The most eye-opening experience in a very unique way
Hello world! 👋
I’m Thitat Auareesuksakul from Thailand; people usually call me Fluke. I’m actually an arts graduate from Chulalongkorn University. But I do software engineering professionally.
Weird, right? Well, that is a story for another time. 🍻😂
I have always been mesmerized by Japan, I traveled there several times and always wondered what it would be like to work in Japan.
Luckily, I’ve had an opportunity to participate in the GIP, an internship program from HENNGE. And I’m going to share my (spoiler alert) really great experience here!
A Quick Introduction
HENNGE is a Japanese B2B cloud security company. I, like many other interns, have heard of the company through Internet searches. I learnt later during the internship that HENNGE does have a customer base in Thailand too!
I attended the GIP in September 2022. Due to the global pandemic situation, the internship was remote/hybrid. This means if an intern can physically go to the office in Shibuya, they are welcome there! For those who cannot go, they can attend the internship remotely.
I was unfortunately in the second camp due to Japan’s strict border restrictions during the pandemic 🥲
But despite all the visa shenanigans, I have absolutely no complaints about doing the GIP remotely! The way HENNGE does remote work is super effective. Meetings happen in video calls, and work is done asynchronously. There were lots of social activities, and we were hanging out, eating dinner, and playing board games after work together, even though it was totally remote!
Getting Started
For those who might be worried about the onboarding process, I’m happy to share that the process went really fast and was super smooth for me!
The ETA Team (the organizers of the GIP) has been very supportive all along the journey, from the very first incoming preparation before the internship even began to the very last day of the internship.
There are also casual chats with the ETA Team called check-ups to see if all is going well. And if there are any questions or concerns during the internship, they’re all very happy to help!
The first day is mostly getting the PC and account set up with the Internal IT Team, and getting all the development tools ready. I was quite familiar with web development tools already, but I got introduced to even more cool tools! It was a very exciting first day.
Now, with all the prerequisites out of the way, let’s jump into the main assignments!
The Assignments
The internship was scheduled for 4 weeks; there were 2 main assignments: the first one took 3 weeks, the second took 1 last week, and without spoiling any details:
I was creating my full-stack web application, from the first line of code to deploying it to the AWS cloud. All are properly done with best practices that are used for actual production-grade web apps!
Here is a little bit more context for those who are interested:
I used Python with a NoSQL database as the backend and SvelteKit as the front-end. There weren’t any real requirements on the front-end part (you can actually use only pure HTML if you’d like!)
But since this was a really great opportunity, I decided to go all out and explore all the new shiny libraries and frameworks that I haven’t really worked with a lot before. The backend was done with Python’s asyncio. And the frontend framework, SvelteKit, was still in beta when I used it in the assignment 😂
Every intern was assigned a mentor, who will kindly give you advice and great suggestions and help with your problems throughout the journey!
Actually, it wasn’t just the mentors, everyone was very supportive. From being asked for code reviews to some random (programming or personal) questions in Slack channels or direct messages, they’re happy to help!
From what I experienced, HENNGE is a very open learning community, not knowing something isn’t considered to be a bad thing if you’re willing to learn more about it. Trying and exploring new things is very encouraged here, and there are a lot of people that’s willing to help you if you face problems along the way.
I’m sure that no matter which background you’re from, whether you are already familiar with or completely new to the tech stack, you’ll learn a lot of new things from this internship, like I totally did!
Fun Activities
Aside from the main assignments, there are lots of fun activities to do; here are some of my favorites:
The Please Meet sessions take you to explore the teams that run HENNGE. From the familiar engineering teams to customer-facing teams like the sales team and more! We are welcome to ask questions about the teams, and in one of these sessions, I learned about HENNGE’s customer base in Thailand. 😆
The fun-* channels in Slack are non-work-related hubs for people with similar interests to share interesting things and meet other like-minded people! The interns got access to dozens of these channels, but from talking with full-time employees, there are many more! (I also learned there’s also a fun camping channel where people can go camping together, nice! 🏕)
The fun-donut sessions, this technically falls under the fun-* channels, but it’s a little more special. There’s a Slack bot that will randomly select 2–to 3 people and assign them to a group to have a so-called donut session together. It’s basically just a regular video call where you can talk to each other about anything. Personally, I think it’s very eye-opening to share and hear about other people’s experiences and interests.
The board game nights are like weekly after-work hang-outs where people come together to relax and have fun. The interesting (and impressive) thing is, somehow they made board games work over a video call! Also, just before we start playing, there’s usually a dinner together where we can hang out and talk. The board game nights are totally optional for everyone to attend, but very recommended!
The Monthly Technical Session is a monthly event where you can talk about anything that you’re interested in. It’s a very fascinating event where people take turns and share what they’re passionate about. I think it’s a great event to practice your public speaking and presentation skills, too!
We also got to meet and have a Q/A session with Ogura-san (The CEO and CTO of HENNGE), who kindly shared the story and history of the company and, most importantly, the reason why he likes to wear “yukata” to work!
After talking to him, I can feel that he’s a technical person and is very passionate about technology, which I think is really great for a tech company like HENNGE.
Before starting the GIP, the internship would be more of a work-oriented experience. But after actually experiencing it, it struck the right balance between work and fun. It was really an eye-opening experience. 😉
Work Environment
Now I have to admit something… I heard some not-so-great things about Japanese work culture in the past, so I was a little bit concerned about the work-life balance in Japanese companies.
Fortunately, this is where the “unique” part in the title comes in.
HENNGE is very unique; it isn’t what I imagined a Japanese company would be like, and I mean that in a very good way!
It’s a very international, inclusive, and diverse company. The official language here is English so that international personnel can communicate very easily. Everyone here is being treated equally and with respect.
I never had to work overtime in this internship. In fact, employees are encouraged to avoid working late and leave work on time. (This is a bit hard to do when you’re coding in the flow and your local time is 2 hours earlier than Japan 😂)
From what I experienced, I can describe it as a “chill but professional” vibe. They really put a lot of consideration into building a very pleasant and productive environment for everyone working there.
Wrapping up!
The last day felt almost like when you just graduated from school or college, it was a bit sad because you really had a good time there. But it was a really great experience and a nice step into the future. 🚀
I’d like to thank HENNGE for this opportunity, the mentors and everyone who supported us during this journey, and my friends Nico and Afan; I hope to meet you guys in real life someday!
Thank you for reading. Good luck with your application, and I hope you too, can participate in this very unique and eye-opening experience. 🥳
Thitat (Fluke) is currently a software engineer at HENNGE. He is originally from Thailand and studied at Chulalongkorn University. He interned with the HENNGE Global Internship Program from September 12th through October 7th 2022.
