Translated from 日本語 • View original Nice to meet you, my name is Zun.
It has been more than 10 years since I came to Japan, and I have been working as a BrSE and PM at an offshore development Nikkei company for about 5 years.
In April of this year, I joined Colorkrew as an infrastructure engineer, so I would like to introduce the background and reasons for choosing it.
Thinking about the Next Step
In my previous role, I was BrSE/PM, connecting the Japanese client with the offshore team, managing the implementation and design phases.
After nearly five years of service, I became more and more eager to take on new challenges, so I decided to consider changing jobs.
How I Met Colorkrew
It wasn't clear which position I should pursue in the future, so I applied to a wide range of companies and was interviewed for multiple IT projects.
During that time, I received a scouting email from Colorkrew, and after three interviews, I was convinced that this was the perfect place for the next step in my career.
Why Colorkrew?
Returning to the Engineering Position
- In my previous job, I was mainly a coordinator for clients and engineers, and I had limited opportunities to actually get hands-on. At Colorkrew, we thought we could take care of the infrastructure ourselves, shorten workflows, and increase productivity.
- In today's world where technology is evolving rapidly, I think returning to the engineering profession is a good opportunity to get in touch with the latest technology.
Open, flat, and balanced environment
- During the interview, CEO Nakamura told me that there are many foreign employees and an international atmosphere is taking root, and that learning English for Japanese people and Japanese for foreigners is strongly recommended within the company.
- I feel that the balance between working from home is well maintained. At my previous job, I was completely from home, so I sometimes felt less connected with my team members. In contrast, Colorkrew requires people to come to work two days a week while maintaining telecommuting and flextime systems. This gives you the opportunity to talk face-to-face, and you can easily discuss not only work but also everyday topics.
Impressions after joining the company
Why I was so quick to integrate into the team
Although I have only been with the company for a few months, I have already integrated into the team and absorbed new knowledge every day.
What particularly impressed me was the atmosphere where team members felt free to talk to me and discuss any questions I had together.
I was a little worried at first about working as a foreigner, but I am able to proceed with my work with peace of mind because there is a system where everyone gathers at the morning meeting every morning to check the progress of tasks and issues.
When someone is in trouble, a discussion naturally starts on the spot, and it is very reassuring that everyone comes up with a solution.
A culture of flat and helping each other
In addition, this team has a culture of not having to do what they are responsible for, but rather a culture where they can easily ask for help on Teams when needed.
For example, when you need to conduct an urgent investigation or in a situation where it is difficult to make a decision on your own, multiple members can immediately comment and decide on the direction together.
This collaboration makes me feel naturally accepted as part of the team without being isolated.
Because of the flat and open environment, you can feel safe expressing your opinions and taking on challenges.
I think this is a big reason why it was easy to integrate early on.
Challenges in Responsible Operations
On the business side, I started with relatively small tasks such as setting up surveillance and responding to alerts, but gradually I was able to interact directly with customers and be entrusted with more hands-on and responsible tasks, such as responding to security alerts and changing resource settings on the cloud.
I am learning about Azure-related services and the latest cloud infrastructure knowledge that I have never encountered before through actual projects.
An environment where you can grow with peace of mind
I absorb the parts I don't understand by reading the document or asking my seniors directly.
In addition, this team has a mindset of "not making certain tasks a state that only certain people can do".
Every task is always documented, and even if the person in charge is absent, other members can take over.
This culture allows us to work with peace of mind.
I would like to continue to accumulate these experiences, further enhance my expertise, and grow into an engineer who can contribute to the team and the company.