In an increasingly competitive US labor market, obtaining internships at giants like JPMorgan Chase, Meta, or Microsoft is a dream for many. Yet, Pham Dang Hung and Ong Gia Phuoc not only achieved this, they also built a united Vietnamese student community to promote career heights abroad.

Pham Dang Hung: breaking barriers 

Hung, a sophomore finance major at DePauw University, secured an internship at JPMorgan Chase, one of the world’s leading investment banks with an acceptance rate below 1 percent. 

This achievement is even more impressive if noting that Hung did not study at "target schools", i.e., the group of universities that are often prioritized for recruitment by large corporations.

From his freshman year, Hung took online courses, pursued CFA certification, and competed at international finance competitions. He even reached the finals of a finance contest hosted by Harvard University. 

Despite initial achievements, the application process was not easy. Hung lacked interview experience and was rejected many times. But thanks to persistent practice - weeks practicing interviews up to 2 hours a day - Hung improved his skills and received invitations not only from JPMorgan but also from AXA (the largest insurance group in France).

Hung was then accepted into an international investment bank for his third-year summer internship for a sales and trading position in a field usually reserved for students from top universities. This meant that Hung soon secured an internship for the summer of 2026 in Manhattan (US), the global financial center.

Ong Gia Phuoc: from coding novice to Microsoft intern

The story of Gia Phuoc, a third-year Computer Science student, is also one of overcoming hardships. Without a solid programming foundation when he first entered university, Phuoc self-studied algorithms, built personal projects, and connected with seniors to learn. 

In his second year, after submitting hundreds of job applications, Phuoc was continuously rejected. However, he did not give up and eventually received an internship offer at Meta (Facebook) as a software engineer for the infrastructure team.

Following his initial success, throughout his third year, Phuoc applied for companies, learned new technologies and practiced solving algorithms every day. He received 6 internship offers from tech giants such as Waymo (owned by Google), Robinhood, DoorDash, Plaid, Valon and Microsoft. Phuoc decided to choose Microsoft because it was suitable for his long-term development orientation and the working environment.

Both Hung and Phuoc contribute to the Vietnamese student community through PO Mentorship, a career guidance initiative for Vietnamese students pursuing computer science and economics-finance.

PO Mentorship connects young students with experienced mentors from top firms, providing practical knowledge, application support, and interview preparation.

Thanh Hung