Category Archives: People

Hi everyone. Today we're talking to Minh who started with us at Industry Connect four weeks ago, and he had already secured himself a staff a full-time job as a machine vision engineer. Congratulations Minh.

Thank you.

Tell us a bit about how you came to be with Industry Connect and how Industry Connect has helped you to secure this job.

Yeah sure. so, before Industry Connect, I attended University of Auckland with a Mechatronics degree. So, that was a four-year degree. So, I finished a few months ago and after that, I start looking for jobs. But what I found is that I applied for 20, 30 jobs but none of them came through. So, I start looking online because sometimes, I got depressed because I thought it was because of my skills or because of my personality so I start looking online for something else I could do while looking for jobs. Something to improve myself, and I stumbled upon Industry Connect on Facebook. I was a bit skeptical at first because it says that they offer a scholarship on Facebook which is something I've never heard of before, but after looking through your web sites and the testimonials with the number of success stories that are there, I was really confident about it and then I started to apply. After talking to Ray, I understand that this is the right path for me so I was lucky enough to get onto the scholarship program. While here, I learned a lot of useful industry relevant skills such as Microsoft skills in C Sharp SQL and that. I thought that that wasn't helping me with anything but once I got an interview a few weeks ago, I realized that the company was really interested into the skills that I've learned here. So, that's partly the reason why I got the job.

Oh, that’s wonderful. Did you just say that you’d just been through Industry Connect
or you were with us, and that was quite a good point that they looked upon favourably?

Yes. They were quite surprised and they asked me a lot about Industry Connect and I was really happy to tell them all about it, and the people here are amazing, and everyone is really helpful and I'm just really glad to be in this program.

So, if you are out in the street and you just met someone standing in the bus stop, and you’re just chatting about what you guys do. What would you say to them, if they were into IT, what would you say to them about Industry Connect?

If I were to talk to someone who's keen on getting a job or into the IT industry, and they’re keen about Industry Connect, I'd tell them that this is not a free ticket to a job, but rather, it helps to smooth the process a lot. And the people here are really passionate. The teachers, the people here and the caliber of the people here is amazing as well. I know someone who has a night job. He works as a cleaner just so he can afford to come here every day and learn. Yeah, so you will be tested, you will be challenged and you will learn more useful skills and it's a worthwhile experience.

Thanks so much Minh. We really wish you all the best in your adventure and wherever it takes you, we know that because the way that you've presented yourself, your attitude and how you've taken off everything on board when you've been here, we know that you're going to go far.

Thank you.

I’m here with Preity who has just secured a job as a junior developer. So firstly, congratulations.

Thank you.

You're welcome. So hey, tell us before you came to Industry Connect, what kind of experience did you have in the New Zealand job market?

So I came here in June, 2014 at that time, I had only a visitor visa but after getting a work visa, I started applying for jobs and I don't know why, but I didn't get any response. All negative responses, no positive responses. then I knew that to secure a job in New Zealand, it’s very important to have a New Zealand experience which I didn’t have so I joined Industry Connect and after joined Industry Connect, I joined Central station as an intern and then I started getting calls, and now I’m here.

Awesome.

Yeah

So, while you were here at Industry Connect, what kind of technical experience did you pick up?

So, here at Industry Connect, I learned ASP.net, C#, AngularJS, not
exactly AngularJS but they taught us that as well. And here, we are working with Kendo UI. I also learned here SSRS, so yeah.

Cool. And in terms of soft skills and communication along that line, what kind of skills?

Yeah. After starting working here, I think because of here, I improved my communication skills so much and I think now, I’m more confident and I can please anything actually.

Awesome. That’s good, yeah.

And for anyone who is considering probably doing Industry Connect, what would your recommendation to them be?

So yeah. If you want a job in the IT industry in New Zealand, it’s good to join Industry Connect. At Industry Connect, you are not only getting skills but you are also getting experience which is mandatory in New Zealand to get an IT job.

Awesome. Well, congratulations, Preity.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.