Programmer Is First Thai To Join Twitter Software Team In US

[webfact]

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Programmer is first Thai to join software team in US

Asina Pornwasin

The Nation

Tanin, 28, applied for a job at Twitter in December last year.

BANGKOK: -- Software developer Tanin Na Nakorn, 28, is the first Thai to be offered a job with Twitter as a software engineer. He will take up the job with the online social networking service on October 1 as part of an international team based in San Francisco.

Tanin said he'd long had a passion to work for Twitter and decided to apply after his own tech start-up collapsed last year. He admitted that although he is skilled in programming, he has had no experience in running a business and decided Twitter was the answer.

Tanin started his career as a programmer when he was 15 at Thaiware.com, where he worked for five years. After graduating with a degree in computer science from Chulalongkorn University, he went abroad to study computer science on an EU scholarship.

"At the time, I thought I would like to become a researcher in computer science. But after studying and publishing research, I realised it was not my thing. I wanted to develop a product or service that would help people, so I turned from studying for a PhD to setting up my own company," Tanin said.

At 25, Tanin, with no experience in running a business, launched his first software company, which designed software for a restaurant. The venture failed after the first year, so he set up a second software business, developing consumer Web products.

By 2011 his company had launched five products on the market with little success, until Kamling.org appeared. This website provided flood-related information in Thailand late last year. It worked, but his company could not make the service profitable. "I realised I did not have the business and management skills to set up and run a tech company. I decided to stop doing my own business and seek work with a tech start-up firm," said Tanin.

He searched and applied for jobs at 17 tech companies in California's Silicon Valley. "I was interviewed by 11 of these companies by international phone and demonstrated my programming skills over their websites. Each company interviewed me four times with 45 minutes for each interview. During this time I had to answer three questions on my programming skills. [Eventually] I got the chance for face-to-face interviews from three companies - Facebook, Expensify and Twitter," said Tanin.

But before sending in his job applications, Tanin said he had to improve his English-speaking skills. So he listened to British author J.K.Rowling making a speech at Harvard University - and then copied her talking style from a recording. He kept doing this for a month until he was confident his English was acceptable, then he sent in the applications.

From the interviews he received job offers from Expensify and Twitter - and decided on Twitter.

"I was the first Thai software engineer at Twitter at the time I was interviewed. A couple of weeks after I got the job another Thai PhD student was offered a position with Twitter as a scientist, and [they] will start working with them on October 1 also. He said he read my blog about the interview experience with Twitter before he also took the job," said Tanin.

He said his challenge at Twitter would be to create and develop new features for Twitter users, especially for those in Thailand and in Asia. "As a member of an international team, I will be responsible for the overseas market of Twitter, that means Asia and Thailand."

Now, Twitter is rising rapidly, and seeking opportunities in many countries outside the US. Asia is one of its major markets. "In Thailand there are around 1 million Twitter users, which is significant even for Twitter. I really hope to learn a lot from working at Twitter - how it manages the company in the growth cycle. Finally, after five years, maybe I might try to set up my own company again," said Tanin.

-- The Nation 2012-06-19

[Lannatyne]

Well done, son!

You've found out the hard way that 'running your own business' is a very hard thing to do. Many people here think that having your 'own business' is the only way to go.

I hope you'll prove that actually working for someone else isn't demeaning, and can be even more rewarding than doing it all yourself.

You never know : spend a few years here, gain the business and management skills, then have another go at your own thing.

[FlyByNights]

Way to go KhunTanin!

It’s like a breath of fresh air reading something like this.

This goes to show with hard work and determination all your dreams can come true.

Congratulations

[belg]

so he studied computer science in thailand in one of the best Thai universities, but he did it all over in a european country?

his own company or start-up failed...

learned english with harry potter books ? lol

in the world of IT, the only language you have to be able to speak is : 1 and 0

good luck to him anyway

[woodyleonhard]

Bravo!

[Jingthing]

I hope he doesn't have a problem working with ... Indians.

Personally, I find it kind of pathetic (for Thailand) that this is even news.

Edited June 19, 2012 by Jingthing

[Fgis]

Happy to work for a company that will close so fast.

Twitter is useless and people will know it soon.

[Jingthing]

Happy to work for a company that will close so fast.

Twitter is useless and people will know it soon.

I somehow doubt that.

[BigJohnnyBKK]

Yes, if India and China ran a special article for every one of their honored sons that made it to the big league of software firms, all the trees in the world would have been pulped by now.

Pathetic that this is such an extraordinary event.

[BuddhistVirus]

I hope he doesn't have a problem working with ... Indians.

Personally, I find it kind of pathetic (for Thailand) that this is even news.

Isn't it?

What to do...

Edited June 19, 2012 by BuddhistVirus

[DrTuner]

Good for him. Pretty much highlights the usual problem for Thais, lack of English language. ASEAN in 2015 will be problematic as well. They really should send some of the TV programming in original language with subtitles, it'd be at least a small help.

[FlyByNights]

I hope he doesn't have a problem working with ... Indians.

Personally, I find it kind of pathetic (for Thailand) that this is even news.

What is the problem working with Indians? I have worked around them all my life, in fact still do.

They are also considered human or are they not?

Why do you think this is pathetic (for Thailand ) that this is even news?

IMO this is a nice story that shows perseverance, dedication, and hard work from a 28yr old Thai boy, who apparenlty is doing pretty good for himself.

Does all news need to be bad news to be worthy of mention, or is it that you think this kid's story is not worth the shyt?

Happy to work for a company that will close so fast.

Twitter is useless and people will know it soon.

Useless? I think your wrong

The Numbers On Tweets

• 3 years, 2 months and 1 day. The time it took from the first Tweet to the billionth Tweet.
  
• 1 week. The time it now takes for users to send a billion Tweets.
  
• 50 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, one year ago.
  
• 140 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, in the last month.
  
• 177 million. Tweets sent on March 11, 2011.
  
• 456. Tweets per second (TPS) when Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 (a record at that time).
  
• 6,939. Current TPS record, set 4 seconds after midnight in Japan on New Year’s Day.
  

The Numbers On Accounts

• 572,000. Number of new accounts created on March 12, 2011.
  
• 460,000. Average number of new accounts per day over the last month.
  
• 182%. Increase in number of mobile users over the past year.
  

The Numbers on Employees

• Jan 2008 – 8 employees,
  
• Jan 2009 – 29 employees
  
• Jan 2010 – 130 employees
  
• Jan 2011 – 350 employees
  
• Today – 400 employees
  

Officially, Twitter has 100 million active users – again, members who log in at least once a month. Which makes the platform about an eighth of the size of Facebook. This was back in September – obviously, Twitter has been growing since then. There’s certainly no reason to assume that the membership is shrinking or even flatlining.

Yes, if , all the trees in the world would have been pulped by now.

Pathetic that this is such an extraordinary event.

Yes your right but this boy is from Thailand, not India or China.

.

He is also the first Thai to be offered a job with Twitter as a software engineer

Personally, I think this is pretty immpresive, and I am sure many readers on this forum do so as well.

Extraordinary event maybe not, but it is refreshing to read a story like this every once in a while.

The only thing I see pathetic about this is you, reason being that you would rather support a couple Farangs without a pot to piss in selling cup cakes at the market, instead of giving credit to a kid that has apparently worked really hard to be where he is now.

[Jingthing]

My point, OBVIOUSLY, is that for every Thai in such a company you'll probably find 100,000 Indians. So you might wonder maybe there is something really wrong with the Thai educational system. Clear enough? If anyone thought I was dissing Indians, well, I find that hard to believe anyone thought that. No, not every country needs to be a high tech leader like the USA, Israel, UK, France, India, China, etc. but on the other hand Thailand isn't a small country and this is an age of advanced technology.

[Banzai99]

Seems to be some here who want to put a Thai down no matter what they do.

Or maybe its because he's only 28 years old that pisses people off.

[kawaiimomo]

My point, OBVIOUSLY, is that for every Thai in such a company you'll probably find 100,000 Indians. So you might wonder maybe there is something really wrong with the Thai educational system. Clear enough? If anyone thought I was dissing Indians, well, I find that hard to believe anyone thought that. No, not every country needs to be a high tech leader like the USA, Israel, UK, France, India, China, etc. but on the other hand Thailand isn't a small country and this is an age of advanced technology.

I guess you probably don't work on IT and for sure you never worked with Indian outsource (100k, I understand you mean many of them outsourced). The are some brilliant IT people in India, the rest is crap: No best practices, no standards, no nothing! It's really a pain in the as-s trying to manage them, and when you finally see the code you want to cry and rewrite it again.

Some companies think it's going to be cheaper going this way, but at the end they will end up hiring decent programmers. The only good thing about this people who have not good skills is that they work long time and very hard, but this doesn't mean quality. If you go cheap, at the end it will cost you more.

[DrTuner]

Or maybe its because he's only 28 years old that pisses people off.

That's ancient for a programmer in IT.

[Banzai99]

Or maybe its because he's only 28 years old that pisses people off.

That's ancient for a programmer in IT.

I guess those guys at Twitter don't know what they're doing then.

[DrTuner]

Or maybe its because he's only 28 years old that pisses people off.

That's ancient for a programmer in IT.

I guess those guys at Twitter don't know what they're doing then.

They do, probably got him for a low salary. Had the guy been fluent in English and working outside Thailand before he most probably would be in management already. Now he'll be competing with the 18-25 age bracket. It's explained in the article though, he tried his wings as an entrepreneur, that's where the years went.

[FlyByNights]

Or maybe its because he's only 28 years old that pisses people off.

That's ancient for a programmer in IT.

I guess those guys at Twitter don't know what they're doing then.

They do, probably got him for a low salary. Had the guy been fluent in English and working outside Thailand before he most probably would be in management already. Now he'll be competing with the 18-25 age bracket. It's explained in the article though, he tried his wings as an entrepreneur, that's where the years went.

Because he is Thai you automatically assumme they got him for a low salary? Give me a break man. I'm sure the salary he will receive is not a low as you might think.

Take into account what he said, "his challenge at Twitter would be to create and develop new features for Twitter users, especially for those in Thailand and in Asia.”As a member of an international team, I will be responsible for the overseas market of Twitter, that means Asia and Thailand."

I’m not too sure if a native English speaker would have the capabilities necessary to perform some of these tasks associated with his position.

IMO they made the best choice possible, considering most people around the world do not speak Thai, or even write it for that matter .

Here take a look for yourself,

Software Engineer Twitter http://www.glassdoor...ies-E100569.htm

Average salary per year is 113,769 USD. That is over 300,000 THB per month, nice chunk of change for a 28yr kid from Thailand..

And especially for being for being a non native English speaker for that matter.

Farang CIO don’t even make that much here.

Edited June 21, 2012 by FlyByNights

[DrTuner]

Software Engineer Twitter http://www.glassdoor...ies-E100569.htm

Average salary per year is 113,769 USD. That is over 300,000 THB per month, nice chunk of change for a 28yr kid from Thailand..

And especially for being for being a non native English speaker for that matter.

Farang CIO don’t even make that much here.

He'll be working in the US, won't he ? My point was, had he left Thailand in his early 20's already, he'd most likely be at least in the next bracket, 'Systems Software Engineer', which according to the same website has average salary of 130000$. Makes me wonder would he have gone earlier, had he spoken good English. Would have to ask him directly to get the answer, but I don't know him.

I do agree it's a bit pathetic that an event that should be everyday life makes the news. AFAIK there are a lot of programmers in Thailand, one would think that the best ones would've gone overseas a long time ago. I hope the ASEAN will change things, but won't be holding my breath.