What is it like working at Beatrust as a non-Japanese native speaker?

Hello, I am Yuta Takasu, an intern at Beatrust. Whether you are a regular reader of “Beatrust on note” or a newcomer, thank you for finding this article.

This “Beatrust on note” is an official platform of Beatrust that is mainly focused on having people understand our company, and be interested in joining us. If you are interested in Beatrust, we have interview articles that highlight our employees’ unique personalities. For those who are not so interested in Beatrust but are interested in the workstyle of an employee at a startup company in Japan that aims for the global market, we have articles introducing our unique corporate culture and company system. Although most of our articles are written in Japanese, we are planning to have more information published in English, so please stay tuned.

Here at Beatrust, the nationalities of the employees are very diverse, especially among engineers. Some may wonder how the non-Japanese native speakers are blending in at Beatrust, so we interviewed two of our full-time employees: Andreas Dippon (Andy) from Germany and Rosana Sanchis from Spain to express their thoughts about what it is like working at Beatrust as non-Japanese native speakers. We talked about why they joined Beatrust, their first impression, and finally, the English level of our company. By reading this article you can get a good insight into the work as a non-Japanese native speaker at Beatrust and maybe become interested in joining us.

ーーー First of all, what brought you to Beatrust?

🔵Andy: I was working in a large company in Germany, and for private reasons, I wanted to move to Japan. I was searching very broadly for a job, but one issue was that my Japanese speaking skill was not so high. So I was confident that I could not work in a company where the main language is Japanese, and I needed to join a company where that supports English. I came across Beatrust via an agent while looking for such companies.
Beatrust had two interesting aspects for me. The first one was that they tried to make English their main language, which was important for me. Also, the members in Beatrust were very experienced people, which is quite rare for startups since most of them are mainly composed of young people. Those were the two points that sparked to me, and I also liked the mission and the product very much.

🔴Rosana: I was looking for a Gaishi-kei (meaning “foreign companies” in Japanese), because I wanted to work in a company that is more open-minded and isn’t as rigid as many Japanese companies can be. Also, in my experience with other Japanese companies in the past, although English could be one of the main languages used in the workplace, there was a big gap between the engineering team and the rest; some employees who regularly communicated with domestic customers couldn’t speak English at the same level. So, when I started my interview with Beatrust, I was already able to tell that the English level at Beatrust was higher. People in all departments can communicate in English more or less confidently, and even though some of them use Google translate to avoid miscommunications, I hardly ever found someone who didn’t have a basic conversation skill in English. 

The Dev team at Beatrust. Each member has a global background, and the meetings are conducted in English.

ーーー This might partially overlap with my earlier question, but what were the most important criteria for your job search?

🔵Andy: To be honest, I was not looking for anything in particular. I would have taken the first good job that I could get since I wanted to move to Japan as soon as possible. Luckily, Beatrust was a very good fit for me. 
It is hard to describe, but from my personal interests and educational background I want to have discussions also with team members outside of the engineering field. There are hundreds of positions available as a “pure software engineer”, but not many positions for English speakers that allow for a wider spectrum of responsibilities. I thought that in Beatrust I could push out more to fields that are outside of engineering, compared to other large companies. 

🔴Rosana: For me, the most important criteria was the concept of the product, since as a QA professional (quality assurance), if I cannot believe in the concept it is hard to imagine the user experience I want the customers to feel, and that is vital for my testing strategy. Also, as I have a son, work-life balance is very important for me. I cannot work late at night and so on. Here at Beatrust, since I sometimes wake up very early, I can work from five in the morning, and bring my son to the doctor or the kindergarten if needed. This freedom was a very important factor for me, which brought me to Beatrust.

ーーー Now, let's move on to your first impression of Beatrust. How was it when you first came to the office? Also, how did you adapt yourself to the working environment here?

🔵Andy: For me, it was a bit special because when I first came to the office it was the Halloween party, so everyone was very open and friendly, and then the next day I came to the office, which was Monday since the party was on Friday, everyone was very focused and quiet. So it was a very different two days. But after a few days, I learned that everyone is very welcoming and very helpful. 
For learning and blending into the job, it always starts with difficulties to blend in the job as an engineer when you join a new company, because you have to learn the code base from scratch. I’ve certainly found it difficult at times because some documentation was in Japanese, and I had to use a translator. But a few weeks after I joined, the company started a mentoring program for newcomers. After that, I was able to ask my buddy anytime I wanted to, whether it was face-to-face or through direct messages. 
What is also very nice and unique is the 1-on-1 culture. Whenever a new employee joins, they are expected to have a 1-on-1 talk with all the other employees. At first, I thought that was a lot, but afterward, I felt that it benefited me since if you talk for just half an hour or one hour with all your colleagues, you certainly get some impression about them and come to know them a little better. I thought it was also fitting with the concept of Beatrust to find other people and be connected. I think it is better to have connections with other people than not knowing them at all.

🔴Rosana: I remember that the first time I visited Beatrust, there were a lot of people around. So the office looked small but quite lively, and everyone was very friendly. Because I’m used to large companies, it felt like it was just one department. Since then, I feel like there is not one person who I do not have direct contact with, which is very unique compared to my past jobs where I had hundreds of people in the same organization who I never talked with. Although I can't have regular 1-on-1 meetings with everyone because of my tasks, it is very cool that Beatrust facilitates this kind of interaction. So I think it is a lot more welcoming than a big company. 

ーーー I wonder how the atmosphere of Beatrust is compared to other companies. Could you compare our work culture with your past jobs?

🔵Andy: In Germany, the line between work and private life is clear. In terms of work life, you have 10 to 20 colleagues and you talk about work mainly, and not much about private topics. I was in a big company, and in a big company you usually only have contact with your colleagues in the same department and not many others. Before that, I was working in a small team at the university which had a family-like atmosphere similar to the atmosphere here at Beatrust.

🔴Rosana: As Andy said, I am pretty sure the correlation between the closeness of the employees and the size of the company is universal, because people are a lot closer in startups. With that said, I believe that there may be some cultural differences between the different countries I have worked in like Spain, France and Japan. In France, for example, you have lots of informal meetings like drinking coffee in the afternoon, eating croissants for breakfast and Nomikais (“drinking party” in Japanese) with your colleagues. But in Spain, many people socialize a lot more with friends and family, and a little less with coworkers, as there's usually not a lot of free time after work. Japan seems like a middle ground between France and Spain in that sense. Combining that with the startup culture, Beatrust has probably the most friendly atmosphere of all the companies I have worked for.

As a company, we value casual communication between the employees. We gather every Friday for a chat and drink!

ーーー As you guys know, Beatrust is implementing a system having the company’s main language as English. What are your thoughts on this?

🔵Andy: First of all, I want to say I expected a lot less English than is actually used. So it was very positive for me to find out that people also use English for written communication as well. But, coming from a large company in Germany where you expect everyone to speak English, it feels like there is still a long way to go for Japanese companies to make English the main language. In Germany, 99% of the documentation was in English. Here, if you stay at an easy level of English it is perfectly fine, but once you get to a complex issue, people tend to quickly switch to Japanese.  So when an incident happens, almost all the communication is done in Japanese. This makes it difficult to keep up for foreigners. However, I think that this is just a matter of time and a gradual change in the mindset to use English even if the topic becomes complicated. 
But, as I said, in comparison to other Japanese companies, Beatrust is at a very high level. Globally though, there is still work to be done to have English as the main language and really mean it.

ーーー I am guessing that one reason is that all our clients so far are Japanese companies. On the other hand, I have never seen a company that invests this much and actually is trying to make English the main language.

🔵Andy: I totally agree. The company never stops improving. I have heard that before I joined, nearly all of the documentation was in Japanese. They have already changed a lot from that. So, if they keep this up, I think they are on a really good path.

🔴Rosana: I think there needs to be a trade-off to make a difference. Although I feel comfortable if the communication is all in English, I see some Japanese colleagues struggling to share an idea or a concept in such a language that is unfamiliar to them. And in a tricky situation, such as an incident, you have to act quickly and you need to communicate with many people at different levels of English. So I believe for important matters, if they feel more confident in Japanese, they should communicate in Japanese. It would be nice if there is somebody in the company who tries to translate it to English, but as I said, I believe that everyone should communicate in the language they are confident with, and later I will try to find a way to translate or get the information, which I think is better than getting the wrong idea from them because they tried to say it in English. 

ーーー Now, I want to ask, and I want you to be very honest about it, how do you feel about the English level of the members at Beatrust? Or change the question, do you think Beatrust would survive if it is completely taken to an English native country, say, the United States?

🔵Andy: As I said, compared to other Japanese companies I was very impressed with the level of English at Beatrust. Although I do believe that nearly everyone can deal with reading English and understanding English, some people may have trouble expressing themselves. But Beatrust would definitely survive, and probably even thrive in an English-speaking country.

🔴Rosana: I also think it is very high even compared to Spain and France, from my experience. So I think there will be no problem if Beatrust moves abroad, since the mentality of the founders, Hara-san and Kume-san, is already at a global level. It will probably be much easier to adapt to many different markets and cultures because of that global mentality.

The dev meetings are all done in English. There are many active discussions with an atmosphere that is open to diverse opinions.

ーーー I would like to end this interview with some messages to non-Japanese speakers who are reading this article.

🔵Andy: I think Beatrust is very welcoming to foreigners because there is no rejection of speaking English from anyone. Some people may not speak English or Japanese very well, but everybody still tries their best. And also, everyone welcomes you to join discussions, even if it makes communication more difficult, they would try to make you feel at home. 

🔴Rosana: It is a company where each voice counts. So even if you don’t speak Japanese, your opinion is taken into account. Hara-san and Kume-san have the attitude to listen to everybody and to give opportunities for everyone to speak out. So, it is a great company for someone who wants to find meaning in their work, since everyone is given the tools to make a difference.  

Although the corporate culture is just one segment of the company, it should be one of the critical ones when it comes to deciding on where to work. Here at Beatrust, we are actively committed to speaking English and welcoming foreigners as our members. Hopefully, through this article, you were able to grasp the atmosphere of Beatrust from a foreigner's perspective.

There will be more English articles coming up, so please stay tuned.

For those who are interested in Beatrust, please contact us through marketing@beatrust.com 
(Due to a large number of requests for interviews, it may take some time to respond.)