Explore Your Interests Creatively and in a Diversity You Never Imagined
Software Development Department ｜ Wiandono Saputro
I am a backend developer. I’m currently working on a web application! My focus is to create the backend and manage the deployment to various AWS services.
My major in university is Computer Science. At the university I have a “senpai” senior that has experience doing an internship at a Japanese company. His story motivates me to follow his steps and do an internship at a Japanese company.
Before hearing his story, what I thought about Japanese companies was the type of old-school Japanese company where there is a strict hierarchy system, overwork, etc. All the scary stuff.
But actually, not all companies in Japan are like that, and my senpai’s internship company is kind of similar to eftax.
He communicates easily and directly to the CTO of the company, sharing ideas together and working together. I want to experience that kind of thing too!
My senpai introduced to me the organization that makes it possible for him to do an internship in Japan, which is AIESEC! I apply to the same program as him in AIESEC from Indonesia, and then I encounter eftax internship application. Incidentally, he is currently working in Tokyo, Japan.
The first time I came to Japan was in 2019. Thanks to AIESEC, I can have the opportunity to come to Japan and hold an internship in eftax. There are four other interns that are working together with me to develop a new product. We actively conduct a brainstorming session to find the best solution to our problem.
The internship took place at eftax’s Osaka office. At the time, the Osaka office was open as a coworking space and a lot of people came to the office. I worked there with people from all over the world. Japan, Brazil, Singapore, Nigeria, even Russia.
I’m also surprised in the beginning, I did not imagine the team would be this diverse actually haha, but a good surprise nonetheless.
At that time, I lived in Ikeda, Osaka together with the other interns. We all worked together in the Osaka office and visited a lot of places together. It was really exciting because it was my first experience abroad and in Japan.
My favorite photo from my internship period is from a summer festival in Kyoto. I ate a “Ringo Ame” candy apple and drank a Ramune, it was really Umai(=”delicious” in Japanese)!!
After that internship, I went back home to Indonesia to finish my studies. Not long after that, I got an invitation from eftax to continue working as a full-time employee. This time I chose Hyogo as a place for me to live. I live in a shared house. It’s a brand new experience for me.
Sadly, not long after I came to Japan for the second time, Corona started spreading all over the world. I only had around 2 weeks of coming to the office before there was an emergency state in Osaka. From that point onwards, I’ve been working most of the time from my home. I sometimes go to the office to have an offline meeting with the other team members or when I’m bored working alone at my desk haha.
I love walking in nature and just enjoying the moment. There are a lot of places in Japan where you can just go and enjoy yourself in silence.
Sadly, most of the work that I am really proud of can only be accessed from an internal network, but you can still access my other projects that are also part of my learning progress. They are the “Nerachakan” and “Learnavi” applications. “Learnnavi” is a web application that allows users to deepen their learning by sharing their study notes with others. “Nerachakan” is a multilingual expense reimbursement application fully compatible with the API of the cloud accounting software “freee”. “Nerachakan” helps foreigners to use “freee” with the user preferred language. It has been introduced in the freee app store and official Twitter.
While working on these projects, I learned about a lot of different technologies. Learning is a challenge and a worthwhile stimulus for me.
There is one project that requires me to integrate an AI system with a webapp that can be used by the user to control the input. I have never done such a thing before. But because of good team communication and coordination, it makes it possible. I believe there will always be something that you never knew or did before. Through practice, you can expose yourself to such kinds of experience and gain knowledge.
I never planned to learn about DevOps(*) before, but it is required if you want to publish your work. And now I’m learning to further deepen my AWS skills and find it worthwhile.
(*) A software development methodology/concept that removes barriers between development and operations and integrates software development, quality assurance, and IT operations teams for efficient development.
The working environment promotes you to be creative and explore a lot of things that you like. You can focus on gaining skills in the area that you enjoy the most.
For example, a lot of intern students in eftax have the freedom to choose what kinds of things they want to do and explore in eftax. As long as they are eager to learn, the other members will do their best to give guidance as well.
The people who work at eftax are talk-active and easy-going! Even though eftax is a Japanese company, the environment is super flexible. I enjoy sharing culture with not just Japanese people but also people from so many different countries that I could not imagine having the opportunity to meet them.
I want to have experience working with a lot of people from different backgrounds and cultures. I want to hear so many different stories! I also wanted to have experience developing a new product from scratch and do the implementation. eftax values and empowers employees to continue learning and growing.
