My Rakuten Experience: Yuko
Yuko is a Web Developer and Assistant Manager for the CWD Strategical Promotion Section in the Marketplace Business Marketing Formation Department in Japan.
Current job
As a team leader, I am in charge of progress management for products, and I work on the function and design development for Rakuten Ichiba smartphone and PC users. I also work on developing customized critical functions for Rakuten’s headquarters, stores and users.
Moreover, I also develop front-end technology for services like Rakuten Car and Rakuten RAXY, as well as Rakuten Ichiba, and I provide technical support to each department. I provide design system support across projects in order to enhance the user experience of Rakuten’s services. My work is very wide-ranging.
Why Rakuten?
Right after graduating from college, I worked for a TV production company and discovered the joy of production. I wanted to develop a website on my own after that, so I taught myself all about front-end technology. I gained experience developing websites and started working as a front-end engineer for a website development company. After working there for three and a half years, I decided to switch jobs in order to grow further as an engineer. I wanted to work in a global environment where I could work with people of different nationalities and use the language skills I gained while studying abroad, so I started working for Rakuten in 2019.
My current team consists of senior engineers, all of whom are from overseas; and junior engineers, all of whom are Japanese. My team is made up of people of all different ages and backgrounds, with nationalities like French, American, Dutch and Filipino.
Skill improvement
I was assigned to be a leader and faced many challenges right after I started working at Rakuten. There were project delays and key personnel dependencies within the team with regards to knowledge, but I worked hard to improve by consulting with senior engineers. The team’s capability improved, and I learned to solve problems quickly because I overcame many difficult obstacles. It gave me the confidence to be able to handle difficult challenges.
I put more emphasis on the growth of the entire organization than my own growth. I pay more attention to the development of junior engineers, team building and cooperation with other departments as a leader. Also, my interpersonal skills have improved by learning from people with different points of view and different behaviors.
The charm and thrill of working at Rakuten
Actively being able to collaborate with other departments is the best part of working at Rakuten. I feel the most joy in that. I am currently working on an integrated team and participating in developing Rakuten Ichiba design systems. We have many talented and motivated people that prioritize lateral and open communication. It is easier to come up with new ideas in a positive environment where you can openly point out the good and bad to each other. You are given the freedom to bring in new technologies and tools, making it easy to challenge yourself. Taking part in developing the service that many users utilize and therefore feeling that I am adding value to the world is one of the best things about working at Rakuten.
– How many ongoing projects do you have?
I am directly involved in five projects, but our team has more than 100 projects of different sizes. Some are one-to-two-week repair projects, and some are renewals and new developments that can take over half a year to complete.
– What is your next goal?
UI (user interface) improvement was one of the things that motivated me to work at Rakuten. There is still room for improvement in the Rakuten Ichiba UI. The scale of the service is enormous, and we have to overcome many hurdles, but we are trying to move forward by organizing the system and constantly make it better.
For more information about available positions, click here.
