Vietnamese Internship Program

Three months before the internship began...

In April 2019, I went on a solo research trip to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) for no particular reason. Somehow, I've always had a connection with Saigon.
When I was 18 and a backpacker, Saigon was the first city I set foot in when I came to Vietnam by bus from Cambodia.
There were children roaming the streets arranging homestays, and I was led by them into the back alleys where I experienced my first homestay. This was in 1999. Long before Airbnb existed, this homestay was incredibly cheap compared to hotels, costing only $3 per night. (At that time, right after the Asian financial crisis, it was a chaotic period where US dollars were accepted.)
Time passed, and after becoming independent, while working at 500 Startups' office in Mountain View as part of their accelerator program, I quickly became friends with a startup team from Saigon who were in the same room.
Later, when our company was looking for a designer for a new service on Elance, I intuitively felt "This person is good!" and happened to hire a designer from Saigon. I felt a strange connection, even though I hadn't visited the city since 1999.
This time
- I wanted to try doing business with some connection to Vietnam
- I wanted to meet Vietnamese engineers and aspiring engineers to see their capabilities
- I wanted to meet my friends in Saigon after a long time
With these vague ideas in mind, I came to Saigon without any schedule or appointments.
I chose a hotel on Pham Ngu Lao Street, the same area where backpackers gather, just like 20 years ago. Although it had changed quite a bit from 20 years ago, I was happy to find it still retained a familiar scent.
For the first two days, I spent my afternoons sitting on the terrace of the Starbucks across from the hotel, sipping iced coffee and gazing at the street, and my evenings having dinner with friends, producing zero output.
On the third day, I thought this wouldn't do and started taking action. From there, various things happened, and two months later, I was conducting internship interviews in Hanoi (not Saigon), Vietnam.
...

I didn't originally come to Saigon with plans to accept interns, but when I visited a science university in Saigon and went to the administration office, I thought I'd ask if it would be possible to recruit interns in the future. At the Saigon university, I only got an email address for a contact person, but later when I visited Hanoi and visited two science universities there, I happened to meet the person in charge of student careers at one of the universities. We ended up talking leisurely at the campus cafeteria, and I explained in detail what kind of support and education we could provide if we were to accept interns. The person in charge trusted me and agreed to help officially recruit within the school. Although I had only been thinking about doing this in the future, I thought I wouldn't get such strong support again, so I quickly prepared the recruitment guidelines to make it in time for that year's summer break.
Seven students applied.
The interviews were held in June 2019, in a room at a newly opened coworking space in Hanoi. It wasn't even open to the public yet, but they let us use a conference room when we contacted them. During the interviews, I spent time asking about two points:

• What they have made or are currently making
• Their reason for applying

The first point was to understand how much interest and passion they had for technology and creation, and the second was to see how well they had read our recruitment guidelines and if they had any personal interest in Japan.
This time, we had written in the recruitment guidelines that Japanese language skills were not necessary, and that minimal English would be okay. We didn't look at Japanese ability at all, but we thought that having some personal interest in Japan would be important for making the internship experience fulfilling. Also, although none of the seven students ended up having this, we tried to determine through their stories about interest in Japan whether they were applying solely for career advancement.
All the students were excellent and serious, and each had their own story regarding their interest in Japan. It felt very difficult to choose, but the impression of two students who demonstrated what they had made during the interview stayed with me, so I decided to offer positions to these two.
Even now, I think any of the seven students would have been good choices.
In July 2019, our first intern, Dzung, came to Japan. Dzung stayed for the month of July, and from August, another university student, Minh, came in Dzung's place. It was Dzung's second time traveling abroad, and for Minh, it was his first time ever leaving his country.
For me, who had been fortunate enough to travel to many countries alone at the age of 18, the two seemed like children. We started by teaching them how to use the laundry, how to shop, how to use SUICA, and other aspects of daily life. At the company, we taught them from scratch how to develop Android apps, which they had said they wanted to try.
Minh had the opportunity to implement part of a product we were actually developing at our company, as the timing worked out well. During the internship, we answered all their questions and even created impromptu demos to show them. It was like being in a constant hackathon state, which honestly required a lot of energy, but
by the end of the internship, we were able to help the two complete the apps they wanted to make.
Within the two months, we also took them sightseeing in Tokyo. We went up Tokyo Skytree and participated in a real escape game that could be played in English. I think they enjoyed aspects outside of work as well.
Overcoming various challenges such as complicated visa application procedures and preparing accommodations,
it was a significant experience for us to be able to ensure that the two Vietnamese students completed their two-month internship safely and in good health.