We held the PayPay Recruiting Event on Friday, January 21, 2022. This time, we targeted enterprise IT engineers. The event, which included the introduction of daily tasks and a Q&A session, was packed with so much content that it was hard to believe it was only an hour.
For the people who attended the event, we hope that you look back at it by reading this article. And for those of you who unfortunately were not able to join, we will deliver a sense of what the event was like.
The engineers kindly answered additional questions that they could not during the event due to time constraints. So, please read till the end of this issue.
*The documents referred to in this article are in Japanese because Japanese language skills are mandatory for the jobs mentioned.
Program of the recruiting event
- Self-introduction by the recruiter and Senior Manager of the Enterprise Engineering Department (EE Department)
- Company profile
- Introduction to the EE Department
- Introduction to the eKYC project
- Panel discussion by the Senior Manager and three members
- Q&A session
- Selection process and where to find relevant information
Introduction to the Enterprise Engineering Department
The event started with a self-introduction by the personnel and a description of the company profile. After that, Okada-san, the Senior Manager of the EE Department, gave an explanation about his department, which was highlighted in this recruitment event.
The Development team 2 is responsible for developing the systems used in business from scratch, as well as operating them. The number of new members are rapidly increasing, and many of them do not necessarily come from a financial background. Some worked as system integrators and others at web-related companies.
For more information about the department, please refer to this pre-event article.
Introduction to the eKYC project
After introducing the department, the eKYC insourcing project, which was touched upon in the pre-event article, was also discussed. The persons in charge of this project briefly presented the launch background, as well as the key points and achievements of the project.
As a result of this project, the speed of the ID verification process when registering for PayPay dramatically improved. We believe that those who started using PayPay through the Otoshidama Campaign were able to experience how fast the screening process went.
Panel discussion by the Senior Manager and three members
Next up was the main event of the conference, a panel discussion featuring three engineers from the EE Department. Facilitated by Okada-san, the engineers who have diverse work styles honestly talked about their life at PayPay.
Here are some excerpts from the discussion.
Why did you join PayPay?
At my previous job, I experienced the whole cycle of designing a system to maintaining and operating it, so I was looking for an opportunity to get involved in a new system. I decided to join PayPay because I felt that I could be involved from the point of creating the organization that develops systems.
Please tell us about your daily workflow.
I go through my morning routine in time for our morning meeting that starts at 10 every day. At around noon, I make time to walk my dog or work out.
I don’t know why but I feel like a lot of EE folks work out. We’re not the sporty type (laughs).
What are the characteristics and interesting aspects of working at the EE Department?
The hurdles to overcome are relatively low. There’s an in-house department that specializes in security, so we have a system in place that can prevent major accidents and problems. Thanks to this, I can proactively do what I want to do. If you make a suggestion today, your proposal may be already discussed next week in a major meeting which decides the company’s direction. I love this sense of speed.
Another characteristic of PayPay is that it’s a place where you can constantly upskill. I can learn codes written by engineers who actually develop the PayPay app and directly learn how to operate the infrastructure. I feel the rapidity as well. We adopted various systems since I joined the company, but I feel that I can also bring about the changes, since we keep moving forward many times faster than in my previous job.
Are you taking advantage of WFA (Working From Anywhere at Anytime)? What’s it like?
I live in Hokkaido utilizing the WFA program. In my last company, I also worked from Sapporo, Hokkaido, while the headquarters were located in Tokyo. I often had Zoom meetings with colleagues in the capital. However, there certainly was a difference in the freshness of information and career advantages between Tokyo and Sapporo. On the other hand, you don’t have to sacrifice your carrier because of where you live at PayPay. You have the same opportunities no matter where you live.
What kind of people do you want to work with?
I want to work with people who are experts in a certain domain, because I want to achieve results as a team.
We have a wide variety of tasks in EE than you might expect. We shouldn’t limit ourselves to particular skills and expertise. I’d like to think together how we can utilize multiple technologies to achieve our goals.
Q&A session
After the fruitful panel discussion, it was time for a Q&A session. There were many questions about the skills needed and work styles.
For this article, we asked again the questions that the engineers didn’t have time to respond to during the event. We are grateful for the many questions we received at the recruitment event.
Q：What kind of training do you have for new employees?
A：We have a lot of new colleagues coming in, so we are strengthening the onboarding process. This includes the roles of our department, what other departments are doing, and procedures of the personnel system. We think it’s important to be able to deliver results in as little time as possible from joining the company, so each team is devising their own onboarding process. For example, e-learning on financial knowledge, such as relevant laws and regulations, is provided by the department in charge of such matters.
Q：What kind of skills are required to be successful in this team?
A：If you have experience in designing web application architecture or development using Java and AWS, as well as experience in developing financial systems, I think you will be able to catch up relatively smoothly.
Q：PayPay is a multinational company. Are the members in the EE Department also multinational? How much English do you use?
A：About 10% of the EE Department are foreign nationals. All of us are fluent in Japanese, so we use Japanese most of the time in our department, but sometimes we use English when communicating with other departments that have many foreign members.
Q：About 10% of the EE Department are foreign nationals. All of us are fluent in Japanese, so we use Japanese most of the time in our department, but sometimes we use English when communicating with other departments that have many foreign members.
A：It depends on each team. In addition to the people we introduced today, we have professionals who are experts in a variety of fields, such as authentication infrastructure, network security, cloud services like SaaS, ERP accounting systems, and GCP (BigQuery).
Q：What technology stack do you use for development?
A：Java, Spring Boot, MySQL, AWS, GitHub, Slack, Zoom, etc.
Q：What specific AWS skills are required?
A：In addition to experience in building infrastructure using AWS, experience in automation and streamlining like CI/CD, IaC, and the like, is a plus.
Q：What are the criteria and process for the work evaluation of engineers?
A：The main assessment is based on the achievement status of the semi-annual targets, but we also evaluate the engineer’s contribution to our business and organization, as well as the technical challenges they attempted.
A few words from HR and the Senior Manager
Recruiter
Parfun Tanaka
Thank you for attending our event!
PayPay is actively recruiting new members for further growth.
Please join us in promoting cashlessness while being surrounded by colleagues with diverse backgrounds and skills!
Senior Manager, Enterprise Engineering Department
Hiroshi Okada
Let’s create a new financial service infrastructure through healthy competition with great colleagues. We look forward to receiving your applications.
Where to find relevant information
For the company profile and selection process introduced at the event, please open the links below.
Also in PayPay Inside-Out, we post articles about the people and culture of PayPay that you cannot find in the job postings. If you have any interest in PayPay, please take a look at these articles for a better understanding of the company.
Job Descriptions
[Job information related to this event]
- Java Engineer/Architect
- AWS Engineer
[EE Department and other job information] - Enterprise Data Analytics Infrastructure Management (Data Engineer Lead)
- Core Systems Engineer
- BPR Lead Engineer (Enterprise Development)
- HRIS Lead Engineer
- Cloud Infrastructure Management Engineer
- Salesforce Engineer
- IT Strategy & IT Governance Promotion / Manager Candidate
About WFA
Work values and corporate culture that are important to PayPay
PayPay 5 senses
Thanks to: Hiroshi Okada, Parfun Tanaka / Editor: Keiko (PayPay Inside-Out Editorial Team) / Translation: Language Communication Team / Translation Editor: Justin
*Employees’ affiliations are as of the time of the interview.
