Taikai Takeda is a Software Engineering Manager in the Explainer team at Indeed Tokyo. He joined Indeed as a new graduate and originally planned on studying abroad but got a job offer at Indeed Tokyo… He has stayed on ever since! Here, he shares his experience and what he loves about working at Indeed Tokyo.
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I currently lead a team called the Explainer team – previously known as a part of the Search Quality team. Our team analyzes data and information which comes through, and we break down the ‘whys’ and the ‘hows’ of matching a jobseeker to a job. This helps us better achieve our mission of helping people get jobs.
We make tons of jobseeker to job matches daily, and we find the most efficient ways of helping people understand the reasons for those matches.
“When Indeed gives a job recommendation to a jobseeker, the jobseeker may not be sure why they are getting the recommendation, even if they are a good match. By explaining the reasons for the recommendation, we help jobseekers understand why the job is a good fit for them.”
This is a very exciting problem to solve. At the end of the day, whether it is the jobseeker or employer – one applies for a job and another makes a decision to hire – they are people after all. It’s important to help decision makers understand the matches so that they can make better decisions.
Working on this problem can be both challenging and exciting, but being able to work with a diverse team brings a different edge to working on products and solving problems. There are so many incredibly talented people with a multitude of specialties at Indeed, and this helps make solving problems quicker and easier.
I feel comfortable asking questions and it’s refreshing to be able to have open discussions with people, especially on improving the way we do things.
“Having been with Indeed for more than three years, I have grown tremendously through an environment that is challenging and supportive. My manager (and ex-managers) has always encouraged me to take on new challenges.
“This culture of encouragement, trust and believing in people has played a big part of my career development.”
I’ve experienced this culture of encouragement and support especially when we work on new project ideas. When brainstorming for ideas, there may be some which are not great, but there are also a number which are really valuable! When introducing new ideas, I find it a challenge to convince others to invest in some of my ideas.
At Indeed, I am encouraged to use data to articulate and share my ideas to get my manager and team on board. This is often challenging, but they have always been supportive in giving me the opportunity to communicate my ideas. Though not all the ideas have worked out, it means a lot to me that I’ve been given the opportunity to try it out. In fact, some of the biggest impact that I have made at Indeed started with this opportunity to be able to try out those ideas. I believe this culture of trust and empowerment has led to a lot of Indeed’s innovation.
Another factor that has drawn me to the company and kept me here is our mission of helping people get jobs. Being able to contribute to solving important problems and helping people with a huge aspect in their lives has been one of the primary reasons why I feel what I do at work is purposeful.
The level of collaboration I’ve seen here at Indeed has been amazing, where so many talented people are ready to work on solving important problems together.
Once, when I was having a hard time figuring out an algorithm to solve a problem which might have had a significant impact on matching the job to the job seeker, I consulted a colleague who is an expert in graph algorithms and worked together with him.
Instead of spending way too much energy (and time) trying to solve the problem myself, together, we figured out a solution within a minute! Ever since then, this has been a reminder to myself that it is important to collaborate and consult with team members, especially those who are experts in their area.
“A lot of ideas of solving technical or product problems stem from discussions. Interestingly, in my experience, a lot of them originate from unexpected conversations… while having lunch, walking in a hallway, or even while making coffee.”
This may be because these instances have been opportunities to connect with people who I may not usually interact with on a daily basis, which allows me to see things from different perspectives.
Though times are slightly different now that we are working from home, we still jump in on Zoom meetings and have many other opportunities to stay connected at Indeed.
To find out more about Indeed Tokyo, click here.
