This is a feature article that involves PayPay employees giving their honest opinion on why they joined, and the surprises they encountered after joining. This time, we sat down with Yuki Jinguji from the Finance Business Promotion Department!
Yuki Jinguji
Finance Business Promotion Department
I work extensively with operations related to PayPay Top Up. Specifically, I am involved in a wide range of operations, from liaison work with financial institutions and infrastructure companies to business planning and troubleshooting, with a focus on cost management and operations related to PayPay top up.
PayPay Inside-Out
From where & why did you join PayPay?
Yuki Jinguji
After graduating from university, I joined a megabank and worked in sales roles dealing with large corporations, mainly in Japan and China. And then, I moved to a major internet company and experienced establishing a bank in Taiwan before joining PayPay in 2020. When I was living in China, I witnessed how Chinese tech giants, such as BAT, were creating and improving their services at breakneck speed while utilizing the customer data that was being generated both exponentially and logarithmically on a daily basis. Looking ahead, I strongly felt that I wouldn’t be able to gain competitive skills and experience as a businessperson if I continued working at a traditional financial institution that was barely changing compared to those tech giants. This is what made me think about changing jobs.
Also, in China, I watched entrepreneurs around my age forging ahead to take huge risks, but their eyes were lit up every day. While they were inspiring me, I also became conflicted with myself. Do I have enough exciting challenges to say that I’m enjoying my life? Can I continue to live a life of stability instead of an adventurous one? As a result, I decided that I didn’t want to have any regrets for not trying, so I resigned from the bank. I always had a strong interest in running a company and wanted to eventually become a corporate manager, so I hoped to find a position where I could work in a department or position that was as close to management as possible.
Then I found out about a job opening in the (then) CEO Office at PayPay. I decided to join PayPay because I thought it would be an invaluable experience to work beside the president of PayPay, which is the most dynamic company in Japan in this turbulent payment industry.
Since I joined the company, I’ve spent my days with no shortage of excitement.
PayPay Inside-Out
What surprised you after joining PayPay?
Yuki Jinguji
I am amazed at how all of the work is done from home. Since I joined, I’ve been involved in a variety of projects and handled almost all of them from home, no matter how urgent and pressing the matter was. I now feel that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. I think it’s quite a unique experience, having yet to meet co-workers in real life, even though I talk with them more than I do with my family. Since the entire selection process and hiring procedures were all completed on the web, I thought that, just maybe, I was being cheated until I received my first paycheck.
There is also a downside. I feel that PayPay is rapidly becoming a larger and more hierarchical organization. As a result, I can’t help but feel that some corporate culture that’s traditionally been emphasized in large, traditional companies (but is considered bad in startups), such as “nemawashi: laying the groundwork” and punctilious documentation, is gradually beginning to take root. To counter that, I vowed to always be the active player, taking the initiative and working to solve problems.
PayPay Inside-Out
Are you happy having joined PayPay?
Yuki Jinguji
Since I’m working from home, I’m glad that I don’t have to burden my wife to take care of everything in the house. Am I happy to have joined PayPay from the perspective of a businessperson? I don’t have an answer to that question yet. There is never a dull moment because so much is changing every day, but I still have a lot to think about in terms of whether I’m gaining experience that I can use in the future. I think I need to work on that.
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Special thanks: Yuki Jinguji / Edited by: Keiko (PayPay Inside-Out Editorial Team) / Translation: Language Communication Team / Translation Editor: Justin
*Employees’ affiliations are as of the time of the interview.
