A Remote Internship to the Fullest
After a three-hour flight from Wuhan, China operated by All Nippon Airways, I landed safely at Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan, feeling excited and nervous all together towards my upcoming internship …
Sorry, I was just kidding. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan has been enforcing restrictions on entry to Japan for visitors who have stayed in almost any other country over the past 14 days. As a result, I had the honor to join HENNGE as its first-ever fully remote software engineer intern for its Global Internship Program (GIP).
Although it is quite unfortunate that the internship had to be shortened due to security reasons, I was still able to enjoy the fully remote GIP to the fullest.
Before the Internship
One month before the internship even started, I received an email from a GIP staff member Belle Wu saying that they have sent a welcome package to me from Tokyo that day. Though I kind of anticipated that there would be things such as company T-shirts, stickers, or notebooks inside that package, I was still surprised and moved when I actually received the package; there was a sticky note on every item with warm words (and odd puns). I have shot a video of everything inside the package to show my appreciation (See below). Belle also arranged a video call for me and my mentors two weeks before the start date to explain the tasks for the internship and answer any questions to make sure I am comfortable and ready to work.
Day One
Honestly speaking, onboarding remotely is weird; meeting new people through a video camera definitely bears much less passion and feels much less real than in person. I have only attended video interviews with less than three participants and it took me a while to get comfortable and used to talking to a large group of people on my screen. Fortunately, everyone was friendly and supportive during the onboarding process.
And yes, I even got to have an office tour, with the help of HENNGE-kun, a remote-controlled robot that can move around the office. Though due to poor network connections, there was a 1–2 seconds lag when I was controlling the robot using my keyboard, I can really appreciate HENNGE’s effort to bridge the gap between the remote and onsite experience, and it was indeed such a fun and geeky experience that I will always remember. Look how happy I was : )
Working From a Far Away Home
I am working from my home in Wuhan, China, which is about 2000 km away from HENNGE’s Shibuya office. There are definitely inconveniences as a result of such a long distance. For example, due to the Great Firewall of China, I am not able to use a lot of services such as Gmail, Google Search, and Zoom; tools like homebrew and terraform also take a longer time to respond. I had to purchase a VPN service to be able to work normally. Also, the network condition is quite unpredictable. I lost connection in the middle of a Google Meet or Zoom meeting several times.
However, the GIP staff and mentors provided a lot of help to overcome these inconveniences. There are daily “Hi” meetings with the mentors to ask any questions about the tasks, to discuss the latest news, or just to talk about anything at all. The mentors are also extremely responsive to direct messages on Slack. One thing I want to specially mention is that we are required to report to a Slack channel every day on what we planned to do and what we actually achieved. The mentors are reading closely on those reports and reacted with “Otsukere” / “Good Job” stickers, which is really encouraging and supportive. The daily reports also help me keep track of my progress and consolidate my knowledge. The GIP staffs are also constantly making sure that I feel comfortable and asking for feedback and possible improvements.
I would rather not spoil it by telling you exactly what kind of technologies I get to work with for the internship. What I can say is that I worked on a full-stack web application, and moved from a single node architecture to a clustered deployment. Isn’t that exciting already?
Aside From Work
Not a single drop of fun was spilled when everything was moved online. I had the opportunity to meet with new people from across the company and make friends through the virtual GIP lunches; I had lunch together with a total of 23 different people who come from various cultural backgrounds within the three-week period. It is awesome that I even found someone who likes KFC and enjoys playing Animal Crossing as much as I do. Due to some time conflicts, I have only participated once in the board game night every Wednesday, but I had a lot of fun playing Among Us, and meeting new people (though I would recommend some special training on your lying skills before playing the game). Special thanks to Sean Li who organized the board game night, and helped with my unstable network.
In addition, I had the chance to participate in HENNGE’s Monthly Technical Session (MTS), where everyone can share their experience, findings, or stories, no matter technical or non-technical. I originally thought that the topics presented in MTS are usually hard to follow if you have not touched upon related issues before. Nonetheless, I was amazed to find that I can actually relate to and learn from topics presented by each and every speaker, especially Charles and Tanabe-san. I also got to present on a neural machine translator that can generate a GUI skeleton from a design image. It was a great opportunity to be able to introduce technical knowledge that I am passionate about and to practice speaking in front of a big crowd.
Two Small Things
There was one small thing that made me realize again that HENNGE is really different from the “typical Japanese companies”. During the first week, I worked on Sunday night to catch up on my progress. My mentor Michael Wangsa messaged me the next week on Slack asking me to not work over weekends and to rest well during off times. I was a little shocked and quickly realized how the typical “more work is better” norm is deeply rooted in my mind and how much HENNGE cares about the work-life balance of their employees.
The other small thing is that when Laine-san asked me if there was anything that they can do to improve the GIP experience, I said it would be awesome if we have a better understanding of the team structure within the CPRD division since it is hard for me to understand where everyone is from when they are introducing the division they belong to. Then three days later, I got invited to the CPRD division meeting where each division presented their work in FY2020 and plan in FY2021. It again shows how HENNGE attempts to provide a perfect GIP experience without any questions unanswered.
Some Final Words
It is indeed unfortunate that I only have three weeks to spend with such a wonderful group of people, but within the three weeks, I am grateful to have gained practical experience with a great deal of new technologies, met with interesting people with various backgrounds, heard their stories and experience, and shared mine in an open, energetic, supportive, and caring company culture. I would like to say thank you to everyone who made this remote internship experience as smooth as possible, and I wish to meet you all in Tokyo once the COVID-19 situation gets better.
Cheng Luo is a Chinese student studying at Yale University, USA. Cheng interned at HENNGE Global Internship Program from September 7th — September 29th, 2020, and was GIP’s first fully remote intern.
