Why I Joined Money Forward as a New Grad

Introduction

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Hi there! I’m 88888888_kota, a 2024 new graduate who joined Money Forward as an engineer in April 2024. I joined the CTO Office of Money Forward Business Company (MFBC) as a Site Reliability Engineer (SRE). In this post, I’ll share why I chose Money Forward as a new grad and what I plan to accomplish here.

My Background

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Before getting to the main topic, here’s a brief overview of my background. Feel free to skip ahead.

• High school (curiosity about space)
  • I attended Mikunigaoka High School in Osaka.
  • The school had an annual overseas trip to NASA, and I joined the program. That sparked my interest in space.
  • I tried to get into a top university for space-related studies but didn’t pass the entrance exam.
• Gap year (turning point)
  • After high school, I spent a year at Sundai prep school in Osaka.
  • During that time, I watched a Japanese suspense drama called “Your Turn to Kill” that featured a scene where AI was used to identify a criminal. That got me interested in programming.
  • I changed my target major to information science, entered the Electrical and Electronic Engineering department at Osaka Prefecture University, and started learning programming (HTML/CSS).
• University (internships and job hunting)
  • The moment I entered university, COVID hit. Instead of going to campus, I spent my days watching anime – I got hooked on Sword Art Online, Re:Zero, and Railgun.
  • Between anime sessions, I studied programming. When I got bored with HTML/CSS, I picked up Python.
  • In the summer of my second year, I did my first internship. After that, I interned at various companies from startups to large tech firms, gaining practical experience. (Detailed work history on Wantedly.)
  • When job hunting season arrived, I walked into my first interview with nothing but a vague desire to “work at a famous company.” I had received a fast-track invitation from the first company, so I assumed the interview would go fine – I was promptly rejected.
  • That rejection forced me to seriously think about my engineering career strategy and what I wanted in a workplace. This was around autumn 2022.
  • I received my offer from Money Forward on March 7, 2023.
  • At university, I researched the impact of DNS-Based Authentication of Named Entities (DANE) deployment on web performance. I graduated successfully.
• Money Forward
  • I joined on April 1, 2024.

Why I Joined

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Here’s the main part. In short, Money Forward matched the criteria I had for my ideal company.

My Criteria for Choosing a Company

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1. Is the company already operating globally, or aiming to expand overseas?

   • Global presence was my most important criterion. I wanted to build services used by people around the world, not just in Japan. Working on global challenges means greater societal impact. On top of that, I wanted to work in English. English skills alone can dramatically expand your career options, and I was planning to eventually work abroad.

2. Is the product good?

   • Product quality mattered a lot. I wanted to work on products that I’d want to use myself – products I’d recommend to my family and friends.

3. Does the company make flexible technology decisions (modern tech stack)?

   • In a world where technology evolves rapidly, I wanted to work at a company that chooses the best tools for the job rather than clinging to legacy tech. In other words, I wanted to use modern, cutting-edge technology – specifically Go, Rust, TypeScript, AWS, and Kubernetes. I understand that technology is just a means to an end and these aren’t always optimal, but personally, I want to develop with technologies I enjoy.

Why Money Forward?

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• Alignment with MVVC (Mission, Vision, Values, Culture)

  • I resonated with Money Forward’s MVVC. By the time I interviewed, the MVVC had been updated to its current form. I particularly connected with the Values of “User Focus” and “Technology Driven” (now updated to “Tech & Design”).

• It matched my criteria

  • Money Forward was already expanding into India and Vietnam, and even the Japan offices were becoming increasingly global. About 40% of engineers are non-Japanese nationals. (Fun fact: more than half of 2024 new grad engineers were non-Japanese.)
  • I was also impressed by the products. I was already a Money Forward ME user and found it genuinely useful. I figured that a company making such a great consumer product would apply the same quality standards to its other products.
  • On the technology front, the stack was modern. When I was job hunting (around autumn 2022), I read an article by CTO Nakade that mentioned increasing Go adoption. The fact that AWS and Kubernetes were core infrastructure tools was also a big plus.

What I Plan to Do at Money Forward

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• Tech

  • I was placed on the SRE team as I hoped, so I’ll focus on delivering reliable services while improving developer experience and productivity. During university, I mainly did backend development in Go, so I’m starting with almost zero SRE knowledge – but I’ll leverage my ability to ramp up quickly. I’ll write a separate post about why I chose SRE over backend.

• English

  • I’ll work on improving my English communication skills. My team operates primarily in English, so I feel a real sense of urgency. Fortunately, Money Forward offers English learning support as a benefit, and I plan to make the most of it.

Final Thoughts

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As I start my career as an engineer, I first want to thank my family and friends who have supported me along the way. I’m thrilled to be joining Money Forward as a new grad. Stay tuned for what comes next!