Corner of Sun*: It is never too late to follow your passion

At the end of grade 12 (2013), the school that I decided to enter was Peoples Police University of Technology and Logistics in Bac Ninh. However, the results were not as what I and my family expected, since I failed my first dream school with a total score of 3 subjects merely 20 - which was also my first failure in life. At that time, I had a feeling of disorientation and did not know what I liked, or what I should pursue. However, after being advised and recommended by relatives, I chose to study Automation and enrolled in a university near my house in Nghe An.

5 years at university also passed quite simply with subject failure, scholarships, lover, breakup ... In 2018, I graduated with a good degree with an engineering degree in automation. After graduating from University (June 2018), I went to work and became a supervising and operating engineer at Saigon Beer Factory in Hanoi.

Working as a supervisor in the Beer Factory entails repetitive tasks day by day. Though not requiring much use of the mind, it makes me feel that I rarely have the chance to grow, and it feels like these jobs are cut out for married people with the desire for a stable life rather than a passionate young person like me. So, in March 2019 I decided to quit and find another job.

In April 2019, I bid farewell to Hanoi with two empty hands, moving to Saigon to "experience" as well as to find my true passion, because Saigon is said to be more active.

I joined a pure Japanese energy-saving computing company. Here, I learned a lot about the working style, along with many other useful lessons from everyone in the company. However, after a while, I felt that this was not a job that I am really passionate about. And interestingly in my boarding room, most of the members were working in IT (especially there are 2 members who are Developer at Sun* Ho Chi Minh). Every day, I was injected with information about technology, code in my mind by them. At first, I felt interested in it, so every day after work, I studied by myself at night, learning about Front-end. After over a week, I really enjoyed it.

At first, I was concerned about whether a student majoring in animation like myself would be able to follow IT, but with the encouragement of the brothers, I decided to embark. I don't understand why at that time I was so determined. I resigned from my current company, said goodbye to my fellow boarders, and then packed my things back to Hanoi.

October 2019, like rebuilding everything from scratch, I returned to Hanoi with the mentality of a person who went to school after nearly 2 years of graduation. I almost disappear from the public as I did not want to let everyone know, partly because I was shy with the fact that I had not achieved anything at that age. I signed up a course on the Back-end (with an intention of becoming a full-stack dev), and continued to self-study Front-end in my room. According to the recommendation of the bros in  Ho Chi Minh Sun, I enrolled in Ruby at Sun* Awesome Academy. That was a part-time course - 3 sessions/week, 3 hours/session and lasted for 6 months.

With only 3 hours a day, how can I become a Dev? It all depends on their own efforts and determination!

Luckily, I used to study engineering, so I could understand IT quickly. Then I decided to spend all my time coding, coding day and night, even on weekends.

Since then, I realized that, just as much as I did with what I liked, it gradually became my passion, and I realized that it was programming. At Awesome Academy, apart from learning to code, I was inspired by many other trainers and trainees. When I stumbled and felt depressed, they all encouraged and taught me how to overcome difficulties!

And just like that, at the end of July 2020, I completed the course at the Center and was lucky to pass the interview round to Vietnam Education Unit (August 26, 2020) as a Fresher Ruby. An amount of knowledge (about 75% of which I learned from the center) helps me acquire knowledge in EDU much easier. However, only after entering the EDU did I realize that I lacked a lot of basic knowledge about the IT industry, and a little shy about my own age. Most of the trainees here are all undergraduates, but that is not why I feel inferior. I have learned a lot from them, as well as other trainers from the smallest things, along with the determination to do everything till the end.

With my passion for code gradually growing every day, on December 24, 2020, I officially became an employee of Sun* Vietnam!

My little story will probably be nothing compared to the journey of many people, but I hope that it can inspire those who have been on the way to “find themselves".