This is Lucky Li, I joined Colorkrew as a new graduate from April.

My position is Engineer, belonging to the Colorkrew Biz product team. My work is developing Colorkrew Biz which is a well-know Saas in Japan.

Before I joined, I conducted academic research and pursued a PhD at the National University.

Difference from college

I’ve got my Phd before I joined Colorkrew, there are a lot of difference from university and the company.

The biggest difference may be “cooperation”.

As an academic, I can concentrate on my subject and ignore external factors. Academically, We focus more on the problem and the solution itself. For the most part, I’ve been thinking of options on my own and working on them. Even if it fails, I can change direction again and test my thinking quickly.

But this is quite different from a large company. Similarly, we have main project in the company, but no one can accomplish it by himself. Unlike research, I cannot try any solution I’ve came up directly. We need to put more efforts on communication. Within the company, I am constantly interacting and collaborating with others.

For example, if I’ve assigned a new task which is developing a new feature, it is more important that validate my thought before I start my coding. We need to think about whether it’s the best selection of a solution and considerate realization methods. Some times we need to hold technical seminars.

Since I notice this, although I am mew graduate, I still managed to hold a seminar and decide on a realization plan.

New Graduate Training

Since I join Colorkrew, I’ve been trained with company’s basic lesson. Thanks to the teacher, who is our manager, I’ve learnt a lot of things including business, logical and even accounting knowledge.

In addition, Colorkrew provides a platform for self-directed learning. On this web platform, in addition to learning the necessary business basics and etiquette for new employees, we are free to learn in a variety of different directions. We can use our free time to learn different lessons.

To be honest, as an engineer, some of the knowledge I may never use, but I still appreciate Colorkrew preparation which I’ve broadened my horizons through.

Mentor and Evaluator

Also, Colorkrew has it’s original mentor and evaluator system which can help new graduates to quickly integrate into the company’s atmosphere and help to solve any difficulties encountered at work. They give us the feedback every month so that I can improve myself.

Thanks to my mentor when I met communication issue with other employees. Thanks to my evaluator help solving the programming problem.

Work Challenge

As an engineer, my work is basically finish the task from my leader. From the first day, I’ve already began my programming work. The team first give me simple tasks which I can understand the product roadmap and it’s implement.

However, as a Colorkrew member, it is also my duty to figure out Colorkrew product’s issues. Once I found any bugs or improvement, I will record it and report to the team. Sometimes, if I have enough time, I will help fix them.

Since I am not zero base, so some of the work is easy. Thanks to my leader and team mates, from next time I’ve been assigned a challenge task. I am learning to be a full-stack engineer, from frontend to backend, and even mobile application. I think it is a very meaningful experience.

Colorkrew had hold hackathon on May. This is my first time to attend such an interesting event. With limited time and resource, my team successfully develop a online “quest” platform, where employees can upload their quest and the other can help finish them. This is essentially a communication platform that enhances communication among employees. Employees get certain rewards for completing tasks, which can even be converted into physical rewards if possible.

Thanks to my team, we’ve won the first price. Yeah!! I hope our idea can be a real product in Colorkrew.

Future

My dream is to became a technical expert.

During these on-boarding months, I quickly improved myself, learned how to work with my colleagues and translate my academic skills into tangible outputs for Colorkrew.

I hope that in the future I can quickly grow into a senior engineer and start to exercise my leadership skills to prepare myself to become a project leader.