❔ Hi Bach, let’s introduce yourself!
💬 Hi. I'm Bach, currently work as IT Big Data Team Leader at Home Credit Vietnam. My key responsibilities are building and developing Big Data Platform for the whole Home Credit Vietnam, and I have been Home for two years.
❔ Wow! Congratulations on your 2-year milestone at Home! How do you feel about this journey?
💬 Better than ever! It's a journey with many transformations. Actually, Home Credit has been the first company where I have held a managerial role.
Previously, I focused more on enhancing my expertise. When I transitioned to this role at Home, I had to adopt an entirely different mindset in approaching my job. From a professional's view, you only need to focus on tasks, execution, and completing assigned tasks. However, from a managerial standpoint, you need to deal with many more things.
Firstly, you must align with the company's goals and strategies. It's a broad and abstract picture. You need to convey it into a concrete action plan, allocating tasks to team members for execution. Furthermore, you have to ensure that work progresses in line with requirements. Lastly, you need to foster psychological safety within your team to enhance work quality and strengthen engagement. So, that's the most significant change in my role.
❔ Many leaders, both experienced and new, often face the challenge of managing a team with diversity in age, generation, working styles, and more, leading to differences in perspective. With a team of six, have you ever encountered this challenge? If yes, how did you deal with it?
💬 I think the biggest challenge is the generation gap. Especially since my team includes members from various generations. I have members born in the 80s, some around my age, and even new hires born in the 2000s. The mindset of each generation can be quite distinct. For instance, the 80s generation tends to seek stable, sustainable, and clear solutions. On the other hand, younger team members are more enthusiastic and enjoy challenging tasks. So, when working with each generation, I need effective interaction and management approaches to ensure everything runs smoothly.
❔ What core values are you always striving to build your team?
💬 To be honest, in the early days, I didn't have a clear vision of what a team truly meant. I used to think of a team as a group of people, and that's it! However, from a management perspective, building a team goes beyond just having people working in the same department within an organization It involves individuals who align culturally and have "chemistry". The real challenge is in building the team's culture and "chemistry". In the beginning, I struggled with this. I didn't know which culture would fit my team best, what personality traits to look for, or how to create the right "chemistry". In IT, there's a concept called "fail-fast," meaning you try things out, and if they don't work, you start over. So, in the first six months to a year, I experimented with various cultures and work approaches to see what matched.
The turning point came when I hired someone born in '93. When he joined the team, he had a very open mindset, unlike many of the technical folks. Even though he was highly skilled, he never had a closed mindset that said, "My way is the only right way, and everything else doesn't make sense or isn't worth considering." Instead, he was always open to new approaches, believing that there might be other methods that could be more effective, ones he hadn't tried or experienced before. Apart from that, he was incredibly supportive of everyone. He became a connecting link within the team, always enthusiastic and joyful.
After working with him for a while, I realized that this was the element I needed in my team. I should build my team around individuals with similar values, personalities, and work approaches as him.
❔ Alongside your transformation into a leadership role, I believe that there have been certain changes in your expertise. Could you share more details?
💬 Well, actually, my career has seen quite a few changes, starting even before I entered university. When I was in high school, I aspired to become an architect and even took some drawing courses for a while. However, due to my lack of motivation and discipline, I ended up majoring in Business Administration. At that time, Business Administration was a hot major, and I was inspired by the senior students who had pursued it, thinking that I could eventually become a department head or a director with a higher income. However, after graduation, I came to realize that studying Business Administration didn't necessarily lead to a managerial role but rather to a Sales position. I fell into a mental crisis. My career aspiration and the skills I had didn't align with each other. Additionally, I wasn't interested in a sales job.
At that time, my cousin worked in the Banking industry, specifically in a data-related role. He told that: "Hey Bach, my company has a position related to data, focusing on data policy analysis". When I heard about data analysis, I found it quite interesting. So, I decided to apply for that position to see how it would go.
After joining that role, I realized it wasn't exactly what I wanted either. While it was called a "data job", it leaned more towards policy and regulations related to data management, ensuring data was used correctly and efficiently. This job is now known as "Data Governance," but at the time, it didn't have such a fancy name. After working for a while, I told my boss "Sir, I can't continue with this role anymore. Either you let me switch to working as a true 'advanced analyst or I'll have to find another job." Luckily, during my time as a Data Policy Analyst, I was relatively effective, and I managed to build a certain level of trust with my boss. So, he allowed me to try working in the analytics team, as an "advanced analyst."
That was also a very exciting experience. It was the first time I got involved in building machine learning models, solving banking-related problems, and using data for tasks such as cross-sales, up-sales, etc,. However, through this opportunity, I once again realized that I actually prefer engineering roles, especially those related to data, over insight and analysis. So, once again, I took another leap, this time into the role of a data engineer at another banking firm.
After leaving this firm, I worked as a data engineer on an outsourcing project for another bank, a fairly large one outside of Hanoi. Finally, after that project concluded, I transitioned to Home Credit, where I continued to work as a data engineer but shifted my focus from technical aspects to management, as I am doing now.
❔ What differences are there in your job compared to your previous companies?
💬 I think there are many differences. One of the things that impresses me at Home Credit is the volume of data and the demand for data is significantly larger than the companies I worked for before. For example, in my first job at a bank, the use of data was still in its infancy. They were only using basic data needs such as reporting and business statistics. They hadn't ventured into machine learning or the use of large datasets much at that time. When I joined Home, I was quite impressed by the significant demand for data. It may sound a bit exaggerated to say "huge," but I genuinely feel that the data needs at Home are noticeably larger than in my previous companies. For instance, instead of consolidating data-related teams into one department, Home Credit has decentralized these functions due to the sheer volume of data usage. We have separate teams for CRM data, Risk data, Sales data, and more – quite a few teams. The only centralized data team at Home is the Data Engineer team, the one I currently manage and operate.
Moreover, the diversity of data-related tasks at Home is more extensive. Apart from basic reporting and regular data analysis, Home Credit has a substantial demand for machine learning. As far as I know, we are currently operating a robust Underwriting system that heavily relies on scoring systems and decision entrance, utilizing data to make sound business decisions and lending practices. This illustrates that beyond the extensive use of big data, Home Credit knows how to effectively leverage this data, converting it into tangible business benefits. This is a remarkable aspect of Home Credit that has left a strong impression on me.
❔ When you applied, did the job description (JD) at Home Credit align with your expectations?
💬 When I received the JD from Home Credit, my initial impression was not good. That's because the title used by Home Credit was different from the titles commonly used in the market. Home Credit used the title "Business Intelligent Team Leader." If you present this title separately to candidates, 90% of them would think it's related to reporting, data modeling, and so on. However, when I read the JD in detail, I realized that the actual job was related to Big Data Engineering. At that point, I thought, "Okay, maybe Home Credit uses terminology a bit differently than other companies." So, I decided to give it a try.
However, my perception completely changed when I applied. During my discussions with a Talent Acquisition (TA) member at that time, I was impressed by the difference compared to TAs at other companies. The TA at Home Credit had a certain level of understanding about the job they were recruiting for. We could discuss industry-specific terms and data-related concepts, and they had a general grasp of the work I was doing. As a result, I developed a more positive view of the role I was applying for. Additionally, when I interviewed with my line manager, he provided insights and direction regarding data-related challenges at Home Credit. So, even though the job title might not have been ideal, I found the job to be worth pursuing.
That's why I decided to apply to Home Credit and take on the role of team leader for the Big Data team.
❔ As for your perspective on Home Credit before and after joining, did it change?
💬 Yes, it changed. In fact, this wasn't my first experience working for a banking or finance company. I had worked for two firms before. My perspective on banking and finance firms is that they typically offer traditional and ownership-based solutions. They operate in a more traditional, slower, and somewhat passive manner.
However, my experience at Home Credit was quite different. I felt a sense of dynamism and diversity here. Although it still had some aspects of a finance company, when I worked with my colleagues at Home Credit, I noticed that people didn't have a mindset of "just work for 8 hours and go home, everything is routine." Instead, there was a level of aggressiveness that was rare in other banking and finance companies.
❔ Working in a company as dynamic as Home Credit, how has the role of the Big Data Engineering team evolved or shifted since you joined? And how have these changes impacted your work and the team?
💬 Originally, Home Credit had a relatively high demand for data, but over time, with an increasing number of data-related projects, this demand has grown significantly. Consequently, numerous teams have been established to work on data-related tasks, leading to both motivation and pressure within the teams. Specifically, the challenge has been to build and operate a system capable of seamlessly meeting the company's data needs while ensuring data quality meets the required standards. As a result, my team has expanded from 4 to 7 members, including me
With this increased number of team members, my team has taken on greater responsibilities, handling larger projects. We've also gained the trust of the management team for critical projects, which has led to changes in the scope of our work. Previously, major data-related challenges were handled by the Group, with solutions provided to Home Credit branches for implementation. However, over the past 1 to 2 years, there has been a noticeable shift as these challenges are now delegated to each country for resolution, including Home Credit Vietnam. This transition presents both challenges and opportunities for data professionals like our team
❔ How have you and your team adapted to these changes?
💬 Honestly, there are still many challenges. Firstly, in terms of management, when a team suddenly increases in size from 4 to 7 members within a period of 2 to 3 months, some of the previous management models and ways of working become less effective.
For example, in the past, to keep track of team tasks, team members would interact daily, discussing what each person was working on. However, with a team of 7, such daily sessions are no longer practical.
This means we had to find alternative ways for team members to stay informed about each other's progress without consuming too much time. There needed to be a structured sharing mechanism because, in the past, team members had to closely monitor each other's work, but now they only need a general overview and can collaborate when necessary. This allows them to stay informed about each other's tasks without excessive time spent on updates. So, this was the first management change.
The second change relates to how team members interact with each other. With the increased workload, not every project or task can be handled by all team members individually. Instead, tasks are divided into smaller groups of 2 to 3 team members. After these smaller groups complete their tasks, they share the results with entries to ensure everyone is aware of what's happening, ensuring that no one is left behind, and everyone is on the same page. This change has its own challenges, but we've worked hard to address them and we've achieved certain accomplishments as well. Initially, we primarily followed practices and solutions provided by the Group. However, now we have the confidence to develop our own solutions tailored to the specific needs of Home Credit Vietnam. We still use the headquarters' solutions as references rather than relying on them completely. This level of autonomy has allowed Home Credit Vietnam to develop its unique approach to data usage, processing, and management compared to the more dependent approach we had in the past.
❔ What has impressed you the most about the working environment and the people during your two years at Home?
💬 I think there are quite a few points to talk about, but the one that has left the most significant impression on me is the culture. As I mentioned, Home Credit doesn't give me the feeling of traditional, passive, or slow-moving companies. They follow processes, but there's a sense of youthful energy, dynamism, and enthusiasm. This makes everyone work together with the mindset that we should strive to do better, not just meet our job requirements. This culture permeates between teams, departments, and individuals within Home Credit, creating a working environment that is markedly different from other banking and finance firms.
Another aspect that I find impressive is how Home Credit builds its culture. One of the points that stands out to me is Home Credit's concern for its employees, not only from a work perspective but also from a well-being perspective. Home Credit organizes numerous workshops and regular sharing sessions. There are also monthly workshops that delve into topics such as work-life balance and overcoming challenges. These workshops help employees, like me, deal with difficulties that may arise in our work.
We may not only learn a lot from them but also they serve as a platform for us to share and support each other.
