We sat down with one of our students, Thanh Ngo, to share more about his journey into technology. We wanted to give you an idea of the depth and breadth of who is in our learning community. This interview is a part of ongoing learner interviews of our Qwasar students.
Tell us a little bit about yourself!
I'm from California. I migrated from Vietnam to the United States when I was in middle school. I completed high school here and I went to college for a little bit. I completed part of my associates degree in computer science, but dropped out due to life's circumstances. My family was moving to a new area, so I wanted to focus on working and paying the bills. At that time, I used my spare time to enroll in Qwasar because it's flexible and provided on a part time basis. I am currently training my skills as a web developer and trying to better myself as a programmer.
What are you passionate about?
I am passionate about making impactful projects, so part of how I got into programming was that I used to make tools and scripts and just stuff that to help people improve their gaming experience. I like making bots and autos, but as time went by, I started to focus more on productivity apps. I'm working on one right now and trying to make a cross-platform productivity boosting app to help you keep track of your routines and stuff.
Where would you like to work one day?
Well, I guess every programmer's dream is to work in one of the FANG companies, but Microsoft is probably one of my dream companies, or maybe Facebook. If not those, I would like to work in the gaming industry, but there's no specific company that I have in mind yet.
What do you want to do in the future?
One thing I want to do is create more apps because I like to build things. If I’m not working on something I am passionate about, it gets really boring for me. I want to build apps that help others improve their quality of life and make it easier for them to get by in modern days where everything is so busy. I’m hoping this kind of development will help people become more efficient.
Tell us a little bit about your journey to Qwasar
Before Qwasar I was in another bootcamp, but it was just a very generic program. I would just go there and code and then they gave us projects, without much engagement. After that, I went back to college and was basically passing the time when I heard of Qwasar. It sounded very affordable at the time, so I joined and found a community that is really great, and projects that are really hands-on. The program really gets you thinking and the community is there to provide you with support. I love that and I love the daily stands up. It has provided me the space to express myself and my thoughts better.
Tell us a little bit about your journey within the Qwasar program.
The biggest struggle that I had was with C. I had only previously coded in high-level languages and never had to deal with memory management, so that was good practice for me. Other than that it would just be small things like getting accustomed to new languages because Qwasar challenged you to work with new languages on every track. I started working with JavaScript and then C and then working with Ruby and now I'm on season three working with Java.
What have you learned about yourself while at Qwasar?
I learned about myself a lot at Qwasar, but one thing that I would like to say is that it made me realize how capable I am as a programmer and how capable I am of learning new technologies and getting adapted to them. That gave me a really big confidence boost.
What has been your favorite project so far?
I learned about myself a lot at Qwasar, but one thing that I would like to say is that it made me realize how capable I am as a programmer and how capable I am of learning new technologies and getting adapted to them. That gave me a really big confidence boost.
Tell us about one of your biggest successes while learning to code.
My biggest success was when I was able to use my skill sets to make a software to monetize a user and be able to make a little bit of money on the side using what I already learned.
What is your favorite programming language thus far and why?
Javascript has been my favorite ever since I started coding. But, I started taking a liking to Ruby because of how robust it is and I like how it is able to do so many things at a low cost where I am just importing things and using it. Because I started working with Javascript ever since I started coding years ago and I just got used to it, it is my favorite.
What is the importance of learning data structures in your opinion?
In my opinion, the importance of learning it is because you need it to basically plan things out and count conventions. Also, it’s important for when you need to make variable names to be able to be descriptive. This is important for when you look at it the next day, you won't forget what it is about. And it's really necessary to a system design to make sure all variables and functions work with each other in an efficient way. I think it is really important.
What encouragement would you have for others starting out their coding journeys and careers?
If you are just starting on your coding journey, don't be afraid to ask for help. And if you can, find a mentor because people like to teach, myself included. When new students ask for help, I spend a lot of time helping them and asking the right questions to make them think critically. And I wouldn't turn anyone down. I would spend time working with you if you really need help. So my advice is to just start small and build a habit of coding a little bit every day.
We are thankful for Thanh's time in developing this interview and sharing his insights and journey. We are looking forward to sharing more student interviews in the upcoming months.
