Linh Nguyen My — Graduate Software Engineer

Linh is a long-time codebar student who has just started her software engineering career as a Graduate Software Engineer at ASOS.

Find Linh online at:

@pinglinh | GitHub | Medium | Website

What did you want to be growing up?

Everything? I use to role play all the time, from a doctor to hairdresser to beggar. I never had a particular role in mind. I was a child who would get bored often so I kept changing who I was role playing everyday.

When did your interest in tech start?

I have been in education non-stop from secondary school all the way through to doing my Master’s degree without any breaks in-between. I never had the time to explore my options. Having finally finished my degrees, I had the time to go out there and find some things of interest. I joined meetup.com and selected few categories of interest. Shortly after I started getting recommended meetups to go to which were mainly tech and start-up related. I found it really fascinating how tech is working on solving different problems around the world.

Huge congratulations on the new job as a developer, please tell us more about your journey to being a developer?

Thank you! It certainly has been a long ride with many hurdles along the way. It started with doing a CodeFirst:Girls Ruby course back in January 2016. I found it difficult to understand the concept of programming however this only motivated me to continue learning after I had finished the course! I started to go to more coding meetups in London particularly codebar and WomenWhoCode. They’re both great meetups as you get paired with a coach who can guide you through tutorials or a personal project you’re currently working on. As codebar was more regular, I attended every session I could! I can’t thank codebar enough as without them I wouldn’t have met so many wonderful people and practiced my coding skills. codebar is something I look forward to every week!

What is your favourite thing about being a developer?

Solving problems right at your fingertips! My background was in Biochemical Engineering which did involve a lot of problem solving but it wasn’t as flexible as being a developer. You have to go on site to do your experiments and then wait for them to be done before taking the results and analysing them. Being a developer, you can solve the problems anywhere as long as you have a laptop and wifi! Also there are so many ways to solve the same problem and you can get creative with it!

What is the coolest project you have worked on and why?

My ‘Penguin Eats’ game which I co-developed with Tomasz Wegrzanowski — https://taw.github.io/phaser-opal-minigames/games/penguin_eats

How did you get involved with codebar?

One of my friends introduced me to codebar and I haven’t turned back since.

Why do you keep coming back to codebar?

The codebar community is super helpful and patient. I always learn a lot in each session! It’s also a great environment to meet new like-minded people.

What are your plans for the future?

Now that I’ve got a job as a Software Engineer, I plan to learn lots and become a coach once I’ve settled in. I also hope to contribute to open source projects soon. Long term goals, I plan to become a tech lead.

What advice would you give to aspiring developers?

Keep coding and keep coming to codebar. Perseverance, commitment and dedication are key to success. Don’t be discouraged when you’re rejected, but rather think of this as a step nearer to your goal! Ultimately, believe in yourself, 😃 you can do anything you can put your mind to! Also, try not to compare yourself to others. When I was on this journey I read so many stories about others who managed to get a job in 5–6 months of self learning. I then had to realise that actually my circumstances are different. For some it may be quicker than others but ultimately this is your journey and no one should depict how quick or slow it should go. Also, don’t forget to really embrace and enjoy this moment. Before you know it, you’ll reach your goal and you’ll have other things to chase after. But that first step will always be the biggest in my opinion as that’s where it all started 😊.

To read further about my journey, please check out my blogpost here: https://code.likeagirl.io/i-finally-got-a-job-as-a-software-engineer-a83c7a745afb