Cultivate in a venture, leverage in a major company ── An engineer's choice

Sure, I am currently working on an insurance system, developing a system for large agencies to contract insurance, and then maintaining it after development. In terms of job type, I am an IT systems engineer. In terms of position, I am currently the package leader for application development in that system.

I joined mid-career, and although my job as a systems engineer hasn't changed, I originally joined a listed company as a new graduate. After about 7 years, I moved to a venture company. I worked there for about 5 years, stationed at client sites, and then moved to my current company, a major insurance company, for development work.

Well, I think most people have the image of an engineer as someone who moves their hands, but in reality, you create applications and deliver them. However, when developing, if you do it alone, the scale is inevitably small. When I wanted to work with various people on projects, venture companies could only take on small projects. I wanted to do bigger work, so I job-hunted and joined a larger company.

Simply put, I like IT. You spend a lot of time working, so if you do something you don't like, it feels like a waste of life. I wanted to go into an industry where I could have fun, even though there are hard times. For me, that industry was IT. I had my eye on IT since I was a student because I saw it as an industry that would expand in the future and offer a good salary.

Well, I knew programming from school, but when it came to actually creating something for work, it wasn't correct to just do what I learned in school. There were various things I wanted to do, and there were clients, so I had to create according to their requirements. There was no correct answer, so I created and submitted something, but it was told that it wasn't right, and we had to go back and forth. I had to redo it many times, working late into the night, which was tough.

When insuring, there are individual customers, and when they say they have insured, there is a requirement to automate instead of writing the insurance by hand. We, the development team, and business partners do this. At that time, based on what information the customer registers, if they can type it on a computer instead of writing on paper, a website can be created. Once the website is created, when they press a button to register, there is a database on the back end of the website where data is registered. We define how the data is entered, and after the data is entered, since the insurance has been contracted, a contract-like document must be given to the customer. We also need to create new functions like outputting documents to send postcards or securities to the customer. We propose what we can do within a certain period, and if the owner decides the budget and says OK, we proceed to develop it.

Since I have a long career, not only myself but also my team members, who number in the tens, have become able to do things because I taught them my skills. It's not just me, but the level around me has risen. I can feel that everyone's level has risen because of what I output, which makes me very happy. It also gives me confidence that my knowledge was well established and correct. My team members have also become capable, so work efficiency has increased, and I feel like I've done something.

There was something called postal privatization a while ago, right? During that time, around New Year's, there was a system release or something, and it was the first time it was going to be operated. We had tested it many times, and it was going well. It was supposed to operate at the moment the year changed from December 31 to January 1, and it had been OK many times. But it didn't work only during the actual operation. So, I worked during the New Year's holiday, which I still remember. It was shocking. The phone rang, and I remember turning pale and taking a taxi to the site, something I'll never experience again.

Since I moved from a venture to a major company, I felt that major companies have a sense of speed in various checks and approvals. Things that could be done in 1 or 2 days required approvals from multiple people, which took 2 weeks. There were old know-hows and unique rules for development, and it was hard to get used to at first.

Well, it was speed-oriented there. If asked if something could be done, the answer was yes, and it could be done immediately. The targets were mostly small, so the speed of creation was often requested without much checking. It was more about trying things out first.

In the end, I think major companies are better. During the checks, you realize things you missed because you're human, and you can improve the quality. So, I realized that the checks in major companies are necessary.

I think communication skills are the most important. The reason is that when there's an owner, us, and business partners, you need communication skills to understand what the client wants and to convey that information to the business partners. Technical skills can be learned later, but communication skills should be cultivated. Engineers create things, but they create them because there are people who will use them. So, if an engineer makes a swing without asking questions like who will use it, how long it should last, it won't be what's needed. Communication is the basis, and based on that, you create. For example, in a project with 10 people, at least 3 people need to have good communication skills, and about 7 people need technical skills. If these 3 people can communicate well with the creators, the project will likely go smoothly. If one of these 3 people is missing, the project can become quite difficult. So, communication is really important. Technical skills also require good communication.

I think people who are willing to do dirty work to complete their mission and keep striving until the end are suited for it. People who give up easily are not suited. People who think about why they can't do something and look for ways to overcome it are very suited for the IT industry.

For me, work takes up about 80% of my life, and the remaining 20% is for family, private life, and my children's growth. I really like my work. I often work from home remotely, and my children sometimes ask me about my work, so I can show them my back. I think showing them that I'm working hard and that hard work pays off is important, so the ratio of work is high for me.

I will be a department manager. Of course, I know there are high walls, and I'm watching what the current department manager is doing. But I have confidence and am trying my best to reach that position. Whether I can do it or not is another story, but I've learned from this company that it's okay to try even if you might fail. So, I'm trying my best, thinking that I might become a department manager. Raising my own motivation by saying I will become a department manager might surprisingly make it happen.

As I said earlier, communication is important, but I think the power to persevere is necessary everywhere. Especially in IT, there are many things you don't know, and the correct answer is not always one, and there are many things that are required. So, please cultivate the power to persevere. There are many seniors you can consult with, so let's do our best.