Getting to Know Each Other — Nice to Meet You, HENNGE!
Look, I know. The process of job hunting can be tedious and stressful. You often have to speak about why you are fit for the company without actually having had an opportunity to work with the members who work there. For those of you who think the same way as I do, wouldn’t it be nice to have an opportunity to work with the team and experience the working culture, all while enjoying the benefits of staying in Japan? That is exactly what HENNGE Global Internship Program (GIP) provides! I am hoping that I can give you an overall insight into what you can expect from this internship — the overall process, the actual internship, and what you will get out of it.
A Little About Myself
Before I go into the details of the internship program, allow me to tell a little about myself. I am a Japanese student who recently graduated from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as a computer science major. Born in Japan, I grew up in a cozy neighborhood of Hachioji (west/rural side of Tokyo) until I was 10 years old, and have been living in Los Angeles for 13 years since then. In short, I had a pretty atypical background as an intern — I have lived in Japan (for almost half of my life), spoke Japanese fluently, and coming to Japan was almost like coming home to me, unlike other interns who were visiting Japan.
How I Met HENNGE
It was my senior year at UCLA when I was looking for job opportunities at the tech career fair in my college. After talking with the representative about the internship program for a while, I decided to give it a try. It might sound a little surprising, but even though I speak Japanese fluently and had no problem living in Japan, I never considered applying for a Japanese company up until this point. A lot of Japanese companies coming to recruit people from overseas have always expected me to come to Japan and start working, without any intermediate steps in between (for example, an internship!). I was always thinking, “How can I make relatively irreversible changes to my life without knowing what I am getting myself into?”
I felt that this aspect of being able to try out the working environment through the internship was already different from the recruitment process of a lot of typical Japanese companies. This already interested me, and they will pay for my flight fares to Japan? I was sold. I solved the coding challenge right after the career fair, submitted my resume, got an interview, and a month or so later I got an email saying that I had been selected to join the GIP program!
Smooth Preparation
From there, it was a bit of a rush, since I got an acceptance email at the beginning of March, and I chose a time-slot that started from mid-May (I have to note that choosing a time-slot this close was possible for me most likely because I have a Japanese citizenship status and thus I did not have to go through the VISA process).
There were mainly three things I needed to do before going to Japan: book a flight, book accommodation (place to live), and get insurance. The first and third was almost automatic: I gave the GIP team my information (they automatically process all of that for you). As for the accommodation, which I had to find on my own, I used Sakura House as the search portal (as recommended by the company). All I needed to do was to shoot them an email, and their representative found a nice, cozy share house in Yoyogi-Uehara (15min train ride from Shibuya station) for me. Apart from the VISA process, which I have no knowledge of, I am pretty sure you will have a similar, smooth preparation process if you were to join this internship program.
My First Day
To be honest, I was super nervous on my first day. To begin with, what should I wear to my first day of work? The GIP team told me there were no specific dress codes, but what did they really mean? (for those of you who don’t know, it is very common for a Japanese company to say one thing but don’t really mean it. For example, a casual outfit often implies dress shirts, pants, etc.). I was so nervous that I was in front of the company building by 9:20 and spent about 20 minutes in the convenience store on the first floor, just to be sure that I will not be late to work on my first day.
It turned out that I did not have to be nervous about those at all. On the first day, I and the three other interns got an opportunity to tour around the company, from fancy meeting rooms to workspaces. What I realized while touring was that most of the software developers chose to wear whatever they felt comfortable- from T-shirts to crocs! Not only that, I could see that they were free to put any reasonable effort to make their environment more comfortable while coding. I saw many of them working with their favorite keyboards, and I even saw some of them sitting on balance balls while working!
Aside from the tour, the first day went by fast, with setting up all the necessary equipments and machines (laptops, entry cards, etc.), getting some introduction to our first assignment. Finally, I cannot forget to mention that I had my first GIP Lunch with my fellow interns and mentors.
GIP Lunch
First of all, what exactly is GIP Lunch? This is a day during when you will get to have lunch with two other members of HENNGE. You will get to discuss each other’s backgrounds, visions, and ask any other miscellaneous questions, all while enjoying the food in the Shibuya area. The best part is, the lunch is provided by the company! Seriously, who does not love such a program? I got to have a total of 10 such lunch sessions, each time with different people, usually every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
I can definitely describe every single restaurant I have gone to in detail, but since this is not a gourmet report article, I will introduce my favorite of all, the chicken & hamburger steak combo from a place called Kin’niku Shokudo (筋肉食堂, or Muscle Dining in Japanese). As the name indicates, this restaurant is designed for people who work out regularly or are into a healthy diet. When you go into this restaurant, they will serve you a small cup with pink liquid in it, which turns out to be a protein shake. Once you finish drinking that, they will serve you with your choice of protein(s), vegetables, brown rice, and a soup.
I have to be honest with you — when I came to eat at this restaurant, my only two expectations were that I would be able to take in 73g of protein, and the food would be somewhat edible. It is usually the case that health-oriented restaurants sacrifice taste for nutritional value. However, that was not the case for this restaurant. The chicken was cooked and seasoned just right, and the restaurant had multiple seasonings and sauces to put on your food if you ever needed more flavor. This was literally my go-to place during my internship (I think I went there about 4–5 times in a 5 week period, so almost every week).
I forced myself to try out new places (with different kinds of food) every single time for GIP lunch. If you join the GIP program, this lunch program will be your best opportunity to try out food you have not tried before!
Work Environment
When it comes to the working environment, HENNGE betrayed most of my expectations, in a good way. Before I came in as an intern, I was very skeptical of the posted working hours (10 am to 7 pm). Once again, it is very typical for Japanese companies to say and do different things, especially when it comes to working hours. However, to summarize my experience, I almost always got to leave exactly at 7 pm and had plenty of time to meet with my friends at Shibuya after work. I never felt like I was expected to stay after 7 pm. Even for the full-time employees, I saw most of them leave after working for a total of 8 hours (since they have a more flexible schedule than interns do, many people chose to come in at 10:30 and leave at 7:30).
Now, some of you might be thinking that even 10 am to 7 pm sound a bit too much. But from my experience, I never felt like I was working for that long. For me, what contributed the most to this was the coffee break. Every day, someone voluntarily brewed coffee at around 3 pm, and anybody who wanted a coffee could gather and enjoy a cup of coffee. This was a perfect way to take a break from work, as well as a great opportunity to ask other coworkers about what they were working on. By taking lunch breaks, with coffee breaks to push through the afternoon, I never felt like I was too tired to concentrate on my tasks.
Speaking of the refreshments, I must talk about the famous Dr. Pepper vending machine. The company has a vending machine with Dr. Pepper’s logo on it, and if you press on the button, it gives you Dr. Pepper for free! Although I am not too crazy about Dr. Pepper, I still liked it, so it became my routine to go downstairs to get a can of Dr. Pepper at around 11 am almost every day. Personally, it was a great way to load my brain with some sugar and caffeine before lunchtime.
Tasks During the Internship
Before I start talking about my task, I have to note that every intern will end up doing different things, depending on the length of the internship period, what HENNGE needs at the time of your internship, etc. Therefore, I will not go into the details of what I did, since it will not be too helpful. However, I can say that the internship is composed of 2 phases in general. In the first phase (most likely your first 3 weeks), you will be working on a predefined assignment that will help you familiarize yourself with the platforms, software, and tools used in the actual software development at HENNGE. The first few days were pretty difficult for me, especially since I had never used these services before. However, I think this first phase allowed me to set up a general workflow — identify what I did not know, investigate it, and ask questions to my coworkers if necessary.
In the second phase, you will generally be assigned to a team, and work as a developer of actual products. I found this to be the most exciting part of the internship because, if you put enough thoughts into your code, your code might (and it most likely will) remain in the actual product for customers to use! This phase is also a great opportunity to enhance your team communication skills, as you will be attending occasional meetings and sharing your progress, along with the current problems you are facing.
What I can say for sure is that all members of HENNGE were willing to help me go through these tasks throughout the internship period. I always felt welcome to ask questions about my assignment whenever I got stuck. With such a cooperative environment, I never felt like I was working on my task on my own, but rather felt like part of a team, tackling the same problem together.
Other Things I Enjoyed
At HENNGE, there are so many events happening during and outside of work hours that I should mention. The first is the Monthly Technical Session (MTS), in which volunteers do a presentation to share their thoughts on their subject of interest. The subject can be anything, as long as it is technical in some sense. I presented about the resting heart rate since I am into fitness, and it was a great feeling to hear from others that they became interested in what I presented about. Oh, and yes, there are free foods & drinks provided afterward!
There are also weekly board game nights. Every Wednesday, some members of HENNGE stay after work to enjoy playing their choice of board games (and trust me, they have so many board game options!). I attended this event a few times, and I played games including Startup and Dixit. The best part? It comes with free food! If you can enjoy delicious food while having fun playing board games with your coworkers, can you think of a reason NOT to go? At least, I can’t.
Finally, I have to mention the video game night. The concept is very similar to the board game nights, except that there is no set schedule for this event (and I really think they should). Luckily, the passionate gamers at HENNGE held this event right in the middle of my internship period, so I was able to attend this event. On that day, I brought my Nintendo Switch from my share-house and played Super Smash Bros, Kirby Star Allies, and Mario Party with my coworkers. Not only was it exciting, but it also was nice to know that some of your coworkers have the same hobby as you do.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the internship was very comprehensive. I got to know not only HENNGE’s work styles and cultures, but also how the people there interact outside of work — playing games, talking about random things, or just spending lunchtime together. I felt that this internship program attempts to make the incoming interns feel like they are part of the HENNGE family within a limited time, and from my experience, they have done so successfully. I will end this article with a few words of advice, in case you decide to join this internship program, or are currently trying to do so.
Upon applying:
- Don’t give up on the coding challenge! If you don’t know a certain part of the spec, read the related documentation until you understand it. Remember, this is not the test on what you already know, but whether you can learn what you don’t already know.
- Be honest when it comes to the interview. If you have to fake yourself to pass the interview, remember that you will be working with them once you join the program. The interview is very casual, so state your ability honestly and help the interviewers get to know you (not just as a developer, but as a person).
Once you join:
- Talk to as many people as you can. HENNGE is composed of people from different backgrounds, so each member has his/her own story. It is really interesting to hear about each of them.
- Attend every single event at least once. In most cases, you will meet a member of HENNGE that you have never met before, and even if you do not, you will definitely get to see a different side of people you thought you knew already. Remember, free food, free fun!
- This is related to the previous point — take every single opportunity. This includes trying out new restaurants every time for GIP lunch and getting a can of Dr. Pepper at least once during your internship.
- Always keep in mind that you are here to enjoy this experience and to get to know HENNGE as a company. Try not to think that your performance is constantly being evaluated, and never fake yourself in order to “do well”. As much as you want to know how working at HENNGE is really like, the company and its team members want to know who you really are as a person.
Yamato Sasaki studies at the University of California, Los Angles (UCLA). He interned at HENNGE Global Internship Program from 13th to June 14th, 2019.
