The journey from Chinese factory female worker to Google engineer of young girl Sun Ling

Sun Ling’s story became known when she posted her answer on the Zhihu forum, the Chinese version of Quora for the topic “How to access foreign education if you are poor?”

The 10-year journey she recounted received more than 35,000 likes on Zhihu, then went on to become a Wechat phenomenon with more than 100,000 views.

Sun was born in 1990, into a farming family in a small village in Hunan province, China. In difficult circumstances, her mother even had to sell blood to raise money to support her family. At the age of 13, Sun had to temporarily quit school to reduce the financial burden on his family, and also create better conditions for his brother, the only son in the house.

“I was always begging until my father allowed me to return to school. However, to be honest, my strong desire to return to school at that time was mainly due to the hard work of farming. My hands still have calluses. “, Sun shared with the South Morning China Post.

From a factory worker

Among the village classmates, Sun was the only one who finished high school but what received from the poor rural educational environment, the university door was still not open to her.

So, like her peers, she became a factory worker. But for a 19-year-old girl, the factory was like a giant device and never stopped working, she was often arranged to work night shifts.

“Repeating 12 hours a day to do the things that I don’t like, I’m sure this is not the life I want,” Sun said. After 8 months, Sun quit his job and enrolled in a computer training program.

In order to pay for school, Sun works 3 parttime jobs at the same time. Her life then revolved around delivering brochures and serving at restaurants, in addition to the debt from 3 credit cards.

… to an office worker in Shenzhen …

After more than a year of training and a debt of 10,000 yuan (US $ 1,450), in September 2011, she was hired as a software engineer by a Shenzhen company, responsible for developing the online payroll system . With her skills, Sun receives a salary of 4,000 yuan per month, meeting her expectations as an “office worker”.

But that excitement and satisfaction did not last long. She began to feel small in a big city, “where everyone else is excellent, with admirable qualifications.”

Sun thought he had to continue studying. She signed up for an English training program and a long-distance program to earn a degree from Shenzhen University. All this happened while the girl maintained her software engineering job.

A life outside of China

Learning English and practicing with foreign friends inspired Sun to dream of a life beyond Chinese borders.

In early 2017, Sun stumbled on a Master’s degree program at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, allowing students the opportunity to practice or work on a student visa after completing school. The rest can be completed remotely. Sun signed up and got accepted into computer science program.

After nine months of studying at the school and undergoing 60 job interviews in just two months, Sun received a job offer from EPAM Systems, a supplier for Google, late last year.

Sun feels very fortunate to be employed as a contract engineer at Google’s Manhattan headquarters by many other colleagues who even have doctorates or graduates from top US universities.

“Even a year ago, I never imagined that I could now work at Google. “She shared.

“But none of them treated me as if I didn’t deserve all of this,” she said. “This is what I like in America: they appreciate what you can do more than where you go.”

The journey has not stopped

Sun’s story is widely shared on Chinese social networks but has also received mixed reviews, and some even claim that she was hired to advertise the Maharishi Management University program.

“I don’t think I deserve all the criticism just for sharing this practical experience. But then I realized that not everyone has the same attitude in life. ”

” I don’t have much resources and few options but just keep learning and trying new things every day.” she said.

The journey has not stopped, she continues her journey, with the new goal of becoming an internal Google software engineer.

Source : Techtalk