Working at Cookpad UK

Have you heard that we have an office in Bristol, UK? Yusei Nishiyama, an iOS engineer who moved from Japan to UK last year, is going to talk about:
- The UK office
- Our members
- Life in UK
- Difficulties in English environment and how to overcome it
You will see how exciting working at Cookpad UK is and ... how to be a part of it!

Transcript

1. Working at Cookpad UK Cookpad Tech Kitchen #14 Yusei Nishiyama (@yuseinishiyama) 1
2. The Goal • You get to know • We expand abroad • We have a HQ in the UK • We are hiring people there • And finally, you can imagine clearly how working at Cookpad UK is like 2
3. Agenda • Who am I? • Life in Bristol • The product and the team • Using English at work 3
4. Who am I? 4
5. Hi there ! , I'm Yusei Nishiyama • An iOS Engineer • Majored in Aesthe4cs • Live in Bristol, UK 5
7. Conferences • CodeMobile (Chester, UK) • iOSDevUK (Aberystwyth, UK) • FrenchKit (Paris, France) • MobilizaAon (Łódź, Poland) 7
8. References • h#ps:/ /academy.realm.io/posts/yusei-nishiyama- mobiliza9on-2017-building-ios-apps-at-scale/ • h#ps:/ /medium.com/@yuseinishiyama/d40e35b6de56 8
9. Mo#va#on to move • I'm so lazy • I should put myself in a challenging environment where I can't escape from • Maximise my odds • I don't know what's going to happen. I just want to be in a be@er posiAon at the right Aming 9
10. Systems vs. Goals 10
11. Life in Bristol 11
19. The product and the team 19
20. Cookpad Global • 30M Monthly Users • Supports 22 languages in 68 countries • Approximately 200 members in different countries 20
21. Squad & Chapter 21
22. The iOS chapter 22
23. • Challenges in working on a product suppor5ng different languages and loca5ons • ! Kentaro's talk • Challenges in process and workflow in a highly distributed team • ! Pawel & Chris' talks 23
24. Using English at work 24
25. Do you speak English? 25
26. Yes 26
27. Well, it really varies • You may convey and understand only general meaning in very familiar situa5ons • You may be able to handle basic communica5on in your own field • You may handle complex detailed argumenta5on very well 27
28. Knowing where you are Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CERF) 28
29. Facts • Cookpad Global is a 100% English environment • The half of the iOS chapter is English na?ve speakers • 80% of members in Bristol are non-Japanese 29
30. My takeaways • You may need to be at or above B2 • Once you get to this stage, moving to an English-speaking country speeds up your learning significantly • If you are below B2, the environment may be too much and studying more beforehand may be a good idea • Intake vs. Input. Only intake can serve as the basis for language development 30
31. What worked for me • Cheap online English lessons (to maximise 3me to produce con3nuous speech) • Checking through a grammar book to know your weak points • Building vocabularies with apps with a reminder • English to English dic3onary 31
32. • Cultural understanding • Ge0ng all info in English • Medium, Ne9lix, language se0ngs, etc • Thinking in English 32
34. • bicycle • binary • bilingual 34
35. • biped • biennial • binoculars 35
36. Let's make a PR 36
38. People will like it! 38
40. #$@&%*! 40
41. It's not that easy • In a team, just being an English user is not enough • You need to be good enough to be a good communicator • Moving from intermediate to advanced is hard • I can cope with most of the situa=ons with my very limited ability as people normally try to understand me 41
42. • There's no methodology works for everyone at this stage • Language produc;on may be adequate but o>en lacks the characteris;cs of natural speech • There are persistent, fossilized language errors 42
43. Moving beyond the plateau 43
44. The only thing I want you to remember is... 44
46. • If you fulfil the following condi3ons, this should be a perfect opportunity • You have a good understanding of either iOS, Android, Web, Data Analysis, Infrastructur, or ML • You want to work abroad • You have an intermediate level English skill • Issues regarding reloca3on and visa will be handled by the company. Don't worry about it. 46
47. Ques%ons? 47