Becoming a Software Engineer: A rough and promising journey

In order to provide Olympians with the understandings and insights of diverse career orientation, Career Talk 01 organized by the University and Career Counseling (UCC) had brought Olympians the chance to talk and listen to Mr. Brian Nguyen – Google Software Engineer, Ms. Faith Toy – Representative of Faculty of Engineering, Monash University (Australia). The discussion with the topic “Path to become a Software Engineer at Google” provided a comprehensive, insightful and practical view of the Software Engineering industry, from learning theory, developing skills while studying in university, to understanding about practical requirements of the career today and in the future. 

Highschool students participated in the sharing Career Talk 01 

 
From an educator's point of view, Ms. Faith Toy helped students gain a deeper understanding of the qualities and competencies that you need to prepare if you want to study Software Engineering in university. According to her, any organization needs a good software system to serve as an important foundation and tool for operation. Therefore, Software Engineering is an attractive profession, with high demand for human resources. However, this profession always requires innovation and creativity to meet the constantly changing needs of society. Software Engineer is also a challenging job with strict requirements for adaptability and high persistence. 

Students who want to pursue a career in Software Engineering need to practice their adaptability, self-learning and self-reflecting to continuously develop and innovate themselves. These can be formed by developing a planned work routine; actively participating in many extracurricular courses or online self-study programs to gain knowledge and skills. Actively participating in group activities when they are at high school or college, also creates many strengths for Olympians in any future job. 

Agreeing with the statement, Google Software Expert – Mr. Brian Nguyen believed that Olympians have many advantages when the school regularly organizes and gives opportunities for students to organize a variety of large or small events. With 11 years of experience working for domestic and foreign companies, Mr. Brian Nguyen advises Olympians to take full advantage of this opportunity to increase practical experience, to gain a lot of experience and practical skills. “The practical experiences at highschool will help them prepare their minds to face the challenges and difficulties that may be encountered in the future,” said Google Software Engineer. 

Recognizing that the Software Engineering industry has potentials for development in the future, Mr. Brian also stated that the requirements for professional personnel will be more strict, requiring higher and more specialized competence and skills. In addition, engineers will need advance skill in team cooperation and support, so that members can complete and compensate for each other's strengths and weaknesses. “Most importantly, in order to pursue this career, engineers always needs to maintain perseverance and passion. Therefore, in order to successfully pursue Software Engineering, you should always try to find joy and happiness on this rough but promising career path,” said Brian Nguyen. 

Attending the sharing session that day, Nguyen Duc Minh – Olympian from Grade 9 expressed his interest to learn more about Software Engineering due to interesting and valuable information from the speakers. He also achieved a better understanding of the goals needed to accomplish in order to pursue this career in the future: practice your skills in planning, testing and evaluating projects, implementing plans in reality. 

In conclusion, Olympians had a more realistic, profound and comprehensive view about Software Engineering thanks to the sharing at Career Talk 01. Let's look forward to the next sessions of Career Talk to expand understanding of different professions and fields of work, thereby helping Olympians to choose a suitable orientation for future career path. 

Ms. Faith Toy - Representative of Faculty of Engineering, Monash University (Australia) shared the requirements of Software Engineering major in university

The sharing between the guests was organized online and offline