The special series to put a spotlight on our international staff, “Eyes, JAPAN employee interview” has started! Our 9th interviewee is Thomas Spendlhofer from Austria. He had a 2 weeks internship in Eyes, JAPAN.

We wanted to get to know about his experience of throughout his internship!

(Interviewer: Angie, Merci)

Loves All Kinds of Sports.

What is your favorite thing about your home country or home town?

Thomas: I like the mountains. My parent’s place is only 15 minutes from the next ski resort.

Why did you come to Japan and what do you like about Japan?

Thomas: I came because of Fugaku. I like the general openness of Japanese to technology (for example the acceptance of robots in daily life).

What do you think about life in Aizu?

Thomas: It reminds me of my hometown. A laid-back atmosphere with lots of nature, so I like it a lot.

What is your hobby and how do you usually spend your free time?

Thomas: My hobbies are all kinds of sports, but especially gymnastics, hiking and snowboarding. And usually, I spend my free time by doing sports, or if I’m tired, reading books.

What is your academic background and what kind or research are you doing now?

Thomas: I have studied sports science at the university of Vienne before I decided to switch to computer science and come to Japan. My current research is focused on high-performance computing and parallelization with supercomputers.

Do you have any things or skills that you are proud of?

Thomas: I know how to juggle!

Open, Relaxed, Communication.

How did you know about Eyes, JAPAN?

Thomas: The first time I heard about it was when I saw a post on MEXT Facebook page that Eyes, Japan Co was looking for an intern. After that, I checked the company website and I liked it so I sent an email. The post was actually about looking for full-time or part-time employee, so I asked if it is possible for me to do an internship, and they welcomed me.

Why did you decide to join Eyes, JAPAN?

Thomas: There are two or three reasons. The first is diversity. When you look at different organizations here in Japan, they operate on Japanese philosophy which is different from what I am used to. However, Eyes, Japan is open to international as well. There is freedom on how you choose to work. I also like the project that I was offered to work on. It is related to medical field so I loved it. Even though I live in Tokyo I am not a city boy, I grew up in a country side so I was looking forward to spending time in Aizuwakamatsu.

Do you have any job experiences before joining Eyes, JAPAN?

Thomas: I am doing part-time job as an English teacher.

What did you do throughout the internship?

Thomas: In the beginning I got the chance to interview other employees to decide which project I wanted to join. The medical field project is the one that I was interested in so I chose it. The project was mainly about image recognition. My task was to figure out how we can check healing progress of a Parkinson patient given a video.

What is the most memorable or interesting moment that you had throughout the internship?

Thomas: We did some video analysis and it takes a lot of effort especially if you have calibrated system. In this project I worked with an open-source library that only took a video with one single camera as an input and tries to locate certain feature points like the knees, ankles automatically. I made that work. It was somewhat efficient for many purposes and I did not know that this kind of efficiency was possible until I worked on the project. Actually, I am planning to implement this in other projects I am planning to work on.

What customs in Eyes, JAPAN that you like the most?

Thomas: I like the morning meeting. Usually, I wake up and sometimes get distracted and do what I have not planned to do but, those five minutes every day helped me a lot to focus during the day.

What do you think about your colleagues and the working environment in Eyes, JAPAN?

Thomas: Everyone were very helpful. Whenever I asked a question, they replied immediately and went all the way to help me figure out whatever that I was struggling with. I like that people are trusting that I will do what I have to do and the fact that I can choose my working space like remote or at the office.

What kind of problems or challenges have you faced while working in Eyes, JAPAN, and how did you solve it?

Thomas: Getting to know the company culture was the most challenging for me. For instance, in the morning meetings I did not know what I was expected to say.

Overall, what do you think about the internship?

Thomas: Despite the fact that it was such a short time to get to know the company very well and do something useful, I was very happy.  The fact that I did real work, got to choose a project and did some useful work for the company and learnt as well was really nice.

Could you describe the whole experience in three words?

Thomas: Open, relaxed, and communication.

Advice: Learning Japanese is Important!

Have you experienced any culture shock while working in Japan?

Thomas: Many, but the biggest one was when I saw people sleeping at their desks. That is considered very inappropriate in my country.

How do you balance your working and private time?

Thomas: I usually try to finish work by 6 pm and then focus on my private time.

What kind of project do you want to work on in the future?

Thomas: I want to connect computer science with sports.

Any advice for people who wants to work in Japan?

Thomas: Learning Japanese is probably the most important.

Lastly, what is your dream?

Thomas: My dream is to help many people discover the benefits of sports and motivate them to exercise regularly.

Thank you!

If you are interested in Eyes, JAPAN and would like to hear other stories, please do not hesitate to contact us at the following contact form.
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Everyone welcome.