A man from generation Z: Choosing vocational school over university
Having a TOEIC score of 960/990 and an IELTS score of 7.5 as well as excellent communication skills and solid knowledge of programming, after graduation, La Thanh Duong was immediately recruited as a programmer for a big project of FPT Software with a US client.
At the age of 18, La Thanh Duong got accepted into the information technology faculty of a university in Hanoi. However, after only 1 month of studying, he determined to change his path and decided to go to an information technology vocational school even though his family opposed and cut all allowances. Duong said: “The goal after university is to get a job that you love. If there is another training program that can both shorten the study time and provide chances for practicing more, why shouldn’t I choose it”. And so, the self-confident young man began a new journey with two tasks of studying and working part-time to pay for school’s tuition.
Successful in a different way
Putting on the vocational school uniform, Duong determined to study hard on programming and at the same time, refine his English. “Being an IT student, if you aren’t good at both coding and English, you won’t have a chance to work in a professional environment”, said Duong.
After nearly 3 years of study, holding the vocational school’s certificate and a lot of practical experience, Duong decided to go to Da Nang to establish his career. Having a TOEIC score of 960/990 and an IELTS score of 7.5 as well as excellent communication skills and solid knowledge of programming, after graduation, La Thanh Duong was immediately recruited as a programmer for a big project of FPT Software with a US client who ranks 5th in the electronic components business in the US. The 23-year-old man was assigned to a 4-member project team who are responsible for changing the searching platform on the client’s online sales website. “The client had a huge amount of data. In order to optimize the searching speed, it was necessary to deploy a new search engine which is capable of storing, searching and analyzing large amount of data, giving near real time results and applies distributed software architecture” said Duong.
With his outstanding English skills, Duong was in charge of communicating, connecting and negotiating with the client. The 23-year-old man had to quickly become experienced to meet the job requirements.
Not afraid of difficulties
Whenever receiving a request from client, Duong always thought carefully and analyzed the client’s information to convey to the members of the deployment team in the most accurate way. This required Duong to put himself in the shoes of a professional data analyst. “By analyzing client’s business model, as well as their target customers, their markets, their strengths and weaknesses, I can understand each requirement better to find the best way to respond quickly and effectively”, said Duong.
But the biggest difficulty that the young programmer had to face was the variety of new difficult technologies that Duong had never heard of when studying at school.
Always keeping in mind that “You need a passion to do any job. Technology is also an art in which creativity is an essential factor”, Duong had been actively finding ways to keep up with his teammates and better understand the new technologies.
Duong did not hesitate to ask his boss to attend all meetings, discuss with the client, and thoroughly read every client’s technical document. After work, Duong spent 2 hours every evening searching for English documents about the project’s technologies. His English skills, which had been continuously refined, now became useful.
With the efforts and enthusiasm of the youth, Duong and his colleagues finished the project with the US client in a third of the expected timeframe. The success of this project also opens up new opportunities for FPT Software to develop Big Data and ETL (Extract, transform, load) technologies. After this project, Duong and his teammates have continued to conquer many other big projects for Japanese and US customers.
At the end of 2019, after only 5 months of working, La Thanh Duong became one of the 100 best employees of the company, and at the same time, the youngest employee of FPT Software to have achieved this title.
La Thanh Duong said that thanks to his years of studying and working, doing everything from being a waiter to a tutor to fend for himself, without ever being picky or afraid of difficulties, he had become mature and ready for anything.
After entering the technology industry, the young programmer has found out that there is too much work to do, which involves always gathering knowledge, updating new technologies and constantly thinking of new products that bring transformation to the society. According to Duong, at FPT Software, everyone has the opportunity to experience new technologies and take on challenges that create momentum to help young people grow and dedicate themselves to. This is the springboard for a generation of young Vietnamese like Duong to have the opportunity to bring Vietnamese wisdom to the world.
Duong hope that the young generation of Vietnam can gradually change their way of thinking about studying and working. “Young people can choose their own path without being forced by the predetermined arrangement. But you need a passion to do any job. Technology is also an art which requires everyone to be creative to pursuit it”, said Duong.
Source: Cafebiz.vn
Having a TOEIC score of 960/990 and an IELTS score of 7.5 as well as excellent communication skills and solid knowledge of programming, after graduation, La Thanh Duong was immediately recruited as a programmer for a big project of FPT Software with a US client.
At the age of 18, La Thanh Duong got accepted into the information technology faculty of a university in Hanoi. However, after only 1 month of studying, he determined to change his path and decided to go to an information technology vocational school even though his family opposed and cut all allowances. Duong said: “The goal after university is to get a job that you love. If there is another training program that can both shorten the study time and provide chances for practicing more, why shouldn’t I choose it”. And so, the self-confident young man began a new journey with two tasks of studying and working part-time to pay for school’s tuition.
Successful in a different way
Putting on the vocational school uniform, Duong determined to study hard on programming and at the same time, refine his English. “Being an IT student, if you aren’t good at both coding and English, you won’t have a chance to work in a professional environment”, said Duong.
After nearly 3 years of study, holding the vocational school’s certificate and a lot of practical experience, Duong decided to go to Da Nang to establish his career. Having a TOEIC score of 960/990 and an IELTS score of 7.5 as well as excellent communication skills and solid knowledge of programming, after graduation, La Thanh Duong was immediately recruited as a programmer for a big project of FPT Software with a US client who ranks 5th in the electronic components business in the US. The 23-year-old man was assigned to a 4-member project team who are responsible for changing the searching platform on the client’s online sales website. “The client had a huge amount of data. In order to optimize the searching speed, it was necessary to deploy a new search engine which is capable of storing, searching and analyzing large amount of data, giving near real time results and applies distributed software architecture” said Duong.
With his outstanding English skills, Duong was in charge of communicating, connecting and negotiating with the client. The 23-year-old man had to quickly become experienced to meet the job requirements.
Not afraid of difficulties
Whenever receiving a request from client, Duong always thought carefully and analyzed the client’s information to convey to the members of the deployment team in the most accurate way. This required Duong to put himself in the shoes of a professional data analyst. “By analyzing client’s business model, as well as their target customers, their markets, their strengths and weaknesses, I can understand each requirement better to find the best way to respond quickly and effectively”, said Duong.
But the biggest difficulty that the young programmer had to face was the variety of new difficult technologies that Duong had never heard of when studying at school.
Always keeping in mind that “You need a passion to do any job. Technology is also an art in which creativity is an essential factor”, Duong had been actively finding ways to keep up with his teammates and better understand the new technologies.
Duong did not hesitate to ask his boss to attend all meetings, discuss with the client, and thoroughly read every client’s technical document. After work, Duong spent 2 hours every evening searching for English documents about the project’s technologies. His English skills, which had been continuously refined, now became useful.
With the efforts and enthusiasm of the youth, Duong and his colleagues finished the project with the US client in a third of the expected timeframe. The success of this project also opens up new opportunities for FPT Software to develop Big Data and ETL (Extract, transform, load) technologies. After this project, Duong and his teammates have continued to conquer many other big projects for Japanese and US customers.
At the end of 2019, after only 5 months of working, La Thanh Duong became one of the 100 best employees of the company, and at the same time, the youngest employee of FPT Software to have achieved this title.
La Thanh Duong said that thanks to his years of studying and working, doing everything from being a waiter to a tutor to fend for himself, without ever being picky or afraid of difficulties, he had become mature and ready for anything.
After entering the technology industry, the young programmer has found out that there is too much work to do, which involves always gathering knowledge, updating new technologies and constantly thinking of new products that bring transformation to the society. According to Duong, at FPT Software, everyone has the opportunity to experience new technologies and take on challenges that create momentum to help young people grow and dedicate themselves to. This is the springboard for a generation of young Vietnamese like Duong to have the opportunity to bring Vietnamese wisdom to the world.
Duong hope that the young generation of Vietnam can gradually change their way of thinking about studying and working. “Young people can choose their own path without being forced by the predetermined arrangement. But you need a passion to do any job. Technology is also an art which requires everyone to be creative to pursuit it”, said Duong.
Source: Cafebiz.vn