The thorny journey of 9X Viet

Born in a poor family, from a young age, he was constantly ill. What was deeply imprinted in Nguyen Ngoc Dung’s childhood (1991) was poverty.

“Since I was a child, my family’s economy has been very difficult. Parents have to take on a lot of debt, so they are always under pressure from interest debts. But at that time, I was not aware of the problem.”

In the middle school years, Dung was addicted to playing games, even often skipping school to sit “smooth”. Also because of his addiction to games, he once stole 3 months’ tuition at school just to burn it into a shop.

But by the middle of high school, Dung began to realize how what he was doing was causing suffering to those around him. It was also the time when he thought more about his family.

From security guard to IT engineer with a good degree

For that, there is only one way to change life, that is to study, but to choose what to study, Dung has not yet answered.

“I consulted a lot of my classmates. Most of them choose to study Business Administration, but do not know what they will do after graduation.

I think about what I can do best, perhaps playing games. Therefore, I chose to pursue the field of information technology, because at least this field of study gave me a clear direction, what I could do next “- Dung recalls.

The desire to go to school in Dung became more and more intense. Determining the direction, but to pass the university, it still needs investment in review.

One summer morning, Dung stood at the door of his Chemistry teacher’s house for an hour with the intention of presenting his situation and hoping that she would let him learn more. But before he could ask her, with a certain thought, Dung decided to turn his back and leave.

Around the same time, Dung was led by a friend to take extra math lessons. After 1 week, Dung was extremely excited. Dung wants to continue studying, but when asked about tuition fees, Dung is stunned by your answer: “It’s quite expensive”.

“At that time, it was summer, Math had more classes, so the tuition fee was 420,000 VND/month, while Physics and Chemistry were 250,000 VND/month” – Dung recalled.

While depressed and almost want to give up, the light reappears at the end of the road. Dung was found by his father for a job at 3 – 5 am (later, when entering the school year, Dung asked to change the shift from 11 pm to 1 am). That is a security guard on the ward with a salary of 450,000 VND/month.

“It was a really happy moment, it was kind of a turning point. If it weren’t for that shot, I wouldn’t be where I am now,” Dung recalled.

Since then, Dung started going to school in the morning and going to work at night. Night guard work is also very dangerous, when chasing robbers, you can run the risk of being repelled. If he didn’t have to go on night patrol, he would take out a book to study, too tired, he would rest on a stone bench.

With that job, Dung could only pay for the extra cost of math during the summer. Continuing to fast for breakfast, and due to the decrease in the number of extra lessons when entering the official school year, Dung had enough money to pay for more Chemistry lessons. For Physics, Dung boldly met the teacher and asked to pay at the end of the month instead of the beginning of the month for the previous month’s tuition.

However, despite his best efforts, Dung still could not get into the school of his dreams – University of Natural Sciences, Ho Chi Minh City.

Frustrated because it seemed “there is no way”, Dung once thought about giving up.

Fortunately, the school recruits the college system, the right information technology major, and can be transferred to the university if there are good results. Dung immediately seized the opportunity.

In the next 3 years, 9X tried hard to learn to keep up with the program, passing the 6 subject exam to become a university student. At the same time, maintaining a job as a night security guard and doing many other jobs, spending money to pay for school expenses for herself and her brother.

However, when only 1 month left to defend the thesis, Dung’s mother was hospitalized.

“I am very worried, my mother works hard to send my two brothers to school, so there is no savings. Once when I visited my mother, seeing her sick but also worried about money, I felt helpless. That night, I could only lie down and cry quietly,” Dung recalled.

Once again, the idea of ​​giving up appeared in Dung’s mind. He intended to quit school to work, but Dung’s mother tried to dissuade him. Her health also gradually improved and was discharged from the hospital.

Dung, who has finally completed the defense of his graduation thesis with honors, officially holds a degree in Information Technology Engineering.

“Difficulty is also good luck”

In the first year of work, Dung only slept about 4-5 hours a day, because in addition to work at the company, Dung also received additional projects outside. Although excited because his income has increased compared to before, Dung still lives quite hard due to both living expenses and family loans. Even Dung’s ‘fishing rod’ computer is now borrowed.

With continuous efforts, after 2 years, Dung was recruited into a better company, and at the same time paid off all the family’s debts.

Also during this time, around the end of 2015, Dung “apply” wrote an article for a rather large Australian technology magazine.

“Wow, they always replied and discussed the topic I was going to write about. I spent over a month writing articles with the help of an editor. New Year 2016 they posted my post, and I got 150 USD.

Realizing that in order to go far, he must find a way to “reach out to the world”, Dung knows English is an important baggage and needs to be seriously invested.

“In the past, also because of my difficult circumstances, I did not have money to attend the center like my classmates, even though I liked it very much. Once, by chance watching on Star Movies channel, HBO, I accidentally repeated a character’s sentence. That makes me feel very excited.

Since then, I started asking myself questions and answering simple conversations. Every evening, I usually spend about 10 minutes telling myself what happened during the day. Thanks to that, I also gradually got used to speaking English.”

But in order to be able to use English fluently at work, Dung decided to spend some money, just to hire someone to speak English and edit it for himself. Thanks to that, his speaking ability improved after 3 months.

At the end of 2019, thanks to 4 years of experience as an engineer in Vietnam, and fluent English ability, Dung was accepted to the position of software engineer at Rakuten, Japan e-commerce department. Here, Dung contributes to rebuilding products and improving tools for engineers to increase work efficiency.

In 2021, Dung continued to apply for DoorDash – the company that operates an American online food ordering platform based in Japan.

Looking back on the past journey, Dung said, difficulty is also a blessing, because it has helped me receive many things.

“For example, when I worked as a security guard, even though I was very tired, it made me realize many things. At that time, I just wanted to go to college. I keep imagining, when I wake up the next morning, what will I do if I can’t go to school anymore? Because, when I went to work as a security guard, an hour passed, I thought it was as long as a day. I keep counting the minutes to go home, and time keeps goingIt passed meaninglessly.

Or the moment I saw the very old security guard having to drive a very heavy vehicle, I figured that if I didn’t go to school, I would have to do that security job for the rest of my life. That is the motivation that motivates me to study hard to be able to do the things I love more.”

Another thing, Dung also feels lucky because his parents don’t study much, but both are always aware of what their children need and are ready to support.

“Just like when I told my mother about the tuition fee, both mother and daughter had the intention of giving up because they didn’t know how to make money. But when I heard about it, my dad found a way to help me get a job. Thanks to that, I have money to pay for my school fees. Although my father did not say it in words, he always silently sought to support. For me, it is a very lucky and happy thing.”

Thuy Nga