5 Reasons to Do a Mid-Career Internship at HDE (by Jennifer)
My name is Jennifer, I’m 33 years old, and I left my full-time job to do a mid-career internship at HDE (now HENNGE).
I’ll start with the most obvious misconception:
Internships Are Not Just For Students
I know what you’re thinking: “Sure, anyone could technically get an internship, but only students can afford to be unpaid!” Let’s face it — internships don’t have a great reputation among those who need to work for a living. The most common pattern is for students, primarily those who are living either at school or at home, to take an internship during their summer break or another free semester to gain the requisite 1–3 years of experience required for new graduates to find a job.
For those who don’t find an internship near home or school, the internship can actually become a financial burden with food and housing costs potentially much greater than what the student is used to, especially while living in large cities.
Additionally, the quality of what’s called an internship can range from the ideal of a genuine work experience all the way down to basically unpaid labor or performing menial tasks completely unrelated to one’s desired career path. There’s no doubt that there are companies who take advantage of this culture of internships to cut their costs under the guise of providing “valuable experience” to the intern, but luckily not all companies follow that model.
HENNGE understands that your time is valuable, and their Global Internship Program is structured in such a way that you spend your days working alongside full-time employees, learning how to deploy applications, and gaining hands-on experience with new languages and technologies.
Now that you’ve found a company that does provide truly valuable work experience, you may still be wondering: why should you return to an unpaid position when you already have a full-time job?
Internships Are a Chance For Growth
Human beings are creatures of habit, and the corporate environment is no different. If a solution works, why search for another? The amount of time and effort invested in researching a new product, a new language, or a new development model might be viewed as wasted if the result is not something that can immediately be applied to current procedures. Even if you are interested in spending your personal time expanding your skill set, that can be challenging with a 40–60 hour work week and other commitments.
An internship can be the perfect opportunity to break out of your previous routine and start fresh. You will have time to step back and think about what you’ve been doing compared to what you’d like to be doing. Having time away from your usual lifestyle can be invigorating and may remind you of the excitement you felt when you first joined a company.
If you’ve been working full time for a few years, you’ve probably seen how daily tasks can pile up and prevent you from refining or improving existing procedures, leaving you simply treading water rather than building a solid seafaring vessel to explore new horizons. Technology is a field where new tools can seemingly appear almost daily, and it may be detrimental to remain stagnant for too long. Taking time out to work in a new environment with new tools can jumpstart an exploration into a whole new world of possibilities.
Finally, improvement and growth are achieved most effectively by becoming uncomfortable. If everything is too easy, you’re missing an opportunity to grow.
Internships Abroad Are a Great Way to Expand Your Horizons
Nothing guarantees at least mild discomfort like moving to a foreign country where you may or may not already speak the language!
In all seriousness, if you’ve never been abroad for longer than a few days, I strongly recommend you find a way to live in another country for a month or more. It’s a unique challenge that is difficult to replicate in any other setting. If you learn nothing else, you will surely learn how many things about your home country you have taken for granted as “normal,” from the attitude of the people around you, to the food, to architecture, to the local plants and wildlife (crows mostly, in Tokyo).
Being abroad will change the way you think about yourself, about your home country, and even how you view problems and different ways to solve them.
As a bonus, HENNGE’s employee pool includes not only employees born and raised in Japan but also those who came to Japan from other countries all around the world. You have a chance to talk with and learn from a truly global group of people, sharing stories about life and work experiences from a variety of backgrounds. You yourself will become an unofficial ambassador of your home country, correcting misconceptions and promoting your favorite foods and activities.
“Great!” You proclaim, “I’m sold! But it’s still expensive, right? I’m not sure I can afford it.”
In that case, I’m happy to inform you:
Internship Costs Are Covered (Yes, Even Your Flight!)
Imagine getting to travel to a new country for two months for free, including your flight!
While you can’t quite fly first class to Tokyo, HENNGE has structured their internship in such a way that they have budgeted for international flights and the cost of living in Tokyo for two months. A roundtrip flight from your home country, suggestions on places to stay with a reasonable budget to match, transportation costs to and from the office, and of course — food!
Because HENNGE’s headquarter is in Shibuya, there’s a wide variety of choices for lunch at affordable prices — everything from the classic sushi and ramen options to Thai, Korean, and any number of teishoku (set meals) which have a main dish (fish, meat, etc) plus rice, a small salad and/or pickles, and soup!
Speaking of food, there are even several free food opportunities during your internship. If you’re worried you won’t get to eat anything nicer than food from the convenience store (which actually can be pretty good depending on where you go!), you’ll be happy to know that your support team at HDE has scheduled small get-to-know-you lunches with members from each of the divisions. You’ll have an opportunity to talk one-on-one with current employees working and living abroad, and better yet, you’ll get to visit their recommended lunch places and try all kinds of new food!
These opportunities for conversations outside the office bring me to my final point:
Internship Is a True Preview of Work
HENNGE cycles internships throughout the year, so there’s no period of 4–6 weeks where everyone is simply on their best behavior. You have several opportunities to communicate with current employees to get their impression of work, as well as observe them from day to day. The lunches mentioned above are an excellent opportunity to ask questions you might be hesitant to discuss in a large group — what working in Japan is really like.
The answers will vary based on each individual’s personal history and personality, so you can learn what working and living in Tokyo is like from a lot of different perspectives. I never felt like those I talked to were trying to sugarcoat their situations — anywhere you live whether it’s in your home country or abroad there are positive aspects and less positive aspects, and I believe it’s a mistake to try to hide things which might become problems. It’s important to get the full story if you’re considering moving abroad, and I felt I could trust that’s what I got from those I talked with.
Additionally, the length of the internship is perfect for getting your feet wet working abroad. The usual length is about 7–8 weeks, and this leaves enough time to become adjusted to the daily work life and work schedule at the company. For those of you who have never lived abroad but have wanted to, this chance is ideal.
A common route for non-Japanese coming to Japan is to join JET or Interac and become an English teacher. This can also be a wonderful experience, but the contract is for a full year. If you’ve never been away from your home country, away from your friends and family, for more than a week or two the prospect of spending a full year abroad in a country where you might not understand the language and have a good chance of being placed in a rural community where very few people speak other languages can feel overwhelming. While many people post their English teaching experiences online, the disparity between locations and programs is too great to really know what you’ll be getting yourself into for a year. When you can actually work at the company for several weeks, you know what to expect if you are offered a position at that company.
With the Global Internship Program, you get just enough time to find out if this is something you really want to pursue, but also the length is short enough that if it turns out you really aren’t interested in living here, you know the end is not far away and you can enjoy your time more as a tourist.
Finally, throughout the whole internship, you are never alone. Everyone at HENNGE is very friendly and open to conversation and activities outside of work. I personally spent at least 1–2 nights every week with members of the company hanging out either doing a particular activity such as playing board games or going for karaoke, or just grabbing a meal and chatting.
It sounds all too good to be true, right? Work experience in another country, expenses reimbursed, a friendly and welcoming community of coworkers, and for two months?! But I promise you it’s real — I lived it and you can too.
What are you waiting for? Try the challenge now and take the first step in your journey of living and working abroad as an intern at HENNGE!
Jennifer Lowry comes from Massachusetts in the US. She studied Information Technology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and worked at a payroll company for 5 years after graduating. Jennifer was one of the HENNGE Global Interns for Oct 29th — Dec 14th 2018. Apply now by cracking the IT challenge here.
