Up close with Toan - a new programmer at Colibri

We are excited to share the story of our newest developer at Colibri - a place where we are joined by the love of programming.

Toan’s feature revolves around his early work, the pivotal time in life when he chases his career, the challenges of youth, and further thoughts on professional growth for software engineers. Our conversation with Toan isn't only focused on career change or grinding to become a current developer we also get to know more about Toan's daily life, the challenges of working and living in a new place, as well as great expectations for the future.

In Conversation with Toan

Luong Nhu Toan- Senior Mobile Software Engineer at Colibri

‘‘My journey and skills I’ve acquired along the way”

I'm a 27-year-old software developer, currently working and living in Hanoi. My role is as an app developer with over 8 years of experience, I have spent nearly 1⁄3 of my life on working and learning skills. For the last years, I have worked in many companies and participated in nurturing my own projects as well, to improve and seek new opportunities. Being a senior software developer is not just something I magically morph into. It took a lot of hard work and look back I am very happy with the decision I made in my life. There have been many fortuitous events in life that have benefited me certainly in my career and led to me become one of Colibri's members is obviously one of them.

Gaining Motivation from Other Talents.  

 I don’t know when I fell in love with programming. I know that I just did and had a passion for it. Maybe it was at college time when I met my friend and especially a couple of talented engineers, their achievements and success stories motivate me and many times may have even obsessed me. When I found that out, I immediately thought

“ I can do it”

To be completely honest, I wasn't an excellent student compared to other top classmates. But thanks to learning and growth-mindset. It motivated me to achieve my goal and get a good grade, that was a big change for me during university time. Needless to say, I was also surprised and proud of myself.

“There’s a lot of power in other people's perspectives to become a success, you can learn about perseverance, motivation and diligence” - Luong Nhu Toan.

Career Path so Far

As a developer, my first job was a digital consulting company, working across many different environments, which was a great inspiration to draw upon in future career. Being ambitious, and excessively keen to learn non-stop was my mission back then. I was brave enough to learn capacities as well as maintain skills so far.  After finishing the projects, I continued to seek new opportunities. That’s why I joined my second company, working on a digital banking app, and was extremely happy with the quality of the software I developed.

But since the only thing predictable in life is change, things altered for me too. I left my second company to pursue my own plans ahead. I don’t know if that was the right move, but that was a time when I followed my heart.

In the first couple of years, my job was almost like a stable flow. I worked on some very exciting projects, developed some great applications, websites, and got recognition, I realized it was the happiest time and strong motivation. I could call myself invincible or even was out of funds to pursue a passion. It's hard to describe enough, the most important thing for success in my career is consistency and passion.

You might be super talented or work super hard for a month or several years, but if you really want to find other successful chances, then look for and try to push yourself with a new opportunity and work consistently month after month, year after year. I am more satisfied with my effort. Well, all this sounds exciting, doesn’t it?

Sometimes I also get stressed out at work, I always try to put my emotions aside, set aside time for my favorites activities. Besides working time, I usually watch youtube and read books when have leisure time. Enjoying coffee time is also part of my daily routine, as a great way to reduce stress in my work and life. Besides, Living and working in a remote place is also a new challenge for me, I still need time to adjust to my new life and integrate people here.

As a code lover, I want to immerse myself in new challenges as well as new environment. No one in my friend's circle understood the reason behind my unhappiness. Although I had everything and yet, I was not happy. I miss the incessant sound of the keyboard, I miss the rows of code so much that I want to throw away anything. Along with my own projects. I also seek work that gave me all the benefits and perks in my coding passion.

Get to the next chance !

Then one day I found that Colibri Growth was hiring a Senior Mobile Software Engineer position that appealed to me. I applied and prepared for the interview, I was very surprised and lucky about what followed after. Unlike the other interviews I have given. The interview is like a discussion of approach, technical aspects, methodology, application method and other overall aspects. Especially, I was able to open my emotions to share working stories with Colibri’s founder- Ms. Hayley. I thought it was sharing conversation than an interview. Instead of feeling nervous, I was more excited and charged than I had felt for a long time. 

What virtually impressed me about Colibri was the opportunities that this company provides to Tech Talent. The company gives programmers the opportunity to develop and seek a career path where we, the coders, can enhance professional programming.

For me, I feel that my utopian search jobs have finally found. Now, all I need now is to try my best in this utopia. I feel as excited and ready for my upcoming work. After all, it’s the love for programming that Colibri brings to me.

Luong Nhu Toan