My Rakuten Experience: Loraine
Loraine is an internal communications specialist for Rakuten’s internal communications team.
Current role
Rakuten Group boasts over 70 services worldwide and diverse workforce made up of employees from more than 70 countries and regions. The Internal Communications Section has a significant role in delivering relevant news and information from the company to employees in a timely and impactful way.
Rakuten News Network (RNN) is a unique internal media team that broadcasts videos of Rakuten Group news and hot topics to all Rakuten employees. I am in charge of corresponding with Rakuten Mobile and the Asia-Pacific region as an overall producer of video content, with responsibilities ranging from planning to conducting interviews, filming and directing edits until the video’s release.
Why Rakuten?
I was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Canada. I studied Japanese since my first year of high school and once I graduated from university in Canada, I came to Japan as an Assistant Language Teacher for elementary and junior high schools. After that, I became a translator in a company. It was a quiet job translating alone in a back office, but then I had the opportunity to be involved in an IPO and I realized how much fun it was to work together with a lot of other people. This made me want to pursue a job in which I would be able to work with people and be able to speak for myself, so in 2016 I decided to join Rakuten.
Working at RNN, we never do the same thing twice! There is always something new happening and new people to meet. It is a global environment in which I can utilize my language skills, which is a great fit for me. I am proud to have a job that empowers me to uncover gems from within the Rakuten Group and share them with my colleagues around the world.
Skill improvements
I learned about video production from scratch when I started at Rakuten. Now, I am able to produce videos to the level required thanks to patient instruction from my team. On a day-to-day basis, my responsibilities range from searching out topics from my areas of correspondence, coming up with appealing angles for news stories, making production arrangements, conducting interviews and filming. When the final video is broadcast after supervising the entire editing process, including translation, the sense of achievement I feel is tremendous.
The videos I produce sometimes lead to inquires about recruitment and the company in general. During the opening of the new Rakuten India office in Bangalore, India, I became a reporter and made a video to present about the new offices. I heard that new hires watch this video when they join the company, and I am proud to contribute to the company in this way.
What is so good about working at Rakuten?
People who work at Rakuten are very good communicators and they work smart and work fast. Working with them is stimulating and synergies are generated all the time. Diversity is progressing in every part of the company, which makes it easy for people of all nationalities to fit into the company culture. The scope of Rakuten’s business is also very wide, so there are a lot of different roles within the company. I value the entrepreneurial spirit and flexibility here at Rakuten, and there are plenty of opportunities to be able to choose a team that is a good fit for yourself and to test your own abilities.
As an internal communications specialist, it is also a thrill to be present for historic Rakuten moments like Rakuten Optimism* and new service launches.
What are your future goals?
I hope to make videos that help global recruits with their journey to understand Rakuten by smoothly communicating the mission of the company.
What do you do in your time off?
Solo karaoke! Some weekends, I will spend five hours singing. I am studying Korean, so I have been singing a lot of Korean songs lately.
*Rakuten Optimism: Rakuten’s biggest business conference event, bringing together a wide variety of business leaders from Japan and around the world.
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