Read this Instructor's Brave Journey to a Successful Career in Tech

Behind the scenes of a startup CTO who teaches at Nucamp

"It's about problem-solving. Think to yourself ‘how do I solve this puzzle using the tools I have?’ That’s why programming and entrepreneurship are so interesting to me. There is some challenge and heartache in there somewhere, but the moment you solve it you feel pretty good!" -Thanh Nguyen, Nucamp Instructor

Thanh Nguyen is a very generous and thoughtful instructor.

With many glowing testimonials and over 800 student surveys, he has a very impressive 4.81/5 instructor rating that goes to show just how positively he impacts his students.

Thanh is known for going above and beyond for his students to help them navigate the Bootstrap course he has now taught over 18 times.

Thanh’s journey into tech started with his family overcoming many hardships.

His family is from Vietnam, and before moving to the United States, during the Vietnam War, his father sided with the USA.

The communist dictatorship put his dad in prison for 7 years; 4 months of which were in a solitary dark room.

With his dad in prison, his mom was essentially a single mother raising his two older brothers and his disabled-veteran grandfather.

"For all the terrible things my parents witnessed during the war, they still maintained their two FF's, faith and freedom, and a positive outlook for their children in America.”

Thanh and his family moved to the United States when he was 10 years old.

They moved to North Carolina and the local church-sponsored his family, providing dedicated volunteers to help them learn English, and enrollment for him and his siblings into the church’s private school.

For Christmas, his family was gifted a top-of-the-line computer for the time, and it inspired him to focus his talents on technology; this was the catalyst for his lifelong passion.

Being at a private school, most of his classmates also had their own computers, so he learned a lot from his friends.

By the time he was in high school he was spending his entire summers programming in Visual Basic for fun.

Also during high school, Thanh was asked to help write a program for a friend’s school to help track volunteer hours, which Thanh created and gave them the program for free (under the condition they did not judge any errors or silly comments he had written for himself).

After high school, Thanh decided to double major in Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering so he could cast a wider net when applying for jobs by applying to electrical engineering jobs, computer engineering jobs, and even some software engineering jobs.

For a few years, he worked in the electrical power industry, but then resigned to work on a startup with a friend.

Thanh now is the CTO at LiveSomeWhere.com where he and his business partner have created a platform for college students to get apartment information and post subleases.

“There are certain things that motivate and drive us when things get tough. It’s what students who are working full-time and learning how to code on top of that use to push through. I pull my motivation from my family’s stories from the Vietnam War and what they went through before moving to the United States.”

Why did you decide to become an instructor?

When Thanh first moved to Florida, he was looking for a programming volunteering program to test his skills to ensure he was on track with his entrepreneurial journey.

He also wanted to land a few interviews as a backup plan in case his business didn’t pan out.

While on ZipRecruiter, Thanh came across Nucamp and wanted to join as a way to maintain his skill set and network with other programmers.

In March 2020 he became a Nucamp instructor, which only gave him 2 weeks of in-person class time with his first cohort before the pandemic shut down most in-person activities.

Teaching online during the pandemic gave Thanh something to look forward to each Saturday the live workshops gave him the opportunity to interact with and meet new people.

It is rewarding for him to help others, and at the same time, it helps him maintain his technical and soft skills.

“The great ratings I receive are a reflection of the amazing set of students that Nucamp has. It is an amazing experience to see the transformation from the beginning of the class to right before they get to the tough transition into the React course.”

Do you have any tips on how to improve soft skills for more introverted people?

He felt technical things came easy to him during college, but soft skills, not as much.

To work on his interpersonal skills, he got out of his comfort zone and took on work that made him interact with people and forced him to meet people.</p

“I’ve found that most of the fears I have around interacting with others, is worse than it actually is. You will find that the overwhelming majority of people out there are very receptive and willing to talk, help, and meet you. The ones that you fear or brush you off aren’t really going to be worthwhile anyway.”

Do you have any teaching moments that have stuck with you that you’d like to share?

“One student worked so hard on Udemy and extra portfolio projects that he essentially knew all the material front-to-back. When I would open up my schedule for an extra session for those who need help, that student would come to every extra session. He came to every extra session, not because he needed help, but to help his classmates.
On the reverse of that, someone who was struggling a lot on the foundations of HTML and other basics, never gave up and always came to every extra session. In the end they had a very strong portfolio and succeeded.”

Is 50 too old to start learning development?

“I don’t think so. I don’t think we are ever too old to learn something new. We get older, but we don’t have to be old.”

We think it’s never too late to learn.

Our CEO, Ludo, believes that how long someone has been interested in technology has a direct impact on the perceived difficulty of finally learning it.

Ludo believes there is a big difference between someone in their 50s who has always been interested in computers but never got around to spending a significant amount of time with it vs someone just discovering computers and the world of tech in their 50s.

Someone with a lifelong interest in tech, who has been tinkering with computers, has a greater chance of learning web development later in life than someone who is just discovering it for the first time later in life.

The person who has tinkered and been in proximity to tech has developed a mindset and passion that’s going to propel them to succeed in learning how to code.

“If you are just discovering computers/software now in your 50’s, you have a lot to unpack before becoming a good developer. It’s not that it’s impossible, it’s just that the journey is going to be longer and potentially harder. It’s never too late, but the people more likely to succeed are those who always have had an interest or had been working in a similar field with transferable technical skills or mindset.” -Ludo Fourrage, Nucamp CEO

What is one piece of advice you would give bootcamp students (future or current)?

”JavaScript is your bread and butter. Push on the JavaScript and you’ll be successful as you get to the harder courses. Whenever you are faced with something challenging, instead of thinking why should I give up, ask yourself why wouldn't you give up? The idea is that if you don't quit and you just push at it, you are going to succeed. I share this based on my own experience with my students. 100% of the students who do not get through the course is not because they're not capable, it's because there is a time constraint and they back away from it or maybe it was not something that that they enjoyed.”

Watch Thanh's live Campfire interview with Nucamp's CEO, Ludo, here.