Tuan Anh Nguyen's IDP journey from joining as an Intern to being a Student Placement Leader now!

"I started my career at IDP Hanoi as an intern for IELTS and Marketing team in December 2014. After graduating from my university, I officially became a full-time Marketing Officer at IDP Hanoi in September 2016. After a 3-year tenure with the super creative Marketing team in town, my lifechanging moment came in September 2019 when I decided to change my career path to an Education Counsellor. Later, in July 2022, I got a promotion to be Multi-Destination Student Placement Team Leader for Hanoi 1 Office. Therefore, unofficially, I have been with IDP for more than 8 years and officially for more than 6 years.

If you ask me what I love the most about working here, it must be IDP’s core values. Working at IDP, I can feel that its core values are reflected in all aspects of work. As an Education Counsellor, I believe that my contributions to student communities in supporting them to achieve their overseas study journey dreams and improving their lives, certainly makes a huge difference. Working at IDP, I can feel that the organization cares about its people. I still remember during the pandemic situation, I surprisingly received the 'rescue box' which contained a lot of necessary grocery items - when we couldn’t go shopping outside, following the local authority’s isolation regulations.

As mentioned earlier, my journey with IDP began through an intern position during my university time. At that time, I supported IELTS Hanoi team with admin work, answering candidates’ enquiries and IELTS test invigilation. I have shared the story of working at IDP with my friends, and they are happy for me because after such a long time from our graduation, they have changed a lot of companies/organisations that they work for, but I still have the same energy and dedication for my work at IDP.

While I was working as a Marketing Officer in the initial 3 years of my career journey here at IDP, I ran a lot of online and offline activities/campaigns to promote UK/ Ireland destination. After which, I decided to take a step further in the international education industry by joining the Student Placement team. I had an open talk with my line manager in Marketing team, expressed my ideas and received a lot of advice from her. After that, when I applied for the position of an Education Counsellor, under Student Placement team, I continued to receive a lot of support and encouragement from her, which was fantastic!!

I have to admit that my decision to join IDP Vietnam Student Placement team is my wise choice. I love working with students and parents to support them at their turning points to fulfil their dream of becoming a better version of themselves and leading a better life. Joining the team, I have received tremendous support from all team members. My line managers are so approachable and supportive of every single enquiry from me. I feel empowered to take up challenging opportunities which I thought was impossible at first, but in the end, I’ve always made it with the team’s support. My hard work and efforts are always appreciated and well-recognized. In IDP Vietnam, we have monthly, quarterly and quick-win super-star programmes to acknowledge individual and team efforts in delivering outstanding performance.

Some people may find their work unfulfilling, so they are disengaged and less productive. If one finds themselves in this situation, it is important to take a moment to think and try to look for the meaning of their job. If that does not help, there is no need to panic - as one of IDP’s values is CARING, line managers care about how our team members feel about their work. Team members can always take it up with their line managers and ask if they can help them to find the meaning or find work that does. Open discussions are always welcome at IDP.

To me, success means to be able to achieve desirable results through teamwork. At IDP, people are the key to success. Our team members at IDP always support each other, achieve together, and celebrate together. When I had to transition from the position of an Education Counsellor to a Team Leader, I had a struggling period when I had to focus more on team management, than self-management. I openly discussed it with my line manager and received so much support from her. She even invests her early Sunday morning in coaching sessions to help me overcome such difficulties. We are now reaching the first batch of 10 sessions, and I am so excited to join another batch. I now feel more confident to balance both self and team management.

My journey with IDP started in a very junior position. It feels amazing to look back and see how far I’ve come and what I’ve achieved over the years. My journey here is an example that IDP always provides equal and challenging opportunities for all team members to encourage growth in their professional and personal journeys." - Tuan Anh Nguyen, Student Placement Leader in Hanoi, Vietnam.