Join our online event to hear all about the work styles of Mercari engineers!

📌Event Title
Home, the office, or a mix of both? Mercari engineers on the freedom and responsibility that comes with choosing your own work style

📌Event Overview
In September of 2021, Mercari implemented “Your Choice,” a new-normal work style designed to respect the diversity of how people choose to work. Your Choice is a policy that allows each individual to choose the working style that enables them to most easily demonstrate our company values and freely choose where they live and work as well as their work hours.
At this event, we will hear from three speakers working for Mercari’s engineering organization: one who works 100% remotely from outside the city, one who works both at the office and remotely from home using a hybrid work style, and one who mainly works out of the office. As the speakers look back on the first year since the implementation of Your Choice, they’ll talk about what has and hasn’t changed for them over the past year. In the talk session, we’ll have a frank discussion on a number of topics related to work styles: Is it possible to be involved in core development while telecommuting from outside the city? Are there any advantages to coming to the office if you can work from home? Does a work style that offers such a high level of freedom affect the cohesiveness of an organization?

📌 Speaker

• Roger Guldbrandsen (Engineering Manager, Logistics)
  Roger graduated from the University of Bath in 2014 and started working as a software engineer at a consultancy in the UK, mainly around radio communications, banking, and infrastructure. He then worked in the UK office of a San Francisco-based SaaS company, before moving to Japan in 2020 to join Mercari as a software engineer and scrum master. Roger initially worked on launching Mercari Post, and then became a manager in December 2020, managing one to three teams primarily in the Logistics domain. After moving to Osaka in February 2022, he mainly works from home and almost never goes to the office anymore.
• Suzu Toyoda（Backend Engineer）
  In 2022, Suzu graduated from Hokkaido University Graduate School of Engineering, where she majored in building material engineering. She took an interest in computer science after using Python for data analysis in the writing of her master’s thesis. In September 2021, she took part in the two-month Build@Mercari internship. After receiving a job offer to join Mercari in December of the same year, she stayed on as an intern until she graduated from graduate school and joined the company officially in April 2022. She now works on developing microservices. Her hybrid work style combines working from the office and working remotely.
• Stephan Donin（Engineering Manager）
  Stephan is from France and arrived in Japan in 2013. He joined Mercari in November 2019, first as a software engineer in one of the backend development teams. He soon became Technical Lead of the team, and transitioned to the role of Engineering Manager in October 2021. He is now leading a team composed of backend, iOS, and Android engineers, in charge of bringing personalization and discovery features to the users of Mercari. In terms of hobbies, Stephan loves music, playing the guitar, martial arts, studying Japanese, and sharing knowledge and empowering the people around him. He goes to the office three times a week on average.

📌Moderator

• Kayo Osumi（Employer Branding Global COE）
  Kayo is originally from Hokkaido. After graduating from Hokkaido University School of Medicine, she worked as a public health nurse in Tokyo. After changing jobs a number of times, she began working in India in 2016 and started publishing information about business in India. After returning to Japan, she joined Mercari in 2018 to work on onboarding newly graduated engineers from overseas, including graduates of IIT (Indian Institutes of Technology). Following this, she worked with Mercari’s Engineering Office and Global Strategy Team, and in 2022 she joined a project to establish Mercari India. In her current role as the Employer Branding Global COE, she is in charge of promotional activities, networking, hiring activities, and international communications in India. Her hybrid work style combines working from the office and working remotely.

*This event is meant to be a space to share information with all participants. In order to provide a safe and secure experience for everyone, organizers and participants need to agree to this Code of Conduct.