<SOFTWARE DEVELOPER/>
Welcome to my blog! I am Vivian, a Software Engineer based in Brisbane, Australia. I am originally from Hoà Bình, a small and beautiful city in Northern Vietnam. I moved to Brisbane in February 2017 and fell in love with this city, which now I'm proud to call home.
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After completing my Master's Degree in IT - Business Process Management in December 2018, I taught myself to code with the popular free online coding course for beginners - CS50's Introduction to Computer Science.
Before diving into coding, I was always curious about it but lacked the opportunity to explore or a mentor to guide me. My journey began while I was still working in Vietnam as an HR and Recruiter for Paymentwall, a US-based tech company. In that role, I needed to familiarize myself with software development job descriptions and basic OOP concepts to effectively hire developers. This experience planted the seed for my interest in coding, even though I didn’t pursue it right away.
In June 2019, six months after my Master graduation, I was fortunate to receive an offer to become an Appian developer at Procensol. Appian is a low-code platform that helps developers build websites and software applications by focusing on improving business processes rather than writing complex code. I am grateful for this opportunity, as it allowed me to learn more about software development and gain valuable skills, as well as make some wonderful friends and mentors.
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In June 2020, I was honored to receive a full scholarship to SheCodes Plus, a 6-month, part-time coding bootcamp. This incredible opportunity allowed me to refine my coding skills and deepen my passion for software development while balancing other commitments. I successfully graduated from the program later that year and have since contributed as a casual industry mentor for SheCodes, helping others embark on their own coding journeys.
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SheCodes truly transformed my life. In March 2021, just three months after graduating, I accepted an offer to join Go1 as a software developer. At Go1, I work on the development of their online education platform, leveraging the modern tech stack such as TypeScript, NestJS, NextJS, Terraform, Kubernetes, to create impactful solutions.
I believe that software development is a wonderful profession, and I am grateful for the many resources, such as SheCodes, CS50, and countless online courses, that have made it possible for me to learn to code and find jobs in this industry, even without a computer science degree. I am also inspired by books like Soft Skills: The Software Developer's Life Manual by John Z. Sonmez and Show Your Work by Austin Kleon, as well as Vloger Ali Abdaal's video on the three books that changed his life. That's why I decided to start this blog – to document my experiences, share what I've learned, and look back on how much I've grown in the future.
