From 500 failed applications to Big Tech: a Vietnamese graduate’s journey in US

Thuan, 23, of Vinh Long graduated with honors in computer science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst last summer. Recently he joined ride-hailing company Uber as a software engineer after more than a year at Amazon.

Before working with these tech giants Thuan went through a dark period, unable to secure an internship in the U.S. despite sending out 500 resumes.

"Failure is a certainty in the job hunting process; what matters is thinking positively and believing in yourself," he says.

He did a physics major at the High School for the Gifted, Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City, and followed in his sister's footsteps to go to the U.S. for university.

Nguyen Vo Thuan. Photo courtesy of Thuan

He decided he needed internships starting in his freshman year to build his resume. Immediately after his college acceptance, Thuan self-studied programming and practiced tech recruitment test formats.

In the summer of his freshman year, he sent about 70 internship applications but received no response.

Accepting the reality that his resume was "only half a page long," he returned to Vietnam to intern at a company as a web developer for a monthly stipend of VND4 million (US$150). Over the course of three months he learned the GraphQL query language and the Bootstrap Next.js framework.

Hoping to intern in the U.S. by his sophomore year he increased the number of applications to 200 this time, but the result remained the same: no responses. The turning point came when Thuan boldly asked for a referral from an acquaintance at Meta.

But receiving a nod for the first time, a no less was a joy that did not last; his internship offer was rescinded at the last minute because he had not been in the U.S. for a full year.

He explained that, due to Covid-19, his first three semesters were done remotely from Vietnam. "I was disappointed and even cried out of sadness," he says. "I felt I had no value outside of that Meta job offer, and I honestly thought about the prospect of never being able to get a job in the U.S."

It took a line from Iron Man in the movie Spider-Man: Homecoming to revive his spirit: "If you're nothing without this suit, then you shouldn't have it."

Thuan (in a black shirt) with friends in the US. Photo courtesy of Thuan

Thuan realized he should not tie his self-worth to an internship offer, something that can be easily taken away. "When I changed my perspective, I felt relieved and more optimistic," he says.

Returning to Vietnam for another internship, Thuan simultaneously invested time in mastering more difficult skills to prepare for the following year's internship season, his last chance to find work in the U.S.

This time his response rate was higher. After sending out nearly 300 applications, he received interview calls from around 10 companies, including Amazon.

Amazon representatives asked about algorithms and data structures in programming and situational questions, and he sailed through thanks to his thorough preparation.

Two weeks later he breathed a sigh of relief on being accepted as an intern at Amazon for a salary of some $9,000 per month.

During his three months there he was tasked with building tools for engineers to manage servers. This process helped Thuan learn how to use databases effectively and understand more about the backend of a tech system.

The project received positive feedback, and he was offered a full-time position after graduation.

"That was the second half of 2023, a time when a series of tech companies were laying off staff. I felt grateful and lucky to have a job," he says.

Nevertheless, he continued applying for internships in his final year to learn as much as possible. He interned at Tesla and Apple sequentially, spending about three months at each.

In a 2025 evaluation, Netra Shetty, a software development manager, remarked that Thuan was a "valuable member" of the department with the ability to learn new technologies quickly that helped him solve difficult tasks, even achieving results beyond expectations.

Nguyen Vo Thuan in the U.S. Photo courtesy of Thuan

After more than a year at Amazon Thuan wanted to try his hand in a new environment. Although offered a salary of $345,000 a year by Scale AI, he chose Uber because he preferred the field of distributed systems.

He describes Uber's interview process as methodical and multi-layered, consisting of an online test, an interview with team engineers involving a coding simulation of their daily work, practical programming, system design, and an interview with the engineering manager.

Thuan found the online test the most stressful due to its increasing difficulty, while the programming tests were not heavy on algorithms but tied to real product contexts, making them very practical and interesting.

His current job at Uber is to ensure the systems that help engineers check and approve source code operate quickly, accurately and stably.

He says the learnings from his internship and job hunt were to prepare from the freshman year on, focus on relationships to ask for referrals and pay attention to policies regarding international students.

"Don't be discouraged if you send hundreds of applications but get rejected. If you truly have the ability, the opportunity will come; stay calm and spend time improving yourself."