This month, we caught up with Nui Suriya to learn more about her journey into tech!
Name: Nui Suriya
Location: Alkmaar, The Netherlands
Role: Teacher and Web Development Batch Manager at Lewagon Amsterdam and Freelance Fullstack Developer
Tell me a bit more about your journey into tech.
I’m from Thailand and moved to The Netherlands 3 years ago to live with my boyfriend. I was a freelance English tutor and content writer in my home country. After moving and searching for my path here, I was inspired by my boyfriend, who is also working in tech, to try to figure out if IT was also for me. After months of many challenging situations, I finally found Le Wagon and got support from TechMeUp to start my 9-week intensive bootcamp at the end of 2022. Following my graduation, I had a chance to be a teacher's assistant, and then a teacher, which I consider a fantastic opportunity to combine my previous teaching experience with my new development skills to continue to learn and enhance my tech career.
What challenges have you faced in your career and how did you overcome them?
I think it’s ‘Imposter syndrome.’ I had no prior tech experience plus English is not my native language so it’s easy to regularly feel like ‘I am not good enough for the tech world.' To overcome that feeling, I try to remember that it’s ok to not know something and it’s ok to make mistakes sometimes. I always do my best to use the knowledge I have and work on making improvements.
What are some of the resources from SheSharp that have helped you with your growth?
I joined SheSharp’s first Hackathon and that was my life-changing moment. It was my first hackathon. I was grouped with two amazing teammates, Ornella and Tessa; they were experienced and strong in their knowledge. Right after our first meeting, I was scared and really wanted to run away because I felt that what I knew was so little.
Luckily, I decided to keep going and used all the knowledge I had to support my team and aimed to learn as much as possible from my teammates and this opportunity. We had a great experience together and have been friends ever since. Our goal was to just have fun and learn what we could. In the end, we won the "best team" prize, which was beyond our expectations! It was my life-changing moment because it became a big lesson to overcome my fear and helped me gain back confidence in my capabilities.
What advice would you give someone wanting to break into the tech industry?
Just start somewhere. Give yourself a chance to try and discover what you can do. It’s not easy but as long as you keep trying, you will find the way eventually. Also, keep connecting to the community because there are many opportunities and amazing people out there who can help and guide you to the path that you are looking for.