My Journey

The Beginning: From Pascal to Japanese Studies

My journey into technology wasn't straightforward. In high school for the gifted, I was exposed to programming with Pascal, but I wasn't particularly interested or good at it. It took me a while to even get familiar with basic concepts like for loops and programming terminology in general.

I graduated high school with a strong interest in Japanese cultures, which led me to pursue a Japanese Studies major at USSH-HCM VNU (University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam National University). Looking back, this was one of my best decisions - it gave me a much-needed break from IT and allowed me to explore social subjects.

I earned my first bachelor's degree in Japanese Studies in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, I hold two bachelor's degrees - one in Japanese Studies from USSH and another in Information Technology from UIT, both part of the Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City system, that I'm completing in June 2026. This unique combination gives me both cultural understanding and technical expertise, particularly valuable for international collaborations.

Rediscovering Programming: From Games to Code

During my second and third years of university, I started dabbling in programming again, driven by my love for playing games and game development in general. This passion led me to create my first games, which are still live and playable on itch.io.

After graduation, the real world hit hard. With my Japanese Studies degree, I tried to find work in the gaming industry within Japanese environments, but despite my best efforts, I couldn't get noticed - my humanities background wasn't seen as relevant for technical gaming roles. I had to take whatever work I could find to put food on the table - teaching English and Japanese at private centers.

While I've transitioned fully into tech and haven't actively used my Japanese studies professionally, I maintain my language skills and cultural understanding. This background could be valuable for Japanese companies or international projects requiring cross-cultural communication and understanding of Japanese business practices.

When COVID hit Vietnam severely, I was forced to stay home. During this time, I dedicated myself to learning SEO and WordPress. I tried my hand at affiliate marketing and Amazon dropshipping, though I quickly learned it wasn't as easy as it seemed.

With my basic WordPress and SEO skills, I applied for related jobs and landed my first unofficial freelance gig as a WordPress Developer. This marked the beginning of my professional journey in tech, and I continue to hold this title as a freelancer until 2022 when I got my first official full time job as WordPress developer.

From Freelance to Product Leadership

My freelance WordPress work opened doors into product and delivery roles. Over time I moved from implementation to coordinating teams, clarifying requirements, and ensuring releases met business goals. This hands-on progression gave me both technical credibility and a practical understanding of product delivery.

At Nexus Tech Global, as Associate Founder and Project Manager, I led SiteBotic from MVP to first customer within 6 months, managing iterative delivery through Agile sprints with a lean, cross-functional team. I managed a small, high-impact team (AI engineer, freelance QA, designer, marketers), balancing scope, priorities, and delivery speed under resource constraints. I secured the company's first customer by leveraging our AI-driven custom development to deploy chatbot-enabled production websites. I conducted cost-benefit analyses on system architecture (cloud microservices vs self-hosted monolith), enabling informed stakeholder decisions on scalability and cost. I defined a lean hiring strategy, deliberately avoiding over-hiring while maintaining delivery effectiveness and cost efficiency. I applied structured project management frameworks (initiation, goal-setting, scope, execution, closure) to guide feature delivery, and delivered a sentiment analysis feature that detects negative user conversations and alerts chatbot owners, improving customer experience monitoring.

My interest in moving into the Product Management space comes primarily from my experience building the startup SiteBotic. That was the first time I managed not only technical implementation, but also task planning, team coordination, and stakeholder communication—balancing trade-offs and delivering product versions iteratively until reaching a stable release. This process genuinely excited me in a way I hadn't experienced before, which is why I want to further pursue the PM path. These experiences taught me how to make pragmatic trade-offs, communicate clearly with both engineers and business stakeholders, and use data to validate product decisions. My background in humanities and technology helps me bridge cultural and technical gaps when working with international teams.

Looking Ahead: Completing the Circle

I'm currently at the final stage of my second bachelor's degree in Information Technology at UIT (University of Information Technology), part of the same Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City system as USSH. I've completed all coursework and achieved a "Very Good" degree classification, and I'm now awaiting my official academic transcript and bachelor's degree certificate in June 2026.

Completing my IT degree complements my product experience by strengthening my technical literacy. With dual degrees in Japanese Studies and Information Technology, I can both coordinate technical teams and communicate effectively with Japanese stakeholders — a valuable combination for international product delivery.

I aim to transition into full-time product or project leadership roles where I can apply my technical background, bilingual communication, and hands-on delivery experience to help teams ship valuable software. I am particularly interested in roles that require coordinating between Japanese stakeholders and engineering teams.