Alumni Interview: Tien Le

By Sarah Alspaw, Director of Career Development and Student Success

Capitol graduates are doing amazing things. I put out a call for interviews out on LinkedIn and spoke to a few of the first respondents. If you are an alumnus and you are interested in being interviewed, please let me know by emailing careers@captechu.edu.

Alumnus Tien Le, class of 2013, graduated from Capitol with a B.S. in Computer Engineering. He is now a DevOps Engineer at Stratus Solutions. According to Le, Stratus Solutions specializes in cloud infrastructure, cloud governance, cyber security, and DevOps. Outside of work, Le rock climbs religiously and finds joy in helping others become the best version of themselves.

What was your first job out of college?

TL: Early in my career, I started as a Software Engineer at General Dynamics Mission Systems, Defense. I started out working as a java developer, but somehow naturally shifted to deployments and operations, which have ultimately led me to my current passion: DevOps!

What is the biggest piece of advice you would give to a student who is graduating and just starting to look for a job?

TL: 1. Learning doesn't stop just because you just graduated from college. In fact as a professional you're learning EVERYDAY.

2. It might take some time, but figure out what you want to do. One of the things that I did when I first graduated was to figure out what I wanted to do, find all the job openings that fit what I wanted to do, and compare my skill set with the listing requirements. Once I found the common missing skills/technologies which I didn’t possess that the listings required, I started to learn the missing skills/technologies on the side (while finishing my final semester) which ultimately qualified me enough to get an interview.

3. One factor that the hiring manager who hired me attributed my successful hiring to was my eagerness and passion to learn. I had enough of it that it was clearly evident through our interview sessions. It gave him the confidence in me to learn the skills necessarily to be successful on the job.

What is the best piece of job search advice you ever received?

TL: The best advice that I can give is to get your foot in the door in the field that you want a career in. Once the foot is in the door, you can have the credentials and professional experience to really go after what you're interested in, and passionate about. The truth is, it is incredibly hard to jump directly into the "perfect" job. Make no mistake, you will get there, but it will take time.

If a student is interested in starting or building their network, do you have any advice for them?

TL: Networking does help, but it really picked up for me once my professional career started. Really start learning how to network in college, and continue to build your network as a professional. LinkedIn is a great tool!

Did you do an internship? What was that like? Do you suggest students do internships?

TL: No, but I definitely do believe students should go for internships. They give you precious professional experience that will definitely help you on your job search.

What advice would you give to someone in their first professional job to do within their first 90 days to stand out?

TL: Study all the best practices that apply to the job and incorporate them into your work. My first job was to develop Java and I wish I had the know-how and initiative to study the best practices of java development. Doing so would've helped me tremendously starting out.

What does “self-direction” mean to you? Do you feel that this is an important skill for a worker to have?

TL: Self-direction is an incredibly important skill to have. I think this means you have the ability when given a task, to run with it. As an example, when tasked to develop a docker image for a particular piece of software, thoroughly research the best way to do it. Don't be afraid to dig deep into the documentation, and actually do it. Worst case; try your best at it. Everyone acknowledges effort. And finally, you will have questions. Ask them, and don't be afraid to ask them. Everyone knows what it feels like to start out at something new, or to learn something from ground zero, and will not judge you for asking questions.

What surprising thing do you see happening in your industry in the next 5-10 years that students should be aware of?

TL: I firmly believe that software containerization is here to stay, especially as big tech firms are embracing the technology more and more. In fact, container orchestration pace is just picking up. This means that production usage of docker containers is just going to ramp up from here on out. Another technology that is picking up steam is server-less computing. With Amazon web services, and others I'm sure, it's entirely possible to build an entire server-less web application without virtual hardware that you have to manage. Let that sink in for a bit. I'll take credit for whoever uses that idea as a senior project [he said jokingly].