Interviewing Our Interns at Hacarus

As of late, the number of applicants to Hacarus has been steadily increasing and Hacarus has been quickly growing as a company. We currently have 21 interns! That's a whole lot! To future internship applicants, here's an idea about the environment at Hacarus from an intern's point of view.

*All interview are conducted in English

Genki is an student at Kyoto University and currently, a Data Scientist intern at Hacarus! He is well-versed in English and studied abroad in Portugal. He entered Hacarus as a Data Scientist intern last year in November.

Rikka: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself, your interests, and what you study?
Genki: Sure. My major is econometrics which is a subject using statistics in the field of economics. I have interests in statistics- that’s why I chose this subject and the field. Computer science and economics is connected to each other because some stastitics methods are used in computer science also. Because of that, I joined Hacarus to learn more about statistics and new methods of computer science based on statistics.

Rikka: Do you have experience studying abroad?
Genki: I studied in Belgium for 1 year which is 2 semesters in order to get more knowledge about statistics. While in Belgium, I took some university master-level courses which I failed. However, it was a good experience which furthered my interests in statistics.

Rikka: What began your interest in programming?
Genki: I joined a bootcamp to create a webservice in Photoblog for two months, so this was the start point of my interest in programming. It was so fun, so I wanted to continue my studies in computer science.

Rikka: Is that what made you interested in Hacarus? To study more about computer science?
Genki: Yes. I joined some teams in Hacarus under the lead of mentors like Kitora-san, Takashi-san, and Ippei-san. Hacarus also has members in Tohoku that are masters students majoring in computer science. They have specific knowledge on data science and computer science which helps improve my skills by just inheriting what they teach me. It's very helpful for me and all team members for that to be shared. They have a lot of knowledge that I didn’t know much about beforehand, so it was really exciting for me.

Rikka: So when you first had your interview during your application process to Hacarus, what were some things the interviewer expected from you?
Genki: I was interviewed by Takashi-san, who asked me about some experiences in coding and my portfolio. My portfolio was really important at that time, which was needed for my proof of programming, since there was none. So I created some projects like tutorials- something like that. I showed these projects.

Rikka: Can you tell me more about the tutorials you created?
Genki: Yeah, I made web pages focused on filtering techniques used in image recognition. I actually wanted to know the image recognition in the framework of the webservice so I approached that project publicly for access, which was kind of the proof of my enthusiasm [for the job]. I posted it on a technology blog where you can learn commands to open applications.

Rikka: In the same way, what did you expect from the environment in Hacarus?
Genki: My motivation was to sharpen my skills in coding since I didn’t have much coding experience since computer science is not my major. I wanted to know the gap between people like me [who don't major in computer science] and other persons who do. I wanted to cement that gap. I think Hacarus has a unique environment where I can use my knowledge that I got from mathematical theories in order to get perceivable results for customers. With this flexible environment, I can employ various theories if it's suitable for the situation without limits. In traditional workplace environments, programmers and data scientists should follow orders from the boss. But here, if the proposal from me is convinceable enough, with interesting results then we can start discussing about that.

Rikka: And the most experience you had in programming prior to Hacarus was-
Genki: -was maybe the project in Portugal. It was a bit longer than I expected, like two months. I learned a lot of things in the project.

Rikka: What were some things you did or learned from that project?
Genki: The bootcamp was for beginners in programming to create one application using Ruby on Rails. We each made a team and created one web service with a similar structure to Airbnb and its application enabled us to exchange items for free- like a bartering system.

Rikka: Oh yeah, that reminds me! Apart from programming, you had some acting experience abroad right?
Genki: Ah, yeah *laughs* it was kind of a good refreshment from programming. Yeah it was kind of a side job. It was so fun.

Rikka: You played a robber right? What did you take?
Genki: Yep, into a ramen restaurant. I wanted to get money for my children, in the film of course.

Challenging different environments in life has become a part of Genki's passion

Rikka: Do you find that the environment at Hacarus helps you grow as an engineer?
Genki: I can learn a lot of things, like coding skills. Before joining Hacarus, I thought I’d have a heavy workload and be coding softwares or applications like a programmer, but since it isn’t that way, I can focus on studying and consulting on studies about data scientistry. Which is my main subject in university. It’s very efficient for me to be able to do both learning and working at the same time.

Rikka: Finally, what are some things you find enjoyable at Hacarus?
Genki: Sometimes, there are souvenirs from overseas and people bring snacks which is something I really like about Hacarus (haha). There are people from various backgrounds, like you, from whom I can be inspired from. Another thing I really like about Hacarus.

Rikka: Thank you! And thank you for your time! ☺

Genki: Thank you very much.