Hi, my name is Mirza Syahmi. I'm currently working as a Junior Software Engineer in the CIT Team at Woongjin Asia.

I first learned about Woongjin during my final year at university in Korea, when I had the opportunity to attend a company introduction session at Woongjin's headquarters. That was when I became more familiar with the company and later learned about Woongjin Asia in Malaysia.

When an opportunity became available, I decided to apply. The recruitment process had several stages. It started with application screening, followed by behavioural and coding assessments. The final stage was an interview that included both general questions about myself and technical questions, particularly related to Java and SQL.

Based on my technical background and the interview assessment, I was placed in the CIT Team, where those skills are closely related to the systems and development work we handle.

One of my first impressions was that Woongjin was serious about expanding its IT capabilities beyond Korea and building a stronger presence internationally.

That was particularly interesting to me because Woongjin Asia itself is still relatively new. As a fresh graduate, it meant that I was joining at a stage where there was a lot for us to learn, but also a lot of room to grow and contribute.

Five months later, I think that impression has become stronger. We work closely with experienced developers from Korea, but at the same time the team here in Malaysia is gradually building its own technical capabilities. Being able to learn from an established team while helping build something locally has been one of the more interesting parts of the experience.

The onboarding was quite hands-on. During the first few weeks, our team leader spent time walking us through the systems, development environment and the types of work handled by the CIT Team. Instead of only learning through documentation, we were also given practical assignments, which helped me understand how the system actually works.

We also had knowledge-sharing sessions with senior developers from the CIT Team in Korea. They explained the existing systems, development processes and some of the business logic behind them.

What I appreciated was that we could ask very specific questions during those sessions. When you are working with a large system that has been developed over many years, understanding why certain logic exists is often just as important as understanding the code itself.

My work has mainly involved full-stack development and system maintenance. One of my main responsibilities has been developing new functions based on business requirements. For example, I recently worked on integrating the registration process for a newly introduced educational product into an existing customer registration system.

That involved more than just adding a new screen. I had to work with the existing business logic, backend services, APIs and database tables while making sure the new functionality did not affect existing products. I have also developed management screens that allow internal users to view and manage customer-related information.

Throughout the development process, there is quite a lot of communication with senior developers and business users. We need to confirm that our interpretation of the requirement is correct before development, and then test the different scenarios after implementation.

In addition to development work, I handle HELP tickets, which can involve carrying out controlled data corrections when necessary. Apart from the internal systems, I have also worked on the Woongjin Asia website, including development and maintenance work to make sure the website continues to support the company's business activities.

From my experience so far, I would describe the working environment as supportive, but also one where junior developers are given real responsibility.

Even as a fresh graduate, I have been assigned actual development tasks that are eventually used in real systems. There is guidance and code review from senior developers, but at the same time, we are encouraged to investigate problems ourselves and understand the logic behind what we are working on.

Within the CIT Team, communication is quite open. If someone encounters a problem, we usually discuss it together rather than leaving that person to struggle with it alone. There is also a strong habit of sharing knowledge.

The CIT Team mainly focuses on software development, system maintenance and IT support for systems used within the Woongjin Group.

At the moment, we work closely with development teams in Korea and contribute to systems that support different business operations. In my case, most of my current work is related to systems used by Woongjin ThinkBig's education business.

Our work can include developing new features, maintaining existing functions, investigating issues and making sure that system changes are properly tested before they are released. The team also plays a role in strengthening development capability in Malaysia.

WRMS is one of Woongjin's business solutions, particularly in the rental-management area, but the scope of IT development within Woongjin is much broader than WRMS alone.

My current responsibilities are mainly related to systems supporting Woongjin ThinkBig rather than WRMS directly. These systems support different parts of the education business, including customer registration, product orders, teacher assignment, learning-related processes and customer management.

Although the business domains are different, the type of work is quite similar in many ways. A big part of the work is also understanding how different parts of a system are connected. A change that looks small on the screen can sometimes affect database records, order processing, customer information or another service that depends on the same data.

One of the most challenging projects for me has been the KRS project, which I have been working on for roughly the past two months. My responsibility was mainly related to integrating the KRS registration process into an existing production system.

What made it challenging was that we were not building a completely separate application. The system already supports many products and business rules, so whenever we introduced new logic, we also had to make sure that existing registration flows continued to work correctly.

The work also involved APIs, database tables and existing backend services. Because of that, I had to understand how information moved through different parts of the system instead of only focusing on one piece of code.

It was challenging, but it has also been one of the most meaningful projects for me because it gave me much more experience in developing new functionality within a large, existing system.

One of the biggest things I have learned is that software development is not only about writing code. Communication between developers and business users is extremely important. A feature can work perfectly from a technical perspective but still be wrong if the developer has misunderstood the business requirement.

On the technical side, I have also had the opportunity to work with API development and integration, database design, existing Java services and different edge cases that may not be obvious from the initial requirement.

Working with an existing enterprise system has also taught me to think more about the impact of a change. Instead of only asking whether my own function works, I now try to consider what other parts of the system could be affected by it.

My immediate goal is to become an engineer that the team can rely on. Right now, I am still learning a lot about the systems and the business logic behind them, so I want to build enough experience to handle more complex tasks independently and understand the wider impact of the changes I make.

In the longer term, I would like to grow beyond simply implementing requirements. I want to be able to contribute more to system design, technical discussions and decisions about how a feature should be developed.

Eventually, I would also like to become someone who can guide newer developers, just as the senior developers have been helping me since I joined.

Outside work, I spend quite a lot of my time at the gym. Strength training has been one of my regular hobbies for a while, so I normally go after work a few times a week.

More recently, I have also started bouldering. I enjoy it because there is actually quite a bit of problem-solving involved. You have to look at a route, figure out how to position your body and then try different approaches until something works. It is also a nice change from sitting in front of a computer for most of the day.

One of the most memorable moments for me was our Hari Raya celebration at the office. We had colleagues from Korea joining us during the celebration, so it became a nice opportunity to introduce some Malaysian traditions and local dishes to them. It was fun seeing everyone try the food and learn a little more about the culture.

Most of our usual interactions naturally revolve around work, projects and deadlines, so having an event like that gave us a chance to talk more casually and get to know each other outside of our usual roles.

I would say "opportunity." As a fresh graduate, I initially expected that my first few months would involve a lot of observing and learning before I was given much responsibility.

Instead, I was given opportunities quite early on to work on real development tasks and eventually contribute to features used in actual business systems. There was definitely a learning curve, especially when working with systems and business logic that were completely new to me. At the same time, being given that responsibility pushed me to learn much faster.

I would tell them not to be afraid to ask questions, but also to try investigating the problem themselves first.

When you first look at some of these systems, the amount of existing code and business logic can feel overwhelming. You are not going to understand everything immediately, and that is completely normal for someone who is new to the team.

Try to understand why the system works the way it does, ask when something is unclear and do not be too afraid of making mistakes while you are learning. At the same time, take responsibility for what you develop. Test your changes properly and think about how they might affect other parts of the system.

Eventually, the things that seemed complicated at the beginning start to become familiar. And once you have gained that experience, hopefully you can pass it on and help the next junior developer who joins the team.