Practice Manager, Pentalog Vietnam: “We Built a Great Company Where Many People Dream to Work”

This career story shows that dreams come true when hard work and ambition are key ingredients.

Meet Hoang, Practice Manager at Pentalog Vietnam. He studied and lived in Marseille for 6 years until he finally decided to return to his hometown, Hanoi, where he got a job as a Java developer.

Hoang was determined to work in a francophone environment and to become a manager, so he looked for a company in Hanoi where he could put his leadership skills to good use.

His in-depth knowledge of French culture and language, not to mention his tech specialization (he has a MA in Business Informatics), quickly propelled him to a Product Owner position, after which he became Projects Director.

So, in 4 years, Hoang rapidly advanced while working on various projects at Pentalog: software publisher, foodtech, innovation, and telecom. In 2018, he became Practice Manager, and together with the Customer Success Manager, transformed the Vietnam delivery center into one of Pentalog’s most competitive international offices – serving clients from the U.S., Canada, France, Switzerland, and Singapore.

Two things have impressed me about Hoang:

1. His ambition. He calls himself “objective oriented.” It comes down to putting his professional aspirations into practice with determination and patience.
2. His dedication to his family. It’s related to the Vietnamese tradition, which explains why Hoang left France and moved back to Hanoi:

“In our culture, family plays the most important role in one’s life. In consequence, family members usually prefer to gather geographically closer together to be able to support each other when needed.”

I know for sure that the Vietnamese people are special, and Hoang is such a great example of a dedicated colleague and a kind human being. Everyone in Pentalog’s unit of managers is exceptional.
 

“La Francophonie” Brings Many Advantages in an IT Environment:

• Learning in a modern education system helps to create a specific mindset and management style.
• Knowing the French language and culture opens new career opportunities in international companies such as Pentalog, where one learns to work professionally and collaboratively.
• Discovering inspiring people among one’s colleagues and learning from diverse experiences.
• Collaborating with international clients, making business trips overseas, and contributing to the company’s growth.

 
Do you have clear career ambitions? Give us a sign, we’d like to meet you!
 

Above all, Hoang appreciates the chance to experience this amazing career adventure alongside great colleagues at Pentalog Vietnam. Together, they’ve built a great company where many people dream to work.

Key Employees Play an Essential Role to the Company’s Transformation:

1. There’s a time and a place for everything in life. Some people may be in the right place at the right time. They receive an opportunity, and they take it. They prove their worth by providing results and success for the company.
2. Pentalog’s work culture is agile. This means we are flexible, very adaptable to change, and unafraid to take risks. Our employees are experts at working collaboratively, and the best are encouraged to perform according to their capacity.
3. People like Hoang look for professional challenges and learn from every experience and human interaction. They are restless, passionate about complex problem-solving and service orientation.
4. There’s this saying: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Like most Pentalog’s managers, Hoang is also beside his team, supporting and inspiring them. His greatest asset is his optimism:

“I always think positively, and I never give up when facing challenges or failures.”

There’s a story for that, too – one of failure that you may not have expected to read here. If you thought failures spare the best, you were wrong. To become the best, one must fail.
 

Failure Shows a Man’s Capacity to Start Again

“I was just assigned as Product Owner for a mobile project. The client decided to develop their application for Web, Android, and iOS platforms using a cross-platform solution with limited provider options. So, the chosen option was not qualified enough before being implemented. We had a great team at that moment, and everybody worked hard to manage the new technology and framework. However, after some months of development, the client decided to stop; the decision lowered the team’s morale. In the end, all my colleagues left Pentalog. I stayed because I felt that I needed to redeem myself. I realized that we should have better analyzed the cross-platform solution chosen by the client, advised them more about the technologic constraints, and insisted on not choosing such a solution as it was too early. I learned a lot from that failure and from the next ones, too.”

Now it’s Hoang’s turn to create a safe environment for his team to practice and make mistakes. It’s the best way to learn and evolve. That’s why at Pentalog, there are many training opportunities, workshops, and mentorships where people discuss the lessons learned to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

At the end of this article, please keep in mind Hoang’s invitation to join us if you’re seeking “adventure” and “excellent experiences”:

“You don’t need to be excellent because no one is perfect. We look for your openness and your enthusiasm to learn and develop yourself together with our support. We work hard and play harder, so join us to rock together.”

(To be continued. Keep an eye on us for the following episode of the series!)