Tech Talks vol.18 – Frontend Engineer

About Tech Talks

In this Tech Talks series, we will share with you the attitude and vibe of the PayPay Tech Team through the voices of the unique product members from around 40 countries! This time, Hung Quoc Nguyen from the Web Team will share his story.

Hung Quoc Nguyen

Frontend Engineer

For now, I work in the Consumer Web Team, but I will be transferred to the Web Team of the Financial Services & Bill Payment (FS & BP) product line from October.
I joined PayPay a year and 3 months ago.

*The Japanese version of the article is also available here.

What I’m working on currently

Our team has three engineers including me. I work as the first point of contact for the product managers (PM) and other teams’ engineers when it comes to FS & BP features. The features we are in charge of include Add Bank Account, Point Calendar, Bill Payment, and the list goes on.

A technical challenge I experienced recently

I was assigned to integrate a third party SDK for the Cookie Consent feature. The requirements were vague from the beginning, and properly handling cookie data is never an easy task. We had to change the implementation and UI many times to make it comply with both Japan’s laws and EU’s GDPR. To make the SDK work, I needed to dig deeper into our web app’s micro frontend architecture, because the solution is not something like our daily SPA development. I had to implement a low level JS approach so that it could work with all of our frontend services.

And just before going live on production, we got bad news that Apple rejected our app because some functionality was pointed out by Apple and was rejected once. This rejection was a huge blocker to our app release schedule, so we had to act fast. Thanks to the amazing cooperation by the App Team, we were able to come up with a fix in a single day, and it was finally approved by Apple. To me, this project was an exciting experience. There was pressure and unexpected difficulties but in the end, we were able to make it through as a team.

My typical schedule

7:00-: Wake up (or sooner depending on my baby’s mood)

7:30-9:00: Baby’s morning routine, then send her to nursery school

9:00-9:30: Shop for food, also do some gardening before work starts

9:30-10:30: Check email and Slack, answer inquiries and draft to-do list for the day

10:30-11:30: Daily sync-up

11:30-12:30: Code, PR review, meetings

12:30-13:30: Lunch

13:30-18:30: Code, PR review, meetings

18:30-: Wrap up

My career before joining PayPay

I came to Japan in 2015 after getting my engineering degree in Vietnam, and worked for a couple of Japanese companies. Before joining PayPay, I worked in a big telecom company in Japan. As a full stack engineer, I was in charge of developing and maintaining KYC management systems and user onboarding systems.

Why I decided to join PayPay

I was looking for a company that had an international environment, less top-down management, and a big consumer-facing product. Even after a year, I still think PayPay is a great match for me. I can learn new things every day not just about technology but also from the operation and business perspective.

Attractive points about working in PayPay

At PayPay, you get the chance to work in the number one cashless payment service in Japan. The problems and challenges you face here will be another level because every decision you make will impact 50 million users.

There will be pressure but you will learn a lot. Also, PayPay has a very open and international work environment. Your working time is super flexible and you can work from home as long as you want.

I am looking forward to working with you here.