• The amazing Honda RoadSync team with Drivemode Team
    Work Life

    Work Diaries: 2023/09/08 Celebrating Honda RoadSync’s Turn-by-Turn Release Milestone

    September 12, 2023 - By 

    嵐は我々を止められぬ！！No storm can stop us  (especially with God on our side!) Capturing this memorable life event related to my work for posterity. This day, we celebrated a HUGE milestone for our team and their product, Honda RoadSync—the release of the Turn-by-Turn feature. A feature that was part of the original product vision, a feature that the Product team and all those involved in the product has worked hard to make a reality. Both by Drivemode team and Honda RoadSync team. This feature was ready for release since three years ago, yet was kept by the upper management from being released.…

  • Agile/Scrum - Work Life

    Random Musings of a Scrum Master #1: On Leadership and Transformation

    August 14, 2022 - By 

    It has been 4 weeks since I undertook this role of being a full-time Scrum Master for a Product team, technically 2 weeks since I have officially stepped into the role facilitating the Scrum events, and my mind has been running the “how to be a better Scrum Master/how to leas my team well” process asynchronously since lol. Also like a sponge of ideas that takes in cues from what I read and what I see in my environment, connecting the dots from what I have learned in the past. Lightbulbs here and there. A happy problem to have I…

  • Work Life

    Winning the (Work) War this Week

    October 8, 2021 - By 

    “All battles are first won or lost, in the mind” -Joan of Arc This cannot be more true in my experience the past days adjusting to my new work. I’m a newbie in the company, don’t know much about the ins and outs yet, especially connecting to the right set of people to get information that I need to do my job well (yet). I have no formal experience dealing with clients directly, especially not as early as in the proposal phase (and especially doing the proposal), yet here I am involved in this big project. I have a mentor…

  • Work Life

    Goodbye, Walmart Japan/Seiyu. And thank you :)

    September 23, 2021 - By 

    I have officially resigned from Walmart Japan/Seiyu effective September 30, and I have rendered my last day last Friday. It was such a bittersweet day (or bittersweet week!), as I get to talk to people like never before, with the thought of saying goodbye and reminiscing the fond memories we had together since I joined the company last April of 2020. Allow me to indulge a bit and walk down memory lane, as well as share lessons I learned along the way. Prior to joining Walmart Japan, I have mostly worked for big Japanese SIer companies, so I was really…

  • Personal Development - Personal Life - Work Life

    Demystifying Diabetes

    January 11, 2021 - By 

    Never have I learned about diabetes and medtech in my entire life more than this week (technically speaking, last week) It started when I found out about Health2Sync (https://www.health2sync.com), a diabetes-tracking startup (and app) based in Taiwan and expanded to Japan market since 2018 after seeing it as a viable and strategic Asian-expansion market. It is designed to sync with different devices and apps to help diabetic patients keep track of their health. (It can be used by anyone, but is particularly valuable for those with diabetes as for whom the app is primarily for) First, the stats and background.…

  • Personal Development - Work Life

    Strength as a double-edged sword

    November 11, 2020 - By 

    Our greatest strength can be our greatest weakness, as I realize even more as of late. My strength, and alongside it matters that I care about, have the power to shape me for the better or harm me when I am not careful, when I end up relying on it more than I should in order to compensate for what’s lacking in my own love tank. If we are not careful and quick to realize that the battle is within our own mind and soul, we can easily blame our circumstances or ourselves, and end up depleting our emotional love…

  • Work Life

    Coming to the decision to go Walmart Japan/Seiyu

    March 13, 2020 - By 

    After around 5 months of job search, finally, finally… we come to the end of the road. It was such a rollercoaster ride, filled with exhilarating moments as I reached places I could not even dream of on one hand, and heartbreaking rejections on the other–getting to the final stage/interview of Fast Retailing, Sony, and Line (there’s also Edifice as I tried my shot at being an IT instructor lol), getting a job offer from Shift and Nissan! It was all in all such a humbling journey for me, and I saw how God protected me with the doors he…

  • Work Life

    お世話になったチームへのお礼のメッセージ (Thank you letter to my dear team for the past 2 years)

    April 8, 2018 - By 

    皆さん、お疲れ様でした。ジェニーのBroken日本語を耐えられて理解してくれて本当にお疲れ様でした。笑　大変お世話になりました。 グロデリセンターに所属した2年間に与えられた機会に、またはこのチームの皆さんに支えてくれて、心を込めて感謝いたします。何とお礼を申し上げてよいのか、感謝の言葉も見つかりませんが、本当にまことにありがとうございました。私にとって楽しいだけではなく、幸いな2年間でした。神様にこのチームに導かれて感謝の気持でいっぱいです。何度も自分自身を信じていない場合が多かったが、経験がゼロにも関わらずいろんな仕事をやらせてもらって、信頼してくれてホンマにありがとう。(やれる人があまりなくて仕方がなかったと思いますが 笑、それにしても信頼したことに対して、感謝感謝でした。) Words are not enough to express how grateful I am for this team, for the opportunities that have been given me these past two years. Truly a blessing that I will thank God for. A lot of times, I do not even trust myself and am not confident, but you guys just trust me anyway and give me responsibilities even if I have 0 experience in that area (I know you don’t really have much of a choice because no one else is available to do it haha. But still it takes trust to give those responsibilities, so…

  • Work Life

    Me-Can Chronicles Episode 2: On Working Together as a Team

    November 3, 2017 - By 

    I am usually the last one to go home in our team, and up until now, I have really thought it was just due to my slowness. Yes I might have more workload than others, partly I bring upon myself as I want to help our team and volunteer often, but mainly due to my slowness I thought. But for the past weeks, months, my boss has been telling me that “we have to do something about this” (“I hope we do something about this”) He has been advising me to step back and be assertive in controlling work I will take in.…

  • Work Life

    Evolving Workplace in Japan

    April 22, 2016 - By 

    Glad, relieved, and very thankful to see an evolving Japanese work environment. Major shock of my life was when Japanese colleagues and bosses started asking how my house search was going. (omg nangungumusta sila! XD) Then we chatted about my options, they gave their opinion as well as tips. And this was during work hours, mind you, not during nomikai. Then during work hours colleagues and I would chat, other colleagues would also pitch in and join the conversation. And conversations would be happening throughout the workplace, work and non-work discussions. Really good “ba” smile emoticon Then last night I…