of an unknown pneumonia were reported. But I didn't care much about it as I thought it was not that severe while I was busy seeking jobs at the time.

However, I had the most terrifying time during the Spring Festival vacation. I remember it was Jan 22 when I joked with my parents to take my temperature. It was 37.2 C, then 37.3 C and got as high as 37.8 C. I was then sent to the nearest hospital. Luckily, doctors told me that I was OK but still needed medical observation.

Wang Chunhua spoke with Cheng Si.