Having just overcome the shock of unemployment, Minh An thought life was rosy again when an enormous storm struck. It was much fiercer and more painful than the first shock: her son was seriously ill.
Failure and success occur every day in our lives, yet it is easy to forget this pattern and feel: ‘How the hell did this happen to me?’
The same thought occurred to Võ Thị Minh An (born in 1989 in Ho Chi Minh City), currently Talent Acquisition Director at a major bank—arguably one of the youngest HR directors in Vietnam—when she experienced unemployment after years of studying abroad with a string of achievements anyone would dream of.
Võ Thị Minh An has changed considerably since 2010, when the press showered her with praise. Experience and maturity are now clearly visible on her face.
What does Minh An have? A full USD 200,000 scholarship, an honors double bachelor's degree in International Relations and French from Mount Holyoke College in the US, the prestigious Outstanding Commitment Award, 2 mentions in a speech by former US President Bill Clinton, an American journalism award, and more…
Unemployment is already a nightmare for most people, but for someone as proud as Minh An, it was a collapse in many senses.
Minh An’s journey toward success and happiness is like a chapter overflowing with life lessons in the novel of youth, lessons everyone should understand.
4 months unemployed, crying every night
The first stumble in Minh An's previously smooth life, when she was young and eager to prove herself, was unemployment.
The nightmare of youth is unemployment.
Minh An confided: “When I first returned to Vietnam, I thought my impressive profile would make it easy to land a well-paid management job. I sent applications everywhere, applying whenever I saw a high-paying marketing role. I also networked constantly. Yet I could not find a job for 4 full months.
I fell into depression. Every day my husband saw me sitting on the stairs crying, without knowing why. Everything about me seemed shattered, and I was deeply disappointed in myself. The first job I took was as a copywriter for an international university.
It was a very junior position, simply writing advertising snippets. There was an enormous gap between what I had initially imagined I needed to achieve and the job I had received. It was a truly difficult period at the start of my career.”, she continued.
Minh An was also dissatisfied in that environment. After roughly 6 months of working there, she decided to take a different approach.
The woman born in the 1980s temporarily set aside her title as merely a copywriter and proactively asked her boss to let her coordinate a marketing plan for the school's newly opened department. On her own, she handled everything from implementation planning and comparing market research data to developing the key concept… After just a short time, the program launched and was quite successful.
But Every Difficulty Teaches Us a Lesson Once We Overcome It.
“I thought that after the program, something would be different for me. But no—I still returned to my old job as a copywriter. I was very frustrated at the time, but looking back, it was clearly a period in which I gained valuable knowledge, skills, and experience that later helped me advance very quickly in the next stage of my career.”, Minh An confided.
A child falls ill as a career takes off
Instead of wasting time crying every evening because life was not going her way, Minh An decided to enroll in a master's program to fill her spare time.
When Minh An graduated at the top of her master’s class in Communications Management at the University of Stirling, Scotland, she was also in her 8th month of pregnancy. After overcoming the first crisis, she regained her balance.
The woman born in 1989 has everything a woman could dream of: a family, a home in District 1, and a baby on the way.
Just as life seemed rosy again, Minh An fell into another, deeper, darker abyss…
In her career, Minh An left her copywriting job to take a highly paid management position at BAT. She was promoted twice within a short time. At her peak, the woman born in the 1980s became the company's Head of Recruitment for the entire East Asia region.
Just as Minh An thought life was rosy, an enormous storm struck. It was much fiercer and more painful than the first shock.
“In 2014, I gave birth, and not long afterward I discovered that my child was seriously ill. I had to stop working and take my child to Thailand for treatment after the first epileptic seizure.”, her voice suddenly fell, and she seemed about to cry.
Regarding her decision to marry and have a child at a very young age, Minh An sees it as a natural development in life. By the time they married, the woman born in the 1980s and her boyfriend had been in love for 8 years and overcome many challenges. Having a child after 3 years of marriage was never an obstacle to her career; it simply followed the natural course of life.
To Minh An, becoming a mother is a noble calling. Being the mother of a boy with a disability completely transformed her worldview. It taught her many lessons about life, cultivated her calmness and a more mature, profound perspective, and helped her overcome many later frustrations at work.
Minh An decided to cut off the long, flowing hair she had worn throughout her adolescence, adopting a shorter, stronger and more distinctive style.
‘After giving birth and discovering that my child had a problem, I suddenly thought that my life had been too smooth until then. Although various events had shaken my sense of self, the turmoil of the past three years with my child was far greater than anything before it. At a time when I had too much to face and life felt heavy, I cut my hair to feel lighter and to mark a truly mature stage of my life.’, the 28-year-old mother confided.
Lessons from someone who went from hardship to success
Work stalled when Minh An's child became ill. While taking her child to Thailand for treatment, the 8X woman emailed management with two options: resign to care for her child, or continue working part-time for half pay.
Management’s decision truly surprised Minh An: let the young mother work part-time.
After everything, Minh An found herself more composed, viewing issues differently and, especially, not judging people by their appearance.
After weathering this storm, Minh An learned 2 valuable lessons that will probably stay with her for life.
Minh An's first lesson was: ‘No matter how capable or strong we may be, we cannot know when the next storm will strike. In my case, for example, my child’s illness is extremely rare; the doctor said only 4 in 1 million children have this syndrome.
It taught me that we will never accomplish anything alone. Anyone you meet along your path may be someone you need one day. No matter how much you dislike them, or how strongly you disagree with them in everyday conversation, at some point they will be the people who come together to carry you through life’s storms. So always treat everyone with respect and tolerance.
As with what happened to An, if my colleagues had not been generous and forgiving enough to shoulder my work, if management had not been willing to support and trust me, and if friends and relatives had not stayed beside me with encouragement, I certainly would not be where I am today!”
The 2nd lesson came to An when she asked a board member why everyone treated her so favorably.
She received the answer: “If we had not already seen your dedication — how you continued working enthusiastically for the company while pregnant, or remained resilient and committed to delivering strong results when your child was ill — it might have been difficult to gain everyone's agreement to help you. You worked very hard to prove to us that you deserve this consideration.”
Minh An will always remember this director's final words, perhaps a lesson that will remain with her for a long time: “The better you do, the more effort you give, and the more you contribute, the more luck will come to you in surprisingly unexpected ways!”.
