Vietnam I Xuan Lam "Mickey" Le

Meet Mickey

Growing up in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Mickey and his parents had the dream for him to attend university overseas. He came across the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT) Articulation Program in his research of international study opportunities. This pathway program allows second year HCMUT students to complete selected engineering degrees in Australia at UTS. 

“I found that it was an opportunity that is hard to come by and I decided to go for it. The pathway set a firm transition to Australia through HCMUT and UTS’ great reputation is something that made my decision to study abroad easy.”

By seizing this opportunity, Mickey would complete his final two years of his Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Mechatronic Engineering from UTS. During his studies, Mickey took full advantage of the unique experiences offered at UTS to test his theoretical knowledge from class in real-world situations and build his professional portfolio. Through one of his robotics courses, Dr. Marc Carmichael introduced Mickey to the Robothon Challenge hosted by the Technical University of Munich, Germany. 

“The challenge we worked on was to create a gripper and program a robot manipulator ("arm") to perform multiple tasks. From this challenge, I learned how to design and program a robot arm as well as collaborate with my peers, which helped to manage, delegate tasks, and achieve our goals. 

Mickey also completed an internship through Optik Consultancy where he served as Team Leader. Through this experience, Mickey learned directly from industry professionals from Applied Robotics on how to run a project from beginning to end. 

“My team was tasked by Applied Robotics to design a modular solution to sort and identify goods that are distributed in a warehouse. We created a sample solution for Applied Robotics to implement into their design. I gained experience in team leadership, project management, communication skills, and critical thinking throughout the course of my internship.”

Mickey’s participation in the Robothon Challenge and Optik Consultancy Internship helped him build an impressive resume filled with real-world work experience. This experience, along with his Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Mechatronic Engineering from UTS helped him get noticed by recruiters from an infrastructure technology company, Vertiv ANZ.

My degree, along with the achievements from Optik and Robothon Challenge, has helped me gain recognition from Vertiv's Talent Acquisition team. I was approached by them via LinkedIn and offered the opportunity to apply for a Graduate Engineering role. I think it is the teamwork that I learned from both Optik and Robothon that made me an attractive candidate for Vertiv. Given Vertiv’s emphasis on smooth collaboration between teams and departments, my experience aligned well with their requirements.

Starting his initial position as a Graduate Engineer, Mickey has worked his way up to become a Thermal Applications Engineer at Vertiv. In offering advice to prospective international students, he says:

“Put 100% of your effort and commitment into your studies. Do your best and don't give up. Be active and look for opportunities, whether it's from societies, classes, competitions, etc. that would add great value to your professional portfolio. I believe with those thoughts in mind, success (and sometimes luck) will be on your side.”