Interview on friendly army#1 -NewType-
Introduction
In addition to full-time crew members, we also have university students and other crew members who work on the side. In JUNGLEˣ, we called such crews a friendly army.
The interview on the friendly army is a project to help you understand us more objectively than the entry by talking about JUNGLEˣ and the full-time crew.
For this first article, we present an interview among the members of NewType=University Students. Please take a look.
Participants
Unicorn(U): 4th year student, Department of Mechanical and Information Engineering, The University of Tokyo
Northstarr(N): 1st year student, Department of Technology Management Strategy, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
Alyssa(A):2nd year of Master's Program in Liberal Arts, The University of Tokyo
Encounter with JUNGLEˣ to the decision to join as a friendly army
U: I received an invitation from a company where my clubmates T and M had joined. At first, I was attracted to the company simply because of the good hourly wage and the fact it was a venture company doing something interesting when I looked at the website.
-What made you decide to join the organisation after your first impression?
U: The CEO, Mr. Panja, is a man who is out of his element, but he has always been consistent, and I found that attractive in a way that others do not. I thought I didn't want to be ordinary, so I enrolled in the University of Tokyo and joined the football team. So I decided to join the team because I wanted to be surrounded by people who were not ordinary in the good sense of the word.
N: I had a casual interview with Jungleˣ because T and M were classmates from my first semester, and I thought I would at least hear about it if my two friends were also in the program. At first, I was attracted to the interesting subject of betting rather than the wage.
-You were just curious about the subject matter, so you thought you'd at least have an interview with us?
N: That's right. When we took the interview, I was involved in various other activities such as internships and joint research, so I thought I would just listen to what they had to say. However, one of the deciding factors for me was that I was reminded of how interesting betting and games are through my involvement with JUNGLEˣ.
Another deciding factor was that I thought I would enjoy it the most in my career.I like to do research, and I felt that I could immerse myself in JUNGLEˣ environment.
A: When I first received the invitation, I thought it would be a good opportunity to get involved since I am currently the MGR in charge of accounting for the athletic department, which fits with the demands of JUNGLEˣ.
-What made you decide to join the organisation?
A: It was more of a gut feeling. When I talked with Mr. Panja, I had a vague feeling that he must be a great person, and I thought it would be interesting to work under him, so I decided to join.
Impressions of Panja
U: When I first spoke to him for the first time, I thought he was a crazy person.
-Is it crazy in a negative way?
U: Yes, I felt that way when we met offline at WeWork. At the time, I was not job hunting, etc., and Mr. Panja was the first superior member of society I came in contact. From there, while I was considering general employment as an undergraduate and trying to find a job, I could recognize that Mr. Panja was an anomaly, and in a sense, that was a gain. Through job search, I saw an ordinal adult in a good way, and I could choose that, butI was still young and could do anything,so I thought I would do the interesting one, which has now turned into respect.
So you could say that there were twists and turns. At first, I couldn't help but look at things that were different from my own with colored glasses, but I felt that they were actions and words based on beliefs, and I was attracted to them because I am the type of person who is driven by beliefs.
N: My first impression of Mr. Panja when I spoke with him was that he was a very unusual person who talked back and forth like in the movie "TENET".
I had interned at several startups and had an image of what a business owner looks like. However I got the impression that Panja is a person who has been around the block as a business owner, probably because she used to run a funeral service company. In ordinary startups, there are some standard tactics that tell you what you should do for the business, and the managers follow them to lead the company.I was attracted to Panja as a manager because of his strong ideology and ability to lead alone without being in sync with those around him.
A: At the first casual interview, as I said before, I had the intuitive impression that he was a great guy. Then I read Panja's book, and after learning about his background, I was impressed and liked him even more. Also, although he calls himself a bad communicator, I could totally understand what he was trying to say when he was talking, so I thought he was smart and a good speaker.
Thoughts on group work activities and how they decided to make a full commitment from this quarter
U: It was a great experience to attend a study session on blockchain technology as part of a group work activity. But it was not so much that I did not understand it well, but rather that I was not interested in it. I also felt that what I am interested in is still expansion devices.
What I was feeling through the activities was the impact of JUNGLEˣ investing in my potential as a student. There were times when I almost gave up on graduate school because of the public discourse that postgraduates are not rewarded. I thought thatJUNGLEˣ is an organization that invests in such students and is going against the world to create a new era, and I want to fully commit myself to getting on board. I am not good enough at what I do now, but I want to contribute.
N: Through my activities, I found it fascinating that JUNGLEˣ is trying to keep up with the latest technologies. For example, I am skeptical about the Web 3.0 world, but I was reassured by the attitude of understanding that it is not really technically innovative and trying to apply it to business.I have more confidence that they are not just following a fad.
I was also attracted to the fact that they were willing to invest money properly. I wanted to make that investment worthwhile, and that treatment motivated me, so I felt it was a really good environment and accepted the full-commit offer as well.
-Unlike the previous two, who were science students, Alyssa's activities were based on practical work. What did you feel through it?
A: As a student, I am entrusted with a wide range of responsibilities, which is both challenging and responsible, and I want to live up to the expectations. In terms of cooperation with other Junglers, it is smooth thanks to the easy-to-understand information management using JUNGLEˣs own spreadsheets.
Future career path x JUNGLEˣ
U: I have lived my whole life without having any big dreams. I would like to spend my life giving dreams and hopes to those who do not have them, and in the future, I would like to work in the field of education. In order to achieve this, I also feel that, first of all, I need to find my own big dreams and goals and move forward with them. While I could get a job and stability whenever I wanted,I thought I should bet on the one that I find interesting even if the future is uncertain. And I also thought that there was no reason not to join JUNGLEˣ even if I consider the treatment I would receive.
In my high school days, I was in a cultural club that didn't do any sports. But I had the experience of immersing myself in football for four years because I admired my cool older brother who played football. I also want to immerse myself in something as an adult and want to create a place where I can immerse myself.
-Do you have any hope or fear for further collaboration with JUNGLEˣ?
U: There is so much. I wonder if I have an aptitude for the research material I have chosen for myself in graduate school. In graduate school, my life will be either research or JUNGLEˣ 24/7. I am excited about that in itself, but the environment is a huge change and there are so many things I don't understand that I am naturally worried about whether I will be able to manage those two things.
-What about Northstarr, who has begun graduate studies? We were impressed by their immediate response to our offer?
N: I originally had the feeling that I wanted to advance to the second semester of the doctoral program, and around April of this year, that became a certainty.
Therefore, from a short-term perspective, I wanted to create an environment where I could immerse myself in research, so it was important to have savings, so I chose JUNGLEˣ that would invest in me well.
Also, what I want to do in the long term is to work on something interesting from research and technical point of view, so in that sense, I was able to respond immediately to JUNGLEˣs offer.
Now that I'm here, I want to get involved in more technically interesting things, and make them visible. I believe that it is the ideal of researchers to do whatever they want to do, and I would like to put that into practice.
-What exactly are the differences in the treatment of JUNGLEˣ compared to other scholarships?
N: The high level of stipends, such as the Graduate School of Excellence and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), provide approximately 200K yen/month, but even so, the level is still lower than that of a regular company employee, and there is no benefits package. Furthermore, if you devote yourself only to research, most of the money will disappear into living expenses. As a result, you will be 28 years old and have insufficient savings after three years of the doctoral course. Considering this, I was worried that I would be far behind those who would find a regular job when I went on to higher education. However, with the treatment of JUNGLEˣ, I would be able to immerse myself in the program for at least the three years of the doctoral program, and that was a critical factor for me.
-What made Alyssa decide, still in her second year of college, to commit to three things: study, club activities, and JUNGLEˣ?
A: I did not have a clear idea of what I wanted to do in the future, and this is one of the reasons I even applied to the Faculty of Economics, which offers a wide range of options. Before I met JUNGLEˣ, I had a vague idea that I would join a foreign company or a large corporation like everyone else around me. And I also thought I should not make an investment decision related to my future without any social experience or internship, so I decided to try JUNGLEˣ first as a place to gain some experience.
On top of that, I also want to be able to respond to the responsibilities. I am still learning about accounting, so I would like to work on that as well, and eventually, I would like to grow to a level where I can make my judgments, such as, "you are using too much here."
Conclusion
How was this article?
We hope that hearing the voice of NewType, a current college student, will spark some interest in JUNGLEˣ. I also hope that those who, like Unicorn and Northstarr, are in the sciences and are unsure of the path they should take due to uncertainty about their future will feel deceived and knock on JUNGLEˣs door.
If you are at all interested, we hope you will access our websiteJUNGLEˣ HOME(EN) and be able to understand us more deeply.