Why did an engineer with experience in both large companies and start-ups in Japan and Thailand choose Pretia?

Full Stack Engineer Natsathorn Yuthakovit Interview

Hello everyone, this is the “Medium” team of Pretia Technologies!

For this time, as the 8th coworker interview series, we will interview a full stack engineer Natsathorn!

First of all, we will introduce his profile.

Natsathorn Yuthakovit（Pete）

After he graduated from university, he worked at Pendata Asia and Agoda. After he came to Japan, he worked at Rakuten as a Full Stack Engineer. Since he joined Pretia in 2020, he has been working as a front-end engineer now. His nickname is Pete.

Pete, thank you for taking your time today!
To start with, could you tell me your background what led to you joining Pretia?

At the 3 companies before I joined Pretia, I worked in different positions. At first, I joined Pendata Asia which is a startup company in my home country Thailand and I did DevOps. Finishing the job which I handled became a springboard for I start to think I would like to gain experience in a large company.

Then I changed my job to Agoda which operates a famous hotel reservation service website, and I worked as a full stack engineer there. After I worked in a famous large company in Thailand, I thought I would like to work in a foreign company. I chose Japan and joined Rakuten. Because I like Japanese food and culture such as anime.

After that, I thought that I would like to challenge myself in a startup again. When I was looking for these companies, I met Pretia.

So, you have both experiences of major firms and startups in Thailand and Japan!
Why did you choose Pretia in various startups?

I have two main reasons. The first reason is that it was attractive to me that Pretia is handling AR.

The second reason is that I felt Pretia has an open door policy. Because I was able to trust the CEO, Mr.Ushio, and the recruitment manager, Ms.Li while I actually talked with them. Usually, startups have volatility, but they never hid issues and sincerely answered my worries. Therefore, while I felt their good personality, I was able to feel the flatness of the office atmosphere.

Aha, these backgrounds led you to decide to join Pretia!
Why were you fascinated by Pretia as an AR company?

I originally liked to play video games, so I learned video game development in university. In my development, I also created AR games, so I was interested in AR too.

However, I mainly worked as a front engineer in my previous office. Hence, it was difficult to get involved in AR and games. But I could contribute to the video game industry by implementing a better front-end in an AR firm and I was really attracted to this.

While you were already interested in video games, and you found the potential of AR?
What kind of job do you do in Pretia?

Mainly I take over all tasks which are related to the front-end.
Recently, I am pouring my passion to develop the AR cloud platform “Pretia”*.

*Pretia
AR cloud platform which is developing Pretia. It will be released soon.

So you are a front-end specialist!
While you work as a front-end engineer at Pretia, where do you find rewarding for this job?

Firstly, I feel I find it rewarding that the websites I create improve the quality of the games and experiences, which makes people happy. It is fun to see my customers using the website, and my desire to improve more to make it more useful will grow. I am looking forward to more people using Pretia, which is presently developing and will be released.

Moreover, I also feel rewarding that I have abundant opportunities to grow myself in Preita. Basically, you can make a judgment by yourself about the tool you use for development, and every idea of every person is always considered in the company. Because all Pretia’s members are reliable. Because we have trust, we have opportunities to decide and challenge, and we can brush up on our skills and earn experiences.

Pete, although you have experience of working at some large companies such as Rakuten, what kind of things do you like about Pretia when you compare them?

Overall, I like the flexibility and the skills of the employees.

There was flexibility at large companies such as Rakuten, but I think that Pretia is on a different level, not only in terms of flexible working hours, but also in terms of the amount of ownership of the products and the internal culture.In a large company, there is a hierarchy within the company, and every time you make a decision on even a single tool to be used for development, you have to consult with your manager, which is difficult because you have to ask for a further decision from the higher management. The culture of the company was also fixed by the upper management. However, at Pretia, the culture is flexible and good for everyone because it is improved each time based on the feedback from each person.

In terms of employees being skillful, the big difference is that although the startup that was my previous workplace employed many new graduates, conversely many employees in Pretia have abundant experiences. We could improve ourselves together with my colleagues because we all were new graduates in my previous workplace. On the other hand in Pretia, we can share different knowledge and promote improvement because everybody is something specialist.

I see. In terms of flexibility and employees’ skills, Pretia is better than companies you have experienced!
To expand our business like major firms you previously experienced, what does Pretia need to do?

Because Pretia has a cool product that is developing with skillful members, I think we are already prepared for further growth. Although we got a late start in some parts because we could not use enough resources under the COVID-19 pandemic, we even slowly but certainly prepared the base to grow the products.

Wow, the preparation is ready! I am looking forward to the release of the products!
Pete, you joined Pretia after a workstyle change to teleworking though, what is the difference when you compare it with commuting?

When I worked at Pendata Asia, I experienced remote working, so I had no particular inconvenience in my work. On the contrary, I can use time flexibly, so I can proceed with my tasks efficiently. However, in my previous job, I went to drink with my colleagues after finishing our work every Friday night, so I feel kinda sad.

Aha, on the contrary, you could proceed with your tasks efficiently!
Pretia for the hereafter, what kind of people would Pete like to work with?

For working at Pretia, we prefer people who have skills and expertise, who are curious and eager to learn, and above all, who are interested in AR.

I would like to work with people who are not only considered as colleagues but also as friends. Definition of a friend is someone who can share the pleasure of knowledge or awareness of the problem and also share everything regardless of the position of relationships. In Pretia, Mr. Ushio is our CEO though, he always cares for us like a friend. I would like to work with someone who also can be considered as my friend like he does.

We would love for such candidates to come!
Well, in the end, please share your comment for Pretia’s future colleagues!

Pretia is a startup though, it has a nice culture here. Let’s come to join Pretia and enjoy this culture with us!