OPERATOR-RECORD
About
Background, interests, and the route that led me toward systems engineering.
01 / PROFILE
A little about me
I'm a platform operations engineer based in Vietnam. I'm interested in dependable systems, useful tools, and understanding why things fail.
02 / ROUTE
How I got here
My background is in biotechnology and bioinformatics rather than traditional computer science. I completed a BSc in Biotechnology in Singapore in 2017, followed by an MSc in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology in Ireland in 2019.
I later entered a PhD programme, but left in 2023 after deciding it was no longer the right path for me. It was a difficult and sad decision, but also a deliberate one. It gave me space to reconsider the kind of work I actually wanted to do.
BSc in Biotechnology, completed in Singapore.
MSc in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology in Ireland.
Left academia and moved more deliberately toward engineering.
Platform operations, reliability, automation, and technical writing.
03 / SYSTEMS
The work underneath the science
I started in scientific research, working with biological data and computational workflows. Over time, I became increasingly interested in the engineering underneath them:
- Why did this job fail after running for two days?
- Why can nobody reproduce this environment?
- Where did the storage disappear?
- Why is this process still retrying after a month?
- How do we make the system easier to operate next time?
That gradually pulled me toward Linux systems, cloud infrastructure, distributed workloads, automation, observability, and reliability engineering.
Today, I investigate production failures, build operational tooling, improve cloud usage, document failure modes, and help make complicated systems less fragile. I do not think reliability means that nothing ever fails. It means failures are visible, understandable, recoverable, and less likely to surprise the next person.
04 / OUTSIDE WORK
Outside work
I like coffee, photography, and simple things that reward attention. I especially like sunlight passing through leaves—the Japanese word komorebi describes it better than I can.
I also have a soft spot for mechanical things: watches, cars, tools, and machines whose behaviour can be observed and understood. Perhaps that is part of why systems engineering appeals to me. I like things that are dependable, maintainable, and honest about how they work.