Vietnamese students' career path in Australia

 Vietnamese students' career path in Australia

Bui Huy Hiep used to do many manual jobs such as washing dishes, cars... to gain more experience, income and establish a career in foreign countries by two empty hands.

Graduating with a bachelor's degree in accounting in Australia, Bui Huy Hiep (Ady) now runs PTE Master - the leading PTE exam preparation center for Vietnamese in Australia. In particular, the online self-study exam preparation software masterpte.com.au is attracting more than 25,000 users a day, becoming one of the popular software for international students in Australia.

Bui Huy Hiep - Founder and CEO of PTE Master.

Bui Huy Hiep - Founder and CEO of PTE Master.

Ady said that she has experienced many hardships and challenges when studying and setting up a career in foreign countries from empty hands. However, he always knows how to regain his spirit to complete the goal.

"Study is not for enjoyment"

When he first arrived in Australia around 2008, through a friend, Huy Hiep started a car wash job. Sometimes, he had to stand for nearly 40 minutes in the sun to work. Afterwards, Ady washed the dishes and cleaned up the Yumcha restaurant in Cabramatta. He worked continuously from 3 pm to 3 am the next day with a salary of only 80 dollars a day. He recounted: "At the peak of the weekend, I had to wash 4000-5000 dishes a day and had countless cuts and bleeding, toenail infections due to wetness, but still had to work hard for a living."

He said that he sometimes feels heartbroken when he sees his peers come to use the service at work. However, according to Ady, this mentality is not a negative emotion but a factor for him to maintain his motivation to pursue bigger goals.

During her time studying abroad, Ady also experienced many other jobs such as running a table, loading and unloading... According to him, each job has its own difficulties, the life of international students may not be as leisurely as many people still think.

Up to now, he has lived in Australia for more than 12 years and during the first 7 years, Ady only returned to Vietnam once. Although he missed his family very much, but the cost to return home was not small, he had to borrow from friends. "From that time, I was determined not to return until I achieved a certain achievement so that my parents wouldn't have to worry anymore," he added.

Motivation and charm with PTE

Huy Hiep said that the more difficult it is, the more determined he has to overcome and change his fate. Those thoughts grew as he began to love his family more and gradually turned into action and the will to pursue success. He recounted that he used to face great pressure when asking for tuition money from his parents because at that time, the AUD rate was higher than the USD. "However, my parents did not lament half a word. Since then, I have been more motivated to set up a career here, not letting them down," he added.

Ady with her parents and sister.

Ady with her parents and sister.

After graduating, Ady worked at a company specializing in accounting. Outside of work, he constantly researches many other ways to increase his income such as selling phones and food to the Vietnamese community, doing business online on ebay... Thanks to that, he quickly paid off his debts. during school, and at the same time, get a better overview of business and life.

After a while, he came up with the idea of ​​​​establishing a PTE exam preparation center. At first, Ady only taught part-time at the library to gain more experience and fame. Later, when more people introduced him and more visitors, he opened a home class and opened a center.

Thanks to independent work and market observation, he found that software for students to practice and take their own tests after school is not yet popular in PTE test preparation centers. Accordingly, he started working and hired a professional IT team to develop his dream - building an automatic grading platform for PTE learning. "The first time, I lost money unfairly twice because I had to hire an unprofessional IT team and it was only the third time that I found the right person to work with until now," he shared.

Launch of PTE exam preparation software

Ady believes that you have to accept 2-3 years of sacrifice if you want to start a successful startup. He accepted for a very long time, he himself did not have a high income and time to enjoy. He spent the money he had saved for nearly 1.5 years to teach himself to invest in the online self-study system PTE Master. The center was at a loss or just broke even until May 2020, when the software was complete. "The foundational growth achieved from 2020 to mid-2021 has helped me build the dream life for my small family, while reducing the burden on parents," he shared.