29 Nov 【Yaraku-Jin】The Value of Teamwork- Reflections from a Thai Developer on Working in an All-Foreign Team
The twelfth volume of “Yaraku-Jin (やらく人)”, a series that focuses the people involved in Yaraku and YarakuZen, will introduce Titapa Chatjindagul, a developer of the app team at Yaraku.
Yaraku-Jin＜VOL12>
Titapa Chatjindagul
App team, Yaraku, Inc.
Born in: Bangkok, Thailand
What did you do in Thailand before you joined Yaraku?
I was a full stack developer as well for a small company, owned by my friend. I worked there for maybe around three years. Before that, I worked for a Japanese company located in Bangkok, and for a non-profit organization that supports the business friendship between Thailand and Japan.
Did you notice any differences in work culture between Japan and Thailand?
Well, I don’t think there’s a big difference, but for the working style, in Japan it’s a bit more strict for rules and disciplined compared to the one in Thailand. Yaraku does not really have the typical Japanese company atmosphere but in the company that I worked before, I had to work for a long time and everyone feels hard to leave before the boss does so. Well, it was like when you get up and try to leave, the boss will look up at you, and it feels a little bit strange (laughs). While in Thailand we have a kind of ‘it’s Okay, don’t worry’ vibe. Of course there are people that don’t stick to rules in Japan too, but I think the strict rules is one of the reasons why Japan is a safe place to live in.
Why did you decide to work abroad, and ended up in Japan?
I never lived abroad, so I wanted to have the experience of living somewhere that’s not Thailand and see if I like it or not. I have been to Japan twice before, and I liked the weather and that the air was cleaner. I thought Japan was a comfortable place to live, thinking that we can just walk safely on the street at night and we do not have many traffic jams. Also I kind of grew up knowing a lot of Japanese cultures and stuff, so when I tried to apply for a job outside of Thailand, Japan was one of the choices. I have worked in the translation industry before, so the job at Yaraku sounded attractive to me. Because the border was closed due to the Covid-19, I worked for Yaraku for a year from my home country, and finally moved to Japan in 2022.
Did you have any impressive moments while working at Yaraku?
Well, because I worked with a very small company previously and the developer was just me, it was my first time developing, writing the code along with other people and working as a team. So that was a little bit challenging at first because I had to learn how to use the tools to collaborate with other people. But after about three months, I started to get used to it. So now it’s not a problem anymore. But even after two years of living here, I still can’t speak Japanese that much, though I understand some easy conversation by catching the words that I know, I still can’t respond by making a sentence. So when there’s a meeting where there’s no interpreter and people speak Japanese, that may be a little bit difficult for me.
How do you communicate with your team members, especially in this remote environment?
Most of my work doesn’t require a lot of communicating with other people, but we basically use Slack, and if messaging is not enough, we would have a short call. Because my team has a one-on-one meeting with the manager every week, so if I have questions I can ask in the meeting. And we also have the weekly team meeting, what we call a Coffee Break meeting where we can talk with the people in our team about anything. So I don’t have any problem regarding communication.
All the members in the app team are from overseas. How does this diversity affect you?
I think the diversity here affects me in a good way. Because I know that other people might have the same experience that I had before when I moved to Japan, such as the issues when renting an apartment, or trying to get used to the culture. I feel more at ease sharing the struggles I went through with others.
When do you feel motivated at work?
That’s when I get to know that our work actually helps the users. Actually it’s quite rare to hear what they feel directly, but we do get the feedback from the customer support team. Whether the feedback is good or bad, hearing the users’ opinion and knowing that the app is useful for them at one point or in some ways, this motivates me to develop and improve the app so that it will be more useful and easier for the users to use.
Do you have any messages or who are interested in working at Yaraku?
Everyone at Yaraku is friendly and easy to talk to. You can also work on the project or on the tasks that you like, and you have to say what you want to do. If you like to initiate things, have ideas of what to do and want to feel like you own the project or like to work independently, I think it’s a nice place. And also we are a small team, so you will get to know almost everyone and everyone is very friendly and welcoming.