This feature article series involves PayPay employees giving their honest opinion on why they joined, and the surprises encountered after joining. This time, we sat down with Kanako Takishita from the Sales Support Department!
Kanako Takishita
Sales Support Department
As the Sales Support Department is a new one, and providing support for sales involves so many different things, so I’m like a handyman here (laughs). I’m responsible for defining the parameters for data extraction regarding achievements, when new services or campaigns are launched, and creating documents that fit the purposes of meetings.
PayPay Inside-Out
From where & why did you join PayPay?
Kanako Takishita
Before joining PayPay, I worked for one of the group companies, SoftBank, and was in charge of managing the staff responsible for selling smartphones and internet contracts at mass retailers. At that time, the company was trying to recruit its internal members for PayPay, so I applied through the job rotation system. I was interested in the work here because it was totally different from what I had been involved in before.
After that, I worked at PayPay as a seconded employee from a group company for over a year. But then I decided to transfer as I was attracted to the open environment where we could discuss matters together as a team when something happened, and what we talked about would become the policy of the department.
PayPay Inside-Out
What surprised you after joining PayPay?
Kanako Takishita
Compared to my previous job, I feel that I am much closer to my superiors. I think it’s partly due to the fact that my previous company was a large and well-structured organization, but I didn’t have many opportunities to have discussions with my senior manager. Most of the time, I simply took on the tasks that were assigned to me.
At PayPay, though, I’m able to participate in meetings where we decide the direction of our department, and my opinions are sometimes adopted as future guidelines. I’m now able to voice my opinion more than ever, so much so that I wonder if my personality has changed. It’s easy for me to propose and talk over ideas for work with my supervisor, as well as chat about things that aren’t directly work-related.
For example, when we started telecommuting and I was busy creating a work environment at home, my team members, supervisor, and I got all excited sharing with each other, “This monitor is easy to use!” or “This place is the cheapest!” It’s really nice to be able to talk about trivial things like this (laughs).
Although the company has significantly grown and there are a lot more employees now compared to when we started, I feel that the openness hasn’t changed. If I had to say something negative, it would be that the speed in the company is so fast that documents made today would be outdated a week later (laughs).
In order to promote a cashless society in Japan, we are changing our policy from trying to get more businesses to place PayPay two-dimensional code in their stores to focusing more on after-sales support and helping merchants with sales promotion. As a result, the number of factors that we need to bear in mind is ever-increasing, and just when we think we’ve finished something, the next task or initiative comes up (laughs).
Having said that, I think this is proof that the company is evolving rapidly. So, to keep up with the speed of development, I want to get used to the pace and enjoy this situation. I try to be creative, like learning how other departments do things or making connections so I can simply ask colleagues in other departments for advice!
PayPay Inside-Out
Are you happy having joined PayPay?
Kanako Takishita
Yes, quite happy.
One of the good things about coming to PayPay is that I was able to create a great daily routine, both in work and my private life. Some of it has to do with me doing back-office work, but I think the reason I have a good daily pace is because I have clear tasks each day.
Although PayPay is a start-up company, it has a good working environment and a system to protect the health of its employees, which I think is one of its charms. I’m also very happy with my colleagues and feel that I’ve been able to improve my skills. In particular, my proficiency in Excel and spreadsheets have improved so much, that I can now handle all aspects of the work.
Sales support may be a back-office job, but there are many things I can do as a member of the sales department, such as motivating the sales staff in each region by visualizing the number of PayPay adoptions, log data, and other figures to show the fruits of their hard work. I will certainly continue to do my best!
If you want to apply for the same job position as Kanako, please click here.
*The recruitment status is current at the time of the interview.
Edited by: Keiko (PayPay Inside-Out Editor)
* Employees’ affiliations are those of the time of the interview.
