At HENNGE, whose vision is to change the world by “liberation of technology,” talented engineers embody the nine HENNGE Ways.
We visited the Hiroshima training camp (held in May 2024), which was attended by over 60 people from various departments, mainly development members, to hear about what development engineers from various backgrounds do, what kind of PCs and development environments they use, and other topics. What kind of PCs and development environment do they use for development, etc.
Billy Ho ( Cloud Product Development Division )
Billy is an engineer from Hong Kong who joined HENNGE in January 2021.
He applied for the GIP (Global Internship Program) that HENNGE has been implementing since 2013, and joined the company after experiencing an internship as a student.
– What made you interested in HENNGE from your student days?
When I was a student, I learned about the GIP (Global Internship Program) when HENNGE was still called HDE and applied for it. At the time, I felt that it had a slightly different atmosphere from other Japanese companies, and I was interested in it.
– How did you feel when you actually participated in the internship program?
I first worked in the Customer Success department, then in the Product Marketing department, and finally in the Product Development department, where I learned about internal tools for Customer Success. The experiences I gained during my time as an intern are being put to good use in my current job.
After completing my internship, I graduated from college and joined HENNGE, which was a difficult time for me to enter Japan due to the Covid-19 restrictions.
– What are your current responsibilities at HENNGE?
I am in charge of two main tasks.
One is the development and operation of the HENNGE One internal deployment tool. When I was an intern, I was trained on the user side of this project. Therefore, even now that I am on the development side, I am always conscious of improvements based on user feedback. Specifically, we are adding various functions and making improvements, such as reducing the time required for deployment and improving operability.
The second is the development of Tadrill, a targeted attack email training service. As the person responsible for product development, I work with the product marketing and UI design teams to shape the product’s features and requirements. I design user-friendly interfaces and effective training scenarios for users, and work with teams from various departments to implement them.
– What programming languages do you use for development?
I use Python and Go, which are relatively new languages, but they have been used in our company and are being used in new products.
– What kind of PC environment do you usually use?
I use a 14-inch MacBook Pro provided by the company. At HENNGE, most of the developers use Macs, and they are free to choose their PCs according to their disk and CPU priorities. Some people value disk space, while others value CPU performance, so you can choose the one that best suits your work.
– What kind of editor (application for writing programs) do you use during development?
We mainly use Visual Studio Code (VS Code). Some of us use VS Code and some use Vim, and for products that use Python, we also use PyCharm, which is provided by the company.
– Outside of HENNGE, are you involved in any other activities related to open source or technology?
I participated in the translation of the PyCon APAC operating documents last year.
PyCon APAC is a conference for Python users in the Asia-Pacific region. Since the conference was mostly run by Japanese, I translated the documents written in Japanese so that people in the Global audience could understand them.
– What is the attraction of working at HENNGE?
The attraction of working at HENNGE is that we have a wide range of work options, such as the FlexHour system and telecommuting system, which allow us to work flexibly according to our lifestyles. Some people work early in the morning, while others work late. It is also possible to adjust your work style to suit your personal circumstances, such as childcare or nursing care. It is great to be able to change the way we work according to our stage of life.
– Is there anything that HENNGE needs to improve?
I feel that access to our current office is a bit inconvenient. If we had more than one location, it might give us more flexibility and make our commute more comfortable.
Vivian Hsieh ( Cloud Product Development Division )
Born in Taiwan and raised in Thailand, Vivian Hsieh is a dedicated File DLP developer at HENNGE. We asked her about her job and what attracted her to HENNGE.
– What is your role at HENNGE?
I have been with HENNGE for 11 months and I am currently working full-time on the development of a new product called File DLP. Although it is a team development project, I am the only one who is involved in the development specifically for File DLP. I have a lot of responsibility, but with the help of others, I am proceeding with the development in a reassuring manner.
– What languages do you use for development?
File DLP is developed in Go, which is also used in other HENNGE products, so it is easy to ask questions to our in-house engineers and realize smooth development.
– Tell us about your usual work environment.
I use a 16-inch MacBook Pro at work. I chose it because of its high performance, but it is a little too heavy to carry around. In my private life, I use both Mac and Windows.
– What editor do you use for development?
I love Neovim. There are many Neovim users at HENNGE, and we exchange a lot of information.
– Isn’t Vim difficult to master?
It was definitely difficult at first, but now I find Neovim more convenient in many situations. If you saw my screen, I am sure you would not be able to distinguish it from VS Code.
– What made you decide to join HENNGE?
When I was looking for a new job, I published my profile on LinkedIn and received scouts from about 20 companies. Among them, HENNGE was the only one I was attracted to, and I decided to join HENNGE because I shared their culture and vision.
– What do you find attractive about HENNGE after actually working there?
I feel that HENNGE is a really great environment to work in. The close communication between the development and product teams, the tech-savvy CEO and CTO, the bilingual culture, and the hybrid way of working are all very appealing. I especially like the fact that each team has discretion and freedom to work as they see fit.
– Are there any areas in which HENNGE needs to improve?
I think it would be a better environment if there was a way to meet the needs of both the work-at-home and work-at-home groups in the hybrid work style.
– Are you involved in any technology-related activities outside of work?
I like mechanical keyboards, and I am managing a project called “Keyboard Part Picker,” which allows users to customize their keyboards by combining any parts they like. I used to develop it in Python, but now I’m reworking it in Go.
I am not as obsessed with keyboards as I used to be, but I am still obsessed with them. Besides keyboards, I also create Neovim and VS Code theme profiles, focusing on my favorite colors.
– Is this your first time attending the camp?
Yes, this is my first camp. I was really looking forward to it. It’s a lot of fun, but I’m a night owl, so it’s hard to get up early.
Liam Jarvis ( Cloud Product Development Division )
Liam is from Canada and is in charge of Secure Transfer development. We asked him about his job and what attracted him to HENNGE.
I joined HENNGE about two and a half years ago, and now I develop Secure Transfer, support young engineers, and am the security team leader for HENNGE as a whole.
– What programming languages do you use for development?
We use Python and Go for the backend and React (JavaScript) for the frontend. I am in charge of the backend, and the entire team works together to develop it.
– Recently, Secure Transfer has been enhanced in terms of the number and size of files that can be uploaded. How were these enhancements made?
We received many requests for this feature from our customers. We are very happy when we actually develop the product and our customers are happy with it.
– Were there any technical challenges in enhancing the functions this time?
It was more important to consider the unseen aspects such as cost and server-side load than the technical aspects. We also needed to consider from the business side whether we should offer the enhancements to HENNGE One standard plan users or only to the higher plan users.
– What kind of equipment do you normally use?
I use a MacBook Pro. It is on the larger side, but I like it because it compiles faster and is more stable.
– What services does your team use?
We use GitHub and AWS overall, Kubernetes on the backend, and Amazon ECS (Docker) for others.
– What is the culture of HENNGE’s development department?
Our environment is characterized by freedom in development. We are always discussing and selecting the best technologies. We also actively share information through blogs and internal presentations.
– What made you join HENNGE?
I liked the atmosphere conveyed through HENNGE’s engineer blog and company blog, so I applied.
– How does working at HENNGE compare to the impression you had before joining the company?
I feel that the company is even better than my impression before I joined. My co-workers are good people and it is easy to communicate with them in English. The company culture is active, employees discuss with each other, value teamwork, and love the company. Cooperation between development and other departments is smooth, and there is a lively exchange of ideas.
– Is there anything about HENNGE’s corporate culture that you find particularly appealing?
Active club activities and open information sharing. Club activities are not mandatory, and anyone is free to participate. In addition, reports are shared every week, so we can learn about the activities of clubs we do not normally participate in.
– I understand that you are also involved in open source activities.
Yes, I make commits to the code I use in my work, utilizing HENNGE’s 20% rule to add features, pull requests, etc.
I had never participated in open source activities before joining HENNGE, but I think HENNGE has a great positive attitude towards open source.
– Do you have any suggestions for improvement to make HENNGE a better company?
There are none at this time. The company is always moving toward improvement, and I think its willingness to try new things is great.
– At HENNGE, training camps are held on a regular basis. The last one was held in Aomori, and this time in Hiroshima; which do you prefer?
Personally, I prefer the north (Aomori). The towns are smaller, so when you are walking around in town, you can see everyone easily; I enjoyed and liked the fact that after the four of us went out to eat, just walking around, we met another group and decided to go to another restaurant together.
– Was there anything memorable about the camp in Hiroshima?
After going to the sauna, I happened to be at the same yakiniku restaurant with another group of members. I was surprised that we were in the same restaurant, even though I thought we would never meet because Hiroshima is a big city.
SauYee Chan ( Cloud Product Development Division )
You are working as a backend engineer for the Single Sign On part of HENNGE Access Control.
I was born in Hong Kong and have lived in Japan since I was in college. After graduation, I worked for a foreign company before joining HENNGE.
– What kind of work did you do before joining HENNGE?
At my previous job, we were developing products in-house, but the development team was located in a different country. Because of the time difference, I was not able to communicate well with the development team, which triggered my job change.
– What were the reasons why you chose HENNGE?
There were three main reasons why I chose HENNGE.
The first is that the company is “based in Japan. Since I was moving from overseas, I wanted to work for a company based in Japan.
Second, I wanted to work in Japan. Since I was living in Japan, I wanted to work in Japan.
Third, I wanted to work for a company that develops products in Japan. I like product development, so I wanted to work for a company that develops products in Japan.
– HENNGE certainly meets all of these criteria, doesn’t it?
Yes, it does. And there is another reason why I chose HENNGE. I believe that HENNGE is a company that is making efforts to create an environment where people with diverse values can play an active role.
– What kind of work do you do at HENNGE?
I am in charge of the back-end development of the Single Sign On portion of HENNGE Access Control. Specifically, I receive instructions from the team leader, assign tasks, and conduct development.
– What programming languages do you use?
The Single Sign On team mainly uses Python, but we have recently started to introduce some Rust as well.
– How is working at HENNGE?
It is very challenging. The people in positions are friendly and easy to talk to, and the atmosphere is open to listening to suggestions. In contrast to my previous job at a large company, I work in an open environment with a close proximity to the executives.
– What is the corporate culture of HENNGE appealing to you, SauYee?
There are two things about HENNGE’s corporate culture that I find particularly appealing.
First, there is an atmosphere in which it is easy to propose anything. In fact, some of my suggestions have been adopted.
Second, I feel that I have a lot of discretion in my work. This gives me a sense of responsibility and satisfaction.
– Are you involved in any technology-related activities outside of work?
Last year, a big PyCon conference was held in Japan, and I gave a speech there. This year, I would like to speak at PyCon in other countries.
And, as a volunteer for PyCon JP, I am reviewing the documents (CfP) to select speakers. This is an important role, as it involves reviewing the documents submitted by prospective speakers and deciding who is qualified to be a speaker.
– Isn’t it a lot of work to review so many documents?
It is hard work, but it is a very rewarding activity. By reviewing documents on a variety of topics, we can learn about the latest technologies and trends.
– How was this camp compared to last year’s Aomori camp?
I was surprised at the size of the camp. There were more members, more meetings, and a completely different atmosphere than before. I was also impressed that Hiroshima was more urban than Aomori.
I hope this article will give you some idea of the environment in which HENNGE engineers work and the challenges they take on.
HENNGE promotes the “liberation of technology” by creating an environment where engineers with diverse backgrounds can play an active role.
HENNGE Corporation Engineer Blog: https://medium.com/henngeblog/
HENNGE Corporation Careers: https://recruit.hennge.com/
HENNGE is looking for people who are willing to change and take on challenges. Please click here for information about the positions we are currently recruiting for.