I received a question from an engineer asking 「最初に就職する会社は自社開発 or 受託開発どちらが良いですか？」 (“Which is better for the first company to join: in-house development or contract development?”), so I’ll share my personal perspective.

In-house Development or Contract Development

Question

I'd like to consult with you. When it comes to getting a job, there are in-house and contract development options. Based on your experience, are there any particular environments where you think it's better to gain certain experiences?

I think the advantage of in-house development is being able to add features while incorporating operations and user feedback. For contract development, I think the advantages are being able to start development from scratch and being able to challenge various technologies with each project.

If you have any advice, I’d like to hear it.

Answer

I think it depends on what kind of engineer you want to become in the future, but I personally planned to become independent eventually since my university days.

Given that background, my career path was: 1st company - contract development, 2nd company - in-house service company, 3rd - startup. I thought it was good that contract development allowed me to learn various services and technologies comprehensively while working.

So if you don’t have a specific “I want to work on this service or business” at this stage, I think starting with a contract development company would be good.

That’s all from the Gemba, where I believe starting with a contract development company to gain engineering experience is a good approach.