Before I came to Dev Academy, I have been working in the finance and bamking sector for over 10 years focusing on credit and lending. I was an experienced finance professional who enjoys working in a fast paced, hands-on, growth orientated work environment.
During the time when I was working at the bank, I've always dedicated to maintaining a professional reputation built on quality, service, and uncompromising ethics and have the ability to effectively organize and priorities my responsibilities to deal with deadlines and multi-task under pressure while taking on any challenge that is presented to me.
My respect and honesty towards co-workers makes me a well-liked and trustworthy person with the skills required to interact with people from a variety of professional fields.
At the moment, I am working harder than ever to change my career path to IT/programing. To me, programming is more a hobby than a job and it is a rewarding career. As my new journey with programing/IT has started, I keep maintaining my values and strengths that I have developed throughout my previous working history.
Life is full of difficult choices in it, isn't it? We often face different choices all the time such as wake up or snooze, study or watch netfix?, chips or fruits, etc. I make a lot of mistakes with my choices. However, when it comes to making an ethical decision, there is no room for error. That's is when I always choose to do what is right , not what is easy. Remember the time when I was working at the bank, I always put my customers' best interest first. It's always very hectic in a day of a banker. I remember there was a time when a young gentlement around 17 year old walked into my office without a booked appointment. I was so snowed under with work at that point in time and it's only 20 minutes until I see my next customers. The customer seemed stressed and strung out.
Discuss how I weighed up the values involved in that decision, the decision I made and the consequences of the action I took: I asked the customer a couple of questions to get to know him and see how can I assist. He told me that his name is Z, he just ran away from home and he needs $500 student overdraft. I've acknowledged his request and checked his bank accounts and noticed that it has been in arears for a while. Then I apologized to him that we were unable to offer him an overdraft at this point in time as his account conduct is not so good and he can't have an interest-free student overdraft if he is not studying. However, what I can do for him is that I can refund the bank fees to bring his accounts balance to positive and he would have a bit of money to spend. I did the refund because he made an attempt to contact bank to let us know how things going on and it's our responsibility to assist. This is within my authority. I suggested that he keeps an eye on his accounts to make sure it's not in arears as it may affect his credit scores. We had a quick chat about what's his plan for now. He said that he doesn't know what to do for a living, he doesn't really have any skills. I suggested that he can try to grab some application forms from a supermaket ie. countdown or New World and applying for checkout operator or grocery assistant positions. They require minimum skill sets. This was what I did when I was a student and I can't barely speak English as well as Z. We had a bit of a laugh. I also suggested a couple of options such as contacting ministry of social development office which just around the corner from the branch or Evolve which offers social support services to young people age 10-24. I then handed him with my business card and told him to feel free to contact me if he needs help with anything. 6pm the same day when I was staying late to work on lending applications, I received a call from Z and he told me that he tried Countdown but they said that they only accept application online and he doesn't have a computer. I've suggested that he try New World as I was working at New World previously and they did paper applications back then. If not, he can come back to the office to see me on my lunch break tomorrow and we will go thru the online applications together. I haven't yet heard back from Z after that. I hope that he is safe and well. It was a long day. However, it was a very good day for me as I can put my hand on heart knowing that I've made the right decision to go the extra mile to help out Z instead of just turing him away because he doens't fit our credit policy.
I was born and grew up in Vietnam. I only came to NZ when I was 17. Vietnam is a developing country where we rarely have any supports from the government such as MSD, working for famlily tax credit, public healthcare, etc. Life is harder over there and that's what make me stronger, appreciate hardwork and have empathy.
I am a hard working person. When I got stuck with an issue, I work day and night until i resolve it. I have a growth mindset and I am open to different opinions and suggestions. I often to ask myself or facilitator what should I do differently to improve the process/ outcome. My limitation is time management. I want to get things done but perfectionism drags me down. Also human skills is something else I want to focus and develop. Going thru the course at EDA helps me working on my limitation a lot.
I love programming and computer and having the opportunity to study and start a career in this field maks me feel alive. To me it's not a job, it's a hobby. I can work day and night to get a good understanding of a concept, have fun breaking the code and making the code. Courage and hardwork are the strength that help me intersect with learning obstacles
When I a newbie at a branch with little banking experience, there was an experienced colleague who was assigned to be my buddy. However, she was often not available, stressed out and not wanting to do anything with me. I was hurt and lost but I didn't give up. Everyday I came home from work, I studied the bank procedure, process and policies up to 2am by myself. I also built good connections with other senior colleagues and credit managers who were so knowlegable, down to earth and willing to help me out. I loved doing lending a lot so I put a lot of effort in it. I asked my managers for more work so that i can improve my lending skills. Within 12 months, I knew more than 800 pages of the credit policy by heart and also went up 2 levels of lending. My credit accreditation was proven with no errors. I was proud of myself. Reflecting on what happened, what i could have done differently was probably having a discussion with my buddy to get to know her and ask her for a feedback as I may have done something that upset her since day one.