Why do first-year web engineers hold meetings every morning?

Did you know that Beyond sends an automatic notification like this to our internal chat group every morning?

The Google calendar shared within the company also has a "Morning Meeting" scheduled for 8:30 a.m. every day.

When you access the shared Google Meet URL, you will always find Koide, a first-year web engineer in the system development department.

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

The members of the company who are good in the morning also participate in these meetings irregularly, and just move forward with their respective tasks.

Then, as the Mokumoku meeting draws to a close, Koide says this after each day's small talk.

"Let's make today the best day yet .

That's what you must have thought.

we asked Koide, who became a web engineer with no experience in September 2020, why he holds a Mokumoku meeting every morning

Previous job was route sales in the beauty industry

- Today I will be interviewing you about various things about Mokumokukai. thank you.

thank you. I'm nervous.

- First, I would like to ask you about your previous job, Mr. Koide, what kind of job did you originally do?

I was a new graduate working in sales in the beauty industry. My job was to listen to the concerns of beauty salon owners and make suggestions, such as, ``How about this product?'' and sell beauty products to solve their problems. Since I was a route sales person, I had a set store and visited every week to ask questions.

For example, if you hear from the owner that they want to put more effort into color, they might say things like, ``These colors are popular right now,'' or ``Let's attract this many customers and have this kind of menu.'' Rather than selling products, my job was ``thinking about menus based on the reality we wanted to be in, and talking with them about ways to attract customers.''

- This is the first time I have learned that there are people who play such roles.

I agree. I also thought that the beauty industry was limited to manufacturers, but I learned that there is also a role as an intermediary.

- Engineers from sales are quite different, aren't they?

It's a different field (lol)

- Did you start attending programming school from there?

Well, I was attending while changing jobs.

I want to acquire more fighting skills

- At what point did you decide to change jobs?

I felt fulfilled in my previous job, and of course I think sales skills are important, but I want to acquire even more competitive skills , or rather, I want to be able to confidently say, ``This is amazing.'' I want skills. It's extremely easy, but I wanted to increase the market value.

I had some experience with the industry knowledge and communication skills necessary for sales, so I thought I wanted a different set of skills.

- If your previous job was in sales, did you ever think about becoming a salesperson in another industry?

I didn't really think about that.

- It seems like you need to take the plunge when changing jobs to another industry. How long did you attend programming school?

I went to programming school for half a year. There was a curriculum prepared and we had to follow it until the middle stage, and towards the end there was team development. I went to school just before the coronavirus outbreak, so I went to Skyo in Namba.

I was researching Beyond as much as a stalker.

- From there, you 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 had the impression that he was someone who really listened. I still feel that way, but I had that impression from the interview.

- How was the second interview?

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

I had researched Bandyo-san beforehand to the extent that I was a stalker, but when I looked her up by name, I APIbank , and she said, "That's what happened!" When Bando-san said something like that, I felt a little relieved.

- I see, you search by name. That was the moment that captured my heart.

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

Mr. Nomura was a really nice person. I told Mr. Nomura ``Nomushin Shoten''

When looking for information, I try to thoroughly check the website.

I just remembered that when Fujisawa-san contacted me for the first interview, the person in charge was listed as "Sato." So I thought Seiken Sato, the engineer listed on the recruitment site, was coming, so I did some research, and Daisuke Sato from sales showed up. I thought, ``Hmm, doesn't he look different?''

- Is it true? I'm sorry about that. It's my mistake.

I even looked up Seiken's motto, and I thought he was a different person (lol).It's a fond memory now.

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

“Being an engineer is a profession where you have to study all your life, but are you ready to do that?”

- Is there anything that left a deep impression on you when you first joined the company?

Hmm, I still think that the amount of manga was terrible.

- I see (lol) The one that was left in that break room. Apparently there are about 4000 books.

That's terrible. I think it's dangerous that almost all of them are personal belongings of Mr. Haraoka (representative).

- Has your impression of Bandyo changed after joining the company?

Yes, I thought he was a really good person. picture? Totally different! That's what I thought (lol)

- Did you notice or learn anything about what development work is like after actually working there?

After all, it's about your ability. I really feel that school alone is not enough to have the ability to be an engineer. That's what I felt most about working there.

- Do you feel that what you studied at school was helpful?

Schools don't do things that are completely different from work, but the curriculum runs on a certain set of rails. That rail was covering the basics of the basics, so when I suddenly got into practical work, the number of lines of code I was writing was on an order of magnitude, and it was difficult to understand. I feel like I haven't been able to utilize what I studied on my own after graduating from school in my work.

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

Yes, there are many. What I remember during the first interview was Daisuke Sato asking me, ``Being an engineer is a job where you have to study all your life, but are you ready to do that?'' It was an interview, so of course I said yes (lol)

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

oh yeah. I felt the most pain when he said that. I thought I couldn't do it without studying.

- If you don't like IT, you definitely won't be able to study it. Mr. Koide, don't you have a hard time using a computer?

It's not hard, but I get really irritated when I stumble on something I don't understand (lol)

There are also things I struggle with because I'm too stupid. When it comes to programming, there is something you want to create, and you won't get there unless you go through the steps. In my case, I write the code by skipping about three steps, so I can't create the parts in between. I'm struggling because I don't have the strength to do that yet.

- When I have a conversation with an engineer, he doesn't come up with what he wants to say all of a sudden, but speaks in a step-by-step manner. Even when I'm talking to Mr. Bando, I can't say anything anymore when my shortcomings are pointed out or pointed out precisely.

I totally understand (lol) You'll say, "Sorry, you're right." I totally understand.

Concisely written code is justice

- Let's finally get to the main topic here, but what was the impetus for starting the "Mokumoku-kai" that you hold every day?

As I said earlier, I started this because my skills were too weak, so I had to do something to compensate for that, and I wanted to improve my skills.

- Were you always strong in the morning?

If I go crazy at night, I just fall asleep, but lately I can't stay awake at night. I have a hard time concentrating at night. I feel sleepy even when working, so I thought I'd try it in the morning. So getting up early became a theory.

At first I was quite sleepy, but I gradually got used to it and now it's completely early in the morning.

- When did you start Mokumokukai?

Starting from March 2021.

-What time do you go to bed?

Lately, I've been trying to go to bed around 11pm. So, I wake up between 5:00 and 5:30.

- early. There's quite a bit of time between then and Mokumokukai at 8:30, so are you taking your time getting ready?

I already have a routine: I wake up in the morning, take a shower, drink coffee, and then gather information for an hour. feedly , which displays all the blogs I want to see all at once. When it comes to articles in the engineering field, I always wonder what kind of articles are posted by beginner engineers, such as information on service updates or recently popular technologies.

In the morning, I read the feedly and the web version of the Nikkei Shimbun for about an hour to an hour and a half, and then I study JavaScript from 7:00 to 8:30, as I often work with JavaScript in projects these days. I'm just doing my best.

- That means the Hitorimokumoku-kai has started first. What kind of work do you mainly do during Mokumokukai time?

I've been reading the project's source code to find out what kind of code Bandyo-san and Nomura-san are writing.

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

Well, I'm trying to understand how it's written and how it's processed.

- Is reading code something you don't often do in programming schools?

When I did team development, I sometimes reviewed code written by other people, but I don't think everyone is at the same level. So I read it to read it, but I don't think I was able to read the code that was very educational. I don't think it was a high level, elaborate content. Mr. Bandyo and Mr. Nomura are the codes of people who have been working as engineers for decades.

- Is there a different way of writing code depending on the person?

Ah, I think it's completely different. I think experience will come.

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

Not really. But I think there is a saying that ``code that is written concisely is justice''. Processing speed is also important. I think there are ways to speed up processing with just one method of data acquisition.

- Processing speed also changes depending on the code. I learned this for the first time.

It will change. I don't even know how deep it is.

The significance of Mokumokukai and the spirit of words.

- Was there a moment when you felt glad that you were doing Mokumokukai?

I think it's really important to be able to start each day with an open mind.

- It's true that if I have a party, I'll never be late.

Well, that's right. There's no need to worry about being late.

I also think it would be nice to be able to communicate with the people who participated.

-If you work remotely, you won't have to have small chats with people from other departments. I am grateful that you are creating a place like this.

Is it true! Well, I'm so happy. I'm glad it was held.

Recently, it had become a habit, so I thought it would be okay to stop informing everyone in the company via chat every morning. I thought I wouldn't like it if automatic notifications came in my chat every day and people thought it was annoying or that I was trying to appeal to them. But recently, new graduates like Mr. Fujisawa have been participating, so I think I'll continue.

-Please continue. Also, why did you come up with the line "Let's make today the best day yet" that you say at the end of every Mokumoku meeting?

I didn't create this word, but there's a YouTuber called `` AKIOBLOG, '' and when he wakes up in the morning, he says, ``I'm going to have the best day today,'' and then the video starts. Yo. When I heard that, I thought it was really cool (lol), so I started using it too. I've been saying this over and over since we started Mokumokukai.

I also believe that there are kotodama. I have a strong belief that by putting your thoughts into words, you can actually make them happen. That's what made me want to start talking about it more and more.

- Sometimes you can make your intentions more concrete by saying them out loud.

I think it really is.

Why do you want to have the best day?

- Lastly, I think this question doesn't make any sense, but why do you want it to be the best day ever, Koide-san?

why…? Well, life is better when it's the best, isn't it?

Rather than thinking about how hard today was, I'd like to be able to feel joy in small things. For example, if I eat ice cream and it tastes good, I think it's a great day. I want to have a fun life, so I want to feel like today was a good day, even if it's something small like that.

By the way, I think that ``best'' is usually written as the highest, but just like how Yankees write ``night dew in death'', I also write ``the happiest'' as ``the happiest''. I am.

- That was it (lol)

I think it fits better that way.

-This is a new discovery. By the way, Mr. Koide, did you have the happiest thing happen today?

First of all, I think this interview is the best thing for me today.

- I appreciate that. Thank you very much for making today the happiest day.

Koide's Mokumokukai will continue.

It turns out that Koide, who became a web engineer with no prior experience, is not only working hard after joining the company, but also working hard every day to improve his programming skills on his own. All she said in the interview was that she was determined to study as an engineer for the rest of her life.

Mokumokukai has also had a positive impact within the company, with Koide creating a place for employees to gather online every morning, so if they have time in the morning they can easily join in, have a quick chat, or work remotely. You can also communicate, which is often lacking.

All of our employees hope that the day will come when Koide will become a ``happy best'' engineer instead of a ``heppoko''.

Thank you for reading to the end. Please look forward to Koide in the future.