In the summer of 1998, David saw that a fellow young Asian earned a CompTIA A+ IT certificate.
CompTIA A+ IT certificate was a entry certificate into the IT industry to repair and maintain PCs.
You could earn $30 – $35 USD an hour which is big bucks even today.
The average salary of an A+ technician is around $65,000 a year + in 2025.
David finished the exams and earned his A+ certificate at the age of 14 while still in grade 9 high school.
What did this do to him and his family?
| Work | Computer technician for life. Getting an A+ certificate back in 1998 certified him for life. It was fun for him to repair PCs. Most errors are software and user made. Quick reset or reformat makes the PC back to normal. PCs last at least 7-10 years back then. |
| Family | David’s family is recognized worldwide as the newspaper was a Greater Toronto Area run. He was published twice. He also earned a Microsoft IT certificate too. David’s family is a well known Boat People family. |
| High school treatment | Vietnamese Boat People are the latest wave of immigrants. No one wants to touch or bother David as he is an example of Vietnamese refugee success. Harming David would badly reflect Canadians and other people. Canada needs immigrants to repair their PCs. Canada needs workers to maintain their infrastructure. Allow David to study enough to earn his keep. |
| University treatment | The A+ certificate is a globally recognized brand. People don’t want David to have more skills and degrees because one is more than enough. Basically David is the first Vietnamese in North America to earn an IT certificate at an early age showing his passion and determination of computers. Teachers and classmates don’t want him to do more than basic IT work as people are naturally jealous at a young age and during school. People target David. |
| Working life | David worked other jobs to figure out what to do for a professional career. His parents told him life is more than repairing PCs. David travelled and worked many jobs to understand what his parents were telling him. Basically his parents said life is a PhD and medicine. This translates to knowing more and handling life at all extremes. |
| Vietnamese in Vietnam | They don’t understand why David is ‘technical educated’. David is just a technician at the end. Asians and Canadians don’t want David to have more as he is a poster child of success already for Vietnamese Boat People earning enough. $65K is enough to live and have a family. If he learns more and becomes like an engineer, other Asians will try to outsmart him because of Asian jealousy. Competition would be too high that it would be impossible to compete for basic engineering jobs as jealous Asians will group up and push him out. Therefore, David only choice is to work for a nice Canadian company repairing PCs or go out on his own doing solo research … or work with his dad in their family business for life. |
| What is life for a poster child? | Most Vietnamese on YouTube as computer experts who are North American just review, build and swap PC parts. Entry level fun and work. Other Asians don’t want an intelligent Vietnamese on YouTube with them or they go racist and crazy and group up on them. Vietnamese YouTubers from the USA just make enough money to live with a small audience. Basically people in general don’t want Vietnamese to have a lot. Vietnamese come from an abundant nice tropical country and they think Vietnamese are people they don’t want to bother with really. Don’t give them a lot of time or money. This is thinking in the most negative angle in North America as people born in North America think in groups all day. Basically David is stuck doing solo work or working with his dad in their family business. |
| What does knowing PCs do to people? | Most people in the 1990s were computer inept. Windows 95 Operating System was the turning point but still computers were expensive and people rather play sports and go out seeing movies in theaters. If you knew computers you would be considered a nerd or worst a threat. You would put people out of business because you naturally figure out how to streamline and consolidate products and services. A technician ain’t that much of a threat to basic normal livelihood. But if you do more you are considered too much. |
| What is life? | You should still learn and go strong regardless of whatever people say or do. Young people are just young and really think people should have just enough to live on. When you get old, you naturally learn more wisdom of life and inner development. You have to go far to the next ocean. |
| What should have been the normal route? | David could have just gone living normal like every kid. But in grade 8, David understood life was something difficult. Despair and difficulty is in the air. Life was unclear finishing elementary school so he took it upon himself to earn. Out here in Durham Region there wasn’t much to do in terms of work so studying more is a nice option. And since he is Vietnamese and is plagued by negative stereotypes, the more certificates and solo research is needed to keep face. David growth was stalled doing an A+ certificate and being globally recognized for years and years. So he figured a way around it by befriending other Vietnamese born in Canada like Tammy Nguyen. |