Greetings from the Mercan Editing Team.

In order to enhance our recruitment of new engineers, Merpay recently held online hiring events for each of our sections. A number of Merpay engineers, including Merpay VPs of Engineering (VPoE) @nozaq and @hidek, spoke about what drives them to continue challenging themselves at Merpay. The comments were all very touching; we wrote this article to give you excerpts of the best of what they shared.

To that end, we’ve stacked this page with comments that show how some of our engineers really feel about Merpay.

“There are challenges that we can take on precisely because our unique position in the mobile payments industry allows us to.” @nozaq, VP of Engineering for Merpay

@nozaq: There are two things that I enjoy about my work and that allow me to keep challenging myself at Merpay.

The first is that I enjoy the FinTech field. I originally worked for another mobile payments company called Origami. One of the things I realized when I worked there was that the unique joy I felt from working with FinTech did not come from creating services that only existed online, but rather in building services that are used in the real world.

The systems working behind the scenes of payment services are extremely sophisticated and are created from a radical vision of the world and in a context different from conventional online development. There is pleasure to be had from learning about the most minute details and about the latest developments in order to establish our own way of doing things. Furthermore, people demand an extremely high level of safety and reliability. As a result, you have to really push yourself, and in the process you get to collect a lot of experiences that you can’t generally get anywhere else; these are the things that make working in FinTech so appealing.

@nozaq: The other thing that I enjoy about my work is that Merpay is in a position that allows the company to take on unique challenges in the mobile payments industry. Expanding mobile payments services by offering discounts and investing in marketing are the predominant approaches. However, because Merpay is part of the Mercari ecosystem, we can devote Merpay to creating features and making them easier for our users to use.

What’s more, we can leverage the Mercari data to also take on the unique challenge of developing the Merpay smart features (deferred payment), like Merpay Smart Payments and Merpay Smart Money, based on our mission to “build trust for a seamless society.” This is precisely things like being able to borrow money simply by scanning your smartphone. I think only Merpay could have adopted this unprecedented approach of offering a service that builds trust for our users.

“The passionate vision that our CTO talked about struck a chord with me.” @keigow, Merpay Backend EM

@keigow: The reason why I continue working at Merpay is because I share the same feelings as @nozaq about our mission to “build trust for a seamless society.” I am especially drawn in by the vision that our CTO @sowawa (Keisuke Sogawa) talked about.

To be honest, I think I only understand about half of what he says (laughs). The company leadership is so strongly committed to realizing this mission, and their trust in us makes us feel confident that we can get the job done. It really feels like I’m building an exciting future with my own two hands.

@keigow: What motivates me as an EM (Engineering Manager) is working to maximize the abilities that my team members and I can demonstrate. Naturally, I enjoy writing code, but when each member of a team maximizes their value, the resulting impact is also tremendous. I think that’s what makes working as part of the Merpay team a thrill.

“There is joy in working with highly skilled engineers to develop a service.” @takenach, Android EM

@takenach: The reason I chose to join Merpay was that I saw it as an environment that was both bustling with talented engineers and where I wanted to hone my skills.

Up until that point I had contributed to developing car navigation systems and map services, but I made the decision to come to Merpay after figuring out that I wanted to work on a service that was close to people’s daily lives. What I chose was the FinTech field. There are also a lot of talented engineers in the world of Android engineering who work for the Mercari Group. For me the deciding factor was when I sensed that working here would toughen me up and undoubtedly lead to further personal and professional growth.

@takenach: I felt the same way even after I had joined the company. Creating services while having discussions with highly skilled engineers and solving issues was all really gratifying. Going forward, as an EM I don’t just want to make sole contributions. Instead, I want to build an organization that can consolidate the strengths of our engineers to multiply their contributions.

Our CTO made me think, “I want to work with this man.” @hidek, VP of Engineering

@hidek: There are three reasons why I decided to change jobs and join Merpay.

First, I believed that the company provided a product that could resolve some of the world’s problems. At my previous job, I was an executive for DeNA Co., Ltd., where I was also involved in the company’s self-driving vehicle business. With no drivers for public transportation and no public transit network, remote areas of the country have a transportation problem. I worked in the self-driving vehicle business because I had a vision of solving this issue using self-driving vehicles. It is precisely because I had experience in this kind of business that I began to think that the products or services provided by things like FinTech, which aims to solve global issues, are very important.

Second, I joined Mercari because the company challenges itself to achieve its vision through technology. Originally, I worked as an engineer, so solving the world’s problems with technology was something I just could not pass up.

Third, I was drawn in by the people. Obviously, if you aren’t interested in the people you work with, you won’t be at a company for long. Speaking to Mercari CEO @suadd (Shintaro Yamada) and Merpay CEO @naoki (Naoki Aoyagi), I found them to be really interesting. However, the one person who surprised me the most was Merpay CTO @sowawa (Keisuke Sogawa). He was a real visionary… and really crazy. He had worked in FinTech in the past and was really passionate about problems concerning money and value. He made me think, “I want to work with this man.”

@hidek: There are two aspects that made me glad to actually work at Merpay. I would sum these up as “open” and “flat.”

When I say “open,” what I mean is that the company’s information is itself open (freely accessible). Naturally, documents containing insider information can’t be disclosed internally, but other than that, compared to other companies, virtually any member can access our data. It’s the same with communications on Slack too; instead of using DMs and private channels, the culture at Merpay encourages open communication. The company allows for a very open and free exchange of ideas.

When I say “flat,” what I mean is that there is no need to appease the company leadership. At company meetings and the like, people do not hesitate to speak their minds at all, and not even my position as the VP of Engineering intimidates them, because they treat their discussions with me as work (laughs). I think that such a climate is also really appealing to people.

“There are people who are so talented and passionate that it’s intimidating.” @gaku, QA EM

@gaku: For me, I decided to join Merpay because of the impression I got of the company in my interview. @hidek went on and on feverishly about the company mission of “building trust for a seamless society,” such that I grew tired of it (laughs). To be honest, there were a few things that had me torn between joining Merpay or another company, but I thought to myself, a company where the people are this passionate will be interesting. And with that, I made the decision to join.

@gaku: Having worked at Merpay, I feel that the most appealing thing about the company is its people. There are a lot of people on the QA Team who give the impression that they are rowdy, and at first I found them to be intimidating. But in the course of interacting with them, I came to understand that each and every one of them has a very firm concept of quality. There were times where night after night we would drink and chat with each other. I guess I’m blowing my own horn, but I think that Merpay has brought together some really talented people.

“I look forward to seeing how Merpay will grow.” @matsu, QA

@matsu: When I started working at Merpay, the first thing I sensed was the rapid speed at which the company was growing. I think the company will probably keep growing at an increasingly rapid pace.

That’s why my personal motivation is being able to witness how Merpay grows going forward. The company is sure to reach heights that I can’t even imagine.

@matsu: One of the characteristics of Merpay is that the culture of each team is different. Just when you think that one team really understands QA, along comes another team that knows nothing at all about it (laughs). So sometimes when you switch teams, you end up thinking, is this really the same company? However, stopping to think about what makes those teams different gives both you and your team the opportunity to grow. I am pretty fickle, but the pace of change is so fast at Merpay that I don’t have time to be fickle (laughs).

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From reading the comments end to end, you now likely understand that many Merpay engineers have been drawn to our people and company culture. Do you find yourself imagining what it would be like to work with them? Well then it’s likely that you would enjoy working at today’s Merpay. Would you like to know more? Then make sure to check out our hiring website!