Taking a Break from Data Science to do a Software Engineering Internship in Tokyo!!
I first learned about the B2B company, HENNGE and its Global Internship Program (GIP) all the way back at PyCon AU 2019. As a huge fan of all things Japan and coding, this company seemed way too good to be true! I applied and successfully got into the HENNGE GIP for 2020, but then COVID struck, causing a global toilet paper shortage… and, of course, borders to close🤦🏾♂️ . Fast forward three years and I was able to finally experience this glorious internship in its entirety on-site. The wait for this was so unprecedented, but oh, was it worth it — let me tell you all about it!!
A Little Bit About Me
My name is Chentduren Aumkaran and at the time I applied for the GIP, I was working as a Data Scientist, doing a part time Masters in Information Technology at UNSW Sydney and had some prior software development experience. Though I was years deep into Data Science, I felt that I needed to upskill myself to learn to build better data products, and the GIP seemed like the ideal opportunity to do this.
Though it might seem a little counterintuitive to take a break from a full-time job to go do an internship, I saw this as a ‘taking one step back to move two steps forward’ moment. Even accomplished prominent figures like Kanye West (despite his controversies!) have gone to do an internship or two in recent years to learn new skills. You are never too old to try and learn something new! 😁
Prior to the GIP, I had been to Japan once in 2018 for a holiday and enjoyed it immensely. Like a lot of people who travel to Japan, I am a big fan of the culture and food there, and am greatly inspired by a lot of their modern art forms, including anime and music.
In my spare time, I enjoy exercising, going to music gigs, and making hip-hop beats 🎵.
Before Arriving in Japan
After finishing the technical challenge (Take your time with this part!) and completing the subsequent steps of the GIP application process, next comes the onboarding process. I found the GIP onboarding to be a smooth experience and the wonderful recruitment team were there to assist me along every step of the way. It consisted of getting further details about the internship, signing the contract and booking my flights. In regards to my accommodation, I had to sort this out on my own.
I decided to use the recommended Sakura House to book my share house accommodation for the duration of the internship. They were very helpful in finding me a suitable house which was a seven-minute walk from the office! Hence saving me from taking Tokyo’s notoriously packed morning trains. Also fortunately, having roommates that were quite outgoing and wanted to hangout made a positive difference. It’s really hard to know what the vibe of the house is without physically visiting it of course, but having friendly housemates just enhances the internship experience.
In hindsight, it might have been a good idea to learn or refresh myself on some of the popular open-source tools used in the industry, such as Docker, npm, and React. This is optional, of course, since while you will get some time to go through the basics in the internship, it will be rushed.
Something I found slightly inconvenient is that while they give you a laptop and mobile for the internship, no keyboard and mouse are provided. Hence, if you really require these external peripherals, I suggest you bring your own or buy them in Tokyo.
Technical Learning
Upon arrival at the office on your first day and getting a tour of the place, you will set up your work laptop and phone. After a few meetings and an introductory lunch, you will get assigned mentors, get briefed on the technical component of the internship and then basically start implementing it in the very same afternoon!
I personally found the technical component of the internship to be intensive (but a fun one!), which consisted of 3 assignments. The first assignment, of course, is the infamous Twitter clone build 😂. I struggled with this assignment the most, but ultimately found it very rewarding when finished. The second assignment was about teaching us DevOps, where we used Terraform and GitHub Actions to deploy our Twitter clone app to the cloud. Finally, the third assignment was to assist with one of the company’s internal tools. In my case, I worked on an internal lunch-bot application in Slack to assist with the formation of random small lunch groups to get to know coworkers better. This was done using Python, FastAPI, and Serverless. HENNGE’s cloud products are primarily hosted on AWS and thus it is used for all the assignments.
Both assignments 1 and 2 end with the presentation of the application and its code to the mentors and fellow interns. While this was slightly stressful due to the time pressure, I was amazed at the end to see how much I had accomplished in a matter of weeks! Throughout the internship, we did daily stand-ups and also had to give updates on our progress every day in Slack.
Company Culture
The culture at HENNGE is second to none! Everybody is super friendly and passionate about what they do, always more than happy to teach others as well as learn.
Hot desking is utilized in the office, which helps to break down barriers between teams and executives! You could even find yourself sitting next to the CEO, Ogura-san, on any given day! Speaking of the exceptional culture is no better exemplified than Ogura-san’s passion for learning and technology, which I found very inspiring. Always engaging and welcoming, he is knowledgeable on a variety of subjects, including a lot of my hobbies ranging from video games to even music production!
In addition there are various initiatives and events hosted throughout the year to have the different teams and departments mingle. During my internship, the company held multiple Pride Month and international cultural events. In addition to raising awareness, these events were great for meeting new people in the company. Two consistent initiatives that are promoted throughout the year to build knowledge and socialise are Donuts and the Monthly Technical Sessions (MTS):
Donut: This is a Slack application which randomly connects 3 people for a 30 minute meeting once a week to get to know each other better. This is a great initiative that should be adopted by more companies.
MTS: A mini internal conference held by HENNGE every month for sharing knowledge and ideas. All interns are required to present a 10–15 minute talk on a topic of their interest. My presentation was on recommender systems, in particular focusing on the collaborative filtering algorithm. These sessions are often followed by a beer bash and a large spread of food!
Free Food and Fun
Since GIP is back on site, it means GIP lunches and in-office social events are back! GIP lunch is where HENNGE pays you and two colleagues to go out for lunch. You get about 10 of these, and they are great opportunities to try some new food and get to know coworkers better.
In-person board games night is also back on Wednesday after work! The office has such a large collection of board games that I was unfamiliar with the majority of them. Nonetheless, this is a splendid opportunity to get to know the people you work with. As an added bonus, dinner is also provided to those who attend!
Moreover, as already mentioned, there are a number of social events in person now, like Pride Month, MTS, and international cultural events. In addition to being fun and meeting people in the company you don’t normally interact with, these are also very educational. It also does not hurt that tasty lunches, dinners, or both are provided at these events!
Exploring Japan
Outside of work hours, take every opportunity to go explore and experience Tokyo (and the rest of Japan). There is never a shortage of sights, events, and activities to experience in Japan. While the internship is 4–6 weeks, I highly recommend taking some extra time after it finishes to go travelling around. I personally took an additional 2 weeks. During this time, I did a few day trips, took the Shinkansen to some other cities, and did some shopping.
Apart from the common Instagram tourist attractions, some of my personal recommendations of underrated cities and places to visit include:
- Yokohama: A port city about 40 minutes by train from Tokyo that I believe should be added to the holy trinity of Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka that tourists normally do. There is so much to do here!
- Mount Takao: A relatively easy mountain hike that is about 1.5 hours from Tokyo. No need to climb the whole mountain as there are chair lifts which take you up to the halfway point, as well as food stalls along the path to the top.
- Jazz SPOT Intro: A nice little jazz bar in Takadanobaba, Shinjuku that I have been to multiple times. Even if you are not a fan of jazz music, it is worth checking out for the live music and warm atmosphere.
- Suzukien Asakusa: An ice cream store which has 7 different kinds of matcha ice cream. The creamy no.2 matcha is simply the best matcha ice cream I have ever had. Do be prepared to queue in a long line to get into the store however.
- Nakano Broadway: A smaller alternative to Akihabara, where you can buy souvenirs, anime figurines and a variety of other goodies.
Final Remarks
Thank you so much to everyone at HENNGE who made this internship experience so amazing! I can confidently say that this internship lived up to the hype after waiting three years.
Now after reading all of that, what are you waiting for!? Take a chance and apply for the next suitable GIP batch ASAP!! HENNGE is a truly unique tech company to work for, and the fact that it is in Japan is the icing on the cake 👨🏾🍳.
Chentduren Aumkaran from Australia interned with the HENNGE Global Internship Program from May 15 to June 23, 2023.
