Time to HENNGE(変化)! (by N.H.)
This is a blog post sharing my internship experience at HENNGE and the transformation I’ve been through.
If you are looking at this blog post, there’s a high possibility that you are interested in applying for an internship at HENNGE. However, if you are trying to look for information on the challenge and interview process (just like what I did at that time), you are out of luck and should probably go to others’ blog post and continue your hunting. It’s not like I was told to keep the information confidential, I just simply don’t remember anything about it. I did the challenge and interview in 2017, which is more than one year ago. My cache had already swapped that content out and my disk didn’t log the details *shrugs*. The only advice that I can give you is: apply as early as you can because there is a high chance that the slot you want is already full.
If you are still interested to hear my story, welcome aboard and follow along!
変化 1: Didn’t I apply for HDE? Why am I working at HENNGE?
When 2017 was ending, I stumbled upon HDE’s GIP internship ad on TOP CAREER (actually they also changed their name, now they’re known as Connect Job) and I immediately decided to apply. Not only the job description looks fun and foreign friendly(can you imagine a Japanese company using English as their main language?), but it actually sounded more like: “Do you want to have a 6 weeks vacation in Japan? We’ll pay for your plane tickets and give you a subsidy for daily life!” to me. Who would say no to this? I’m in!
Resume screening, check; Online challenge, check; Interview, check! Everything went through smoothly until it was time to pick a time slot for the internship. Unfortunately, the slot I wanted was already full so I had to wait for a year before coming.
Fast forward to a year later…
I’m finally here in Shibuya! But wait…why is HENNGE written all over the place? Didn’t I apply for HDE?
HDE changed its brand name from HDE Inc. to HENNGE K.K. on February 1st, 2019. To be constantly changing and never stop moving forward is one of the core values of the company, so they decided to make it explicit to everyone by changing their name to HENNGE, which literally means “change” or “transformation” in Japanese. HDE really lived up to its beliefs in “change” in the past few years. They changed their main product in 2011(which made them the dominating company in the field of cloud security in Japan), they changed their main language to English and started employing more and more foreigners since 2016, and now they’ve changed their name to HENNGE.
I was lucky to be able to witness this important transformation for the company. Goodbye HDE and hello HENNGE!
変化 2: Japan Work Environment = Boring + Dull + Overwork? Not in HENNGE!
Before coming to Japan, I’ve heard tons of rumors on how bad the Japanese working environment can be. It’s monotonic, it’s dull, overworking is a norm…name all the infamous things related to work environment and it happens in Japan. At least that’s what I thought. Turns out that HENNGE is completely different. If I had to choose one word to describe the working environment of HENNGE, I would pick “flexible”. There is no dress code, you can wear whatever you want to work; There is no fixed seat, you can sit where ever you want; You can adjust your working hour as long as you finish 8 hours of work per day. This not only changed my perspective of Japan working environments but also my perspective of office life in general.
The whole atmosphere is very relaxing and casual, which greatly boosted my work efficiency. I’ve never realized how much the environment can affect my work efficiency.
Other than the wonderful physical environment HENNGE offers, HENNGE also holds a ton of fun events for its employees.
GIP Lunch
Let’s start with an event limited to interns. On the first three weeks of the internship, you will be taken out by two coworkers and treated with free lunch. You and your coworkers can decide on what to eat, so this is the best chance to try the best and most expensive food around the office.
Communication Lunch
HENNGE has more of a flat hierarchy, so message exchanging in the company is usually more inefficient compared to companies having a pyramid structure. In order to encourage communication between different divisions and individuals, HENNGE holds a communication lunch every two weeks. During the lunch, we try to talk to as many people as possible while enjoying free food.
Board Game Night
Every Wednesday, we stay after work to enjoy playing a few rounds of board games and free food. Although I’ve never missed a night during the six weeks of internship, I’m not even half close to finishing the board game collection the company has.
MTS
MTS, or monthly technical session, held every month, is an event where developers share technical related stuff they find interesting. The topic can be anything, as long as its related to tech. After the session, there will be a small party with beer and free food.
You must have realized that you get free food in every event that I mentioned. Yes, free lunch does exist!
変化 3: From Traveling to Living in Japan
This isn’t my first time in Japan, it’s actually more like the 10th time or so. My family loves Japan so we visit Japan quite often. As a regular tourist here, I’ve been to most of the well-known tourist spots in Tokyo, so this time I took a different approach when traveling. Instead of packing lots and lots of locations in one trip and rushing from place to place, I chose to experience the culture and scenery with a much slower pace. On regular weekends I just strolled around parks or areas without planning.
Or I just pick a random cafe and sit there reading or work for the whole afternoon.
On other weekends when I have more time, I went to places further from Shibuya. Here are the top two places that are a must see for me and also recommended to you.
teamLab Borderless
teamLab Borderless is a modern digital art museum that will definitely put you in awe. The exhibits here are just mind blowing and can’t be described by words. Just take a look at how amazing it looks in the photos even with my crappy camera and photography skills:
Yamanakako
How can you miss Mt. Fuji when you come to Japan? Yamanakako is located beside the famous Kawaguchiko, both are great sightseeing spots for Mt. Fuji. However, Yamanakako is much quieter and less crowded with tourists. I was lucky to be able to attend the Diamond Fuji event and participated in the lighting up of ice candles and beautiful fireworks.
Final Words
Unfortunately, every journey comes to an end.
I’d like to thank everyone who made this internship possible and shared memorable moments with me. This will always be one of the most valuable chapters and a turning point for my life.
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Nian-Hsuan Tsai earned his Bachelor’s degree at National Tsing Hua University in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He is from Taiwan and had his HENNGE GIP experience from January 21 — March 1, 2019. Apply now by cracking the IT challenge here.
