Why do first-year web engineers hold study sessions every morning?

Did you know that at Beyond, an automated notification like this arrives in our company chat group every morning?

The Google Calendar shared within the company also has a "morning meeting" scheduled for 8:30 every day

Whenever I access the shared Google Meet URL, I always find Koide, a first-year web engineer in the Systems Development Department, there

Whether Koide is working remotely or in the office, he always holds a work meeting every day from 8:30 to 9:30 and starts work at 10:00

Our company's members who are good at mornings also participate in these Mokumoku meetings on an irregular basis, where they simply work steadily on their respective tasks

And as the Mokumoku meeting draws to a close, Koide tells us a little story every day, and then says the following:

"Let's make today the best day ever .

You may have thought so

we spoke to Koide, who became a web engineer with no prior experience in September 2020, why he holds a study group every morning

Previous job was route sales in the beauty industry

--Today, I'd like to interview you about various topics related to Mokumoku-kai. I look forward to speaking with you

Thank you. I'm nervous

- First, I'd like to ask you about your previous job. What kind of work did you do originally?

As a new graduate, I worked in sales in the beauty industry. My job was to listen to the concerns of salon owners and suggest products like, "Well, how about this one?", and then sell beauty products to solve their problems. I was on a route sales team, so I had a set store to visit every week and ask questions

For example, if the owner said, "I'd like to focus on color," I would explain things like, "This kind of color is popular right now," or "Let's attract this number of customers and have this kind of menu," so rather than selling products, my job was to "come up with them and talk about menus that would fit their desired reality and ways to attract customers."

- This is the first time I've heard that there are people with that role

That's right. I also thought that the beauty industry was only made up of people from manufacturers, but I learned that there is also the role of intermediaries

- Engineers who come from sales are quite different

It's a completely different field (laughs)

-Did you start attending a programming school from there?

Yes, I attended while looking for a new job

I want to acquire more fighting skills

- When did you decide to change jobs?

I felt fulfilled in my previous job, and I think sales skills are important, of course, but I wanted to acquire more competitive skills , or rather, skills that would allow me to confidently say, "This is amazing!" It may sound extremely simple, but I wanted to increase my market value.

I have gained some experience with the industry knowledge and communication skills necessary for sales, so I wanted to gain some different skills

- If your previous job was in sales, did you ever think about working in sales in a different industry?

I didn't really think about that

- It seems like it takes a lot of courage to change jobs to a different industry. How long did you attend programming school?

I went to a programming school for six months. There was a set curriculum, and we followed it until the middle of the course, and then we did team development towards the end. I was attending the school just before the COVID-19 pandemic, so I went to SkyO in Namba

I was researching Beyond to the point of being a stalker

- You then joined Beyond in September 2020. What was your impression of the interviewer?

My first interview was with Daisuke Sato from the Yokohama office, and I got the impression that he was someone who really listened to what I had to say. That impression was there from the interview, and it still is today

How was the second interview?

Bandai-san and Nomura-san from the Osaka office, Bandai-san was a little scary during the interview (lol)

I had researched Bandai beforehand to the point of being a stalker, and when I looked up his name APIbank . Bandai said something like, "There was something like that!" and I burst into tears at that moment.

- I see, so you searched for his name. That was the moment that captured your heart

I don't know if I got it or not (laughs)

Mr. Nomura was a really nice guy. I told him about "Nomushin Shoten"

When I look for information, I always check the website thoroughly

I just remembered that when Fujisawa contacted me about the first interview, the person in charge was listed as "Sato." So I did my research, thinking that engineer Sato Masataka, who was listed on the recruitment site, would be coming, but then sales representative Sato Daisuke came up. I thought, "Huh, something about his face looks different."

- Really? I'm sorry about that. It was my mistake

I even looked up Seiken's motto, but then I realized he was a different person (laughs). Looking back, it's a fond memory

- I'll be more careful from now on. I'll just write "Daisuke" from now on

"Engineering is a profession where you study for your whole life, but are you prepared to do that?"

- Is there anything that made a strong impression on you or that you remember from when you first joined the company?

Hmm, I guess I can say that the amount of manga was just insane

- I see (laughs). The ones that were in the break room. There are apparently about 4,000 of them

That's crazy. I think it's crazy that almost all of it is Haraoka-san's (CEO) personal belongings

- Has your impression of Bandai changed since joining the company?

Yes, I thought he was an incredibly nice person. I thought, "What? Not at all!" (laughs)

- After actually working there, was there anything that you realized or learned that made you realize what development work is like?

It really comes down to ability. I really feel that school alone is not enough to develop the skills needed to be an engineer. That's what I've felt most after working here

- Do you feel that what you learned at school is useful?

The school isn't doing anything completely different from the work, but the curriculum is more or less on a set track. That track covers the most basic of basics, so when I suddenly got to work, the number of lines of code written was in a different league and it was difficult to understand. I even felt like I wasn't able to use what I'd learned on my own after graduating from school in my work

-There are many things you won't understand until you actually experience the work

Yes, there are many. I remember that during the first interview, Daisuke Sato asked me, "Engineering is a job where you study all your life, but are you prepared to do that?" Since it was an interview, of course I said "Yes" (laughs).

- I can't say "no" (laughs)

That's right. That was the thing that really hit me hard. I realized that I couldn't do it unless I studied

- If you don't like IT, you definitely can't study. Do you find it difficult to use a computer, Mr. Koide?

It's not that it's difficult, but I get extremely annoyed when I get stuck on something I don't understand (laughs)

Also, I have some difficulties because I'm too stupid. In programming, there's something you want to create, and you can't get there unless you go through the steps. In my case, I write code in about three steps, so I can't create the parts in between. I don't have the ability to do that yet, so I'm struggling

- When you're talking to engineers, they don't just suddenly say what they want to say, but speak in a step-by-step manner. Even when I'm talking to Bandai-san, he points out my flaws, or rather, when he gives me precise feedback, I can't say anything else

I totally get it (laughs). You'd think, "Sorry, you're right." I totally get it

Concise code is the key

- Now we're finally getting to the main topic. What was the reason that you started the ``Mokumoku Kai'' that you hold every day?

As I said before, my skills are so poor that I had to make up for it somewhere, and that's what got me started, as I wanted to improve my skills

-Have you always been strong in the mornings?

If I laze around at night, I fall asleep, but recently I can't stay awake at night. My concentration drops at night. Even when I'm working, I get too sleepy, so I thought I'd try working in the morning. So waking up early has become my theory

At first I was quite sleepy, but I gradually got used to it and now I'm a complete morning person

- When did you start the Mokumoku meetings?

Starting in March 2021

-What time do you go to bed?

Recently, I've been trying to go to bed around 11pm and wake up between 5am and 5:30am

- It's early. There's still quite a bit of time until the Mokumoku meeting at 8:30, so do you take your time getting ready?

I already have a set routine: I wake up in the morning, take a shower, drink coffee, and then spend an hour gathering information. feedly , which displays all the blogs I want to read in one place. When it comes to articles about the engineering world, I look at information about service updates, the latest popular technologies, and articles written by beginner engineers, and I find it fascinating.

In the morning, I spend about an hour to an hour and a half reading feedly and the online version of the Nikkei newspaper, and then, since I've been using JavaScript a lot lately for projects, I study JavaScript hard from 7:00 to 8:30

- So the solo work session starts first. What kind of work do you mainly do during the work session?

I've been reading the source code for the project and trying to understand what kind of code Bandai and Nomura have written

-Is it more of a reading process than writing code?

Yes, I am trying to understand how it is written and what kind of processing is being performed

- Is the task of reading code something that isn't often done at programming schools?

When I was developing as a team, I would review code written by other people, but everyone was at the same level. So, I read it, but I don't think I was reading code that I could learn a lot from. I don't think it was very sophisticated or high-level. Bandai-san and Nomura-san's code was written by people who had been engineers for decades

- Does the way people write code differ?

Ah, I think it's completely different. I think experience comes into play

- So there's no such thing as "this is the correct code"?

No, it's not. But I think there is a sense that "succinctly written code is the key." Processing speed is also important. I think that one way of obtaining data can also speed up processing

- So the processing speed changes depending on the code. That's the first time I've heard that

It does change. I don't really understand it that deeply though

The meaning of Mokumoku-kai and the power of words

-Have you ever had a moment when you thought it was good to be part of the Mokumoku meetings?

I think it's really important to be able to start each day with peace of mind

-That's true, if you have a Mokumoku meeting you'll never be late

Yes, that's true. I never have to worry about being late

I also think it would be great to be able to communicate with the people who participate

-If you work remotely, you don't have the opportunity to chat with people from other departments. I'm grateful that they provide this kind of opportunity

Really?! I'm so happy. I'm glad it was held

Recently, it has become a habit, so I was wondering if it was okay to stop informing the company via chat every morning. I was worried that the automatic notifications would come up every day and people would think it was annoying or that I was trying to show off. However, recently, Fujisawa-san and other new graduates have also started participating, so I thought I might continue

- Please keep it up. Also, how did you come up with the catchphrase you say at the end of every Mokumoku meeting, "Let's make today the best day ever"?

This is not a phrase I made up, but there is a YouTuber called " AKIOBLOG ," and when he wakes up in the morning, he starts his videos by saying, "I'm going to make today the best day ever." When I heard that, I thought it was really great (laughs), so I started using it too. I've been saying it non-stop ever since we started the Mokumoku meetings.

I also believe in the power of words. I believe that by putting my thoughts into words, they will actually come true. That's what made me want to start speaking them out loud

- Sometimes, saying something out loud makes it a more definite intention

I really think it is

Why do you want to have the best day ever?

-Finally, I know this question doesn't make sense, but why do you want to make it the best day ever?

Why…? Well, life is better for the best, right?

Rather than thinking, "Today was really hard," I want to be able to feel joy in the little things. For example, if I eat ice cream and it's delicious, I think it will be the best day ever. I want to live a fun life, so even if it's just a small thing like that, I want to feel that today was good

By the way, I think that "best" is usually written as "highest", but just like how Yankees write it as "yoroshiku" (darkness) as a kanji, I also write it as "happiest" and think it's "saikou" (best)

- So that's what it was (laughs)

I think that sounds better

- This is a new discovery. By the way, Mr. Koide, was there anything that made you happy today?

I think this interview is the best thing we've had today

- I appreciate that. Thank you for another wonderful day today

Koide's Mokumokukai will continue

Koide, who became a web engineer without any prior experience, has not only been working hard since joining the company, but has also been working hard every day to independently hone his programming skills. This is exactly what he said in the interview: "I am prepared to study for the rest of my life as an engineer."

The Mokumoku meetings are also having a positive impact within the company. By creating a space where employees can gather online every morning, Koide means that they can easily join in if they have time in the morning, have a quick chat, and engage in the kind of communication that tends to be lacking when working remotely

All of us at the company hope that one day Koide will become the best engineer, not just a lousy one

Thank you for reading to the end. Please look forward to Koide's future work