Vietnam I Vu Tran

Meet Vu

Originally from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Vu Tran became interested in studying a Master of IT in Sydney for its high-ranking universities, international connections, and ample employment opportunities in the IT sector. UTS rose to the top of his list for its ranking as the youngest, highest performing university in Australia  (THE Young University Rankings), central location within Sydney, and state-of-the-art facilities. Vu ultimately decided to pursue a Master of Information Technology  with a major in Internetworking.

Studying IT at UTS was one of the best decisions I've ever made in my higher education journey. A young, modern university having world-class education and facilities in the centre of Sydney, close to all amenities students need. The course I studied was very practical-driven with many well-regarded professors and lecturers.

Vu credits the real-world scenarios and practice-based learnings that he experienced in his coursework with preparing him with technical and soft skills for a career as a software engineer.

“I developed my technical skills with hands-on team projects and programming assignments for specific IT skills like object-relational database, digital media technologies, internet programming and software development. One of the most challenging experiences I had as an international student and fresh graduate was how I could learn to step out of my comfort zone to collaborate with people of different backgrounds and become involved in teamwork. This was a challenge, luckily all the subjects I studied at UTS require certain levels of teamwork, which helped me develop interpersonal skills and prepare for the future.”

During his time at UTS, Vu took full advantage of graduate and internship career fairs hosted by UTS Careers. 

“Through UTS graduate and internship careers fairs, I had ample opportunities to learn about the IT industry in Australia and the work opportunities after graduation. The fairs gave me the knowledge of the job market and the skills required for the jobs I was interested which helped me prepare and improve necessary technical skills.”

In his last semester, Vu completed a   research project and internship where he applied advanced software skills that he would use in his future career. 

“I conducted a research project about developing an automated web scraping tool in Python and web technologies which led to an internship opportunity. The internship helped me a lot in my professional development—I gained experience in programming for web development and database skills­­. It gave me the chance work in an Australian workplace where I learned about the work culture, how to work effectively, and interact with colleagues. All of these experiences are helpful in my current job which focuses on technical skills­­---specifically programming and communication.”

Today, Vu is a Senior Software Engineer developing software at Light & Wonder Inc. in Sydney.