Intern
Interviews.

VALUENEX has been welcoming interns from across the US since 2019, and partnering with Stanford University on an internship program since July 2020.

We interviewed a few of our interns on their experience at VALUENEX, and are pleased to share their comments below!

Q: WHY DID YOU WANT TO INTERN AT VALUENEX?

I am interested in combining data science and materials science. I saw the ‘AI for Materials’ project at VALUENEX and it was a perfect choice for me to explore more possibilities in this direction. 

Q. WHAT DID YOU ACTUALLY DO DURING YOUR INTERNSHIP?    

I did a lot of projects. This program allowed us to come up with our own ideas, from proposal to implementation, as much as possible. I used the VALUENEX Radar to analyze the specific material science area. Then, based on my analysis, I did some calculations using our clients’ platform and proposed some further direction in those areas. Apart from that, I also completed some functions for our clients’ platform and participated in building generative AI solutions which was super exciting! 

Q. WHAT DID YOU LEARN DURING YOUR INTERNSHIP?  

I learned a lot about how to analyze a large amount of data, find insights and present them. I also learned a lot about collaborating with students with different majors and combining materials science with data science. 

Read more about the ‘AI for Materials’ project

Q. WHAT WAS THE MOST MEMORABLE PART OF YOUR INTERNSHIP?    

The VALUENEX internal hackathon was pretty interesting! All the members get together and brainstorm new ideas. A lot of new and fascinating ideas came up.   

Q: MESSAGE TO FUTURE VALUENEX INTERNS?  

It’s a great opportunity for those who want to explore more opportunities in their area. This internship can broaden your horizon and give you time to think more! 

Q: DO YOU HAVE ANY FINAL MESSAGES?     

It was a great memory working with everyone at VALUENEX!  

Q: WHY DID YOU WANT TO INTERN AT VALUENEX?

I was interested in exploring a career related to data science and how it is possible to visualize data. I was able to talk with Jiyoung at the Stanford Career Fair and learn more about the VALUENEX radar. The concept of the radar was extremely cool, and I wanted to learn more about how things work in this field of data visualization.

Q. WHAT DID YOU ACTUALLY DO DURING YOUR INTERNSHIP?

I did a lot of projects. Clients at VALUENEX have different businesses and different issues that need to be addressed accordingly, so a lot of my work was centered around helping the clients. This summer, I analyzed text-based data and thought about what VALUENEX could do to help a company succeed. I thought about what are some technological developments that could be possible by using academic literature. By using and processing the VALUENEX radar, I helped prepare presentations for the clients that I worked with.

Q. WHAT DID YOU LEARN DURING YOUR INTERNSHIP?

I learned a lot, but I feel that what I learned could ultimately be segmented into two or three things. The first thing was that there was a lot of math involved in analyzing text-based data. I had the chance to learn more about TF-IDF and how I could essentially improve the VALUENEX algorithm. Secondly, I was able to learn about client interaction and how that occurs in a Business-To-Business like VALUENEX. Thirdly, I was able to learn how to present data and learn about data rights. I was able to learn not just how to analyze data but also learn how to understand what the big picture is in a particular dataset.

Q. WHAT WAS THE MOST MEMORABLE PART OF YOUR INTERNSHIP?

There’s a lot of fun things that happened over this summer, but the most memorable thing was actually some work that another intern student, Ahmed, did. He was working on this project and suddenly, he came back from the weekend holding this well-developed app and how you can steer it in a cool way. The creativity of the people at VALUENEX was very unexpected and fascinated me.

Q: MESSAGE TO FUTURE VALUENEX INTERNS?

I’ll be at Stanford for another year until I graduate so if anyone has any questions, I’m happy to talk about VALUENEX. I think if anyone is interested in exploring a path apart from academia such as being a data scientist or as a data analyst, you can get some experience at VALUENEX and learn how a small to medium sized business operates in the Bay Area. The experience at VALUENEX is definitely worth it.

Q: DO YOU HAVE ANY FINAL MESSAGES?

Thank you Jiyoung and Nakamura-san, thank you everyone for this opportunity and it was fun working with everyone at VALUENEX!

Q: WHAT IS YOUR IMPRESSION OF JAPAN AND HOW DID IT CHANGE OVER YOUR INTERNSHIP? 

I already had some experience with Japan as a culture before I joined VALUENEX because I did some research in Japan for my PhD. But through VALUENEX, I was able to see a different side of Japan, not just the academic side but the side of how Japanese private enterprises work. I also really love Japanese food with their flavor and their snacks that have umami. There are some cool snacks and given that some of VALUENEX’s clients were Japanese, they sometimes bring in some extremely cool snacks. Recently, I was able to try a banana snack that tasted like banana that was very soft and very well made. Yes, the name was Tokyo Banana! It was very interesting to see aspects of Japanese culture at VALUENEX because it’s like a window into a different culture. If you want to know what a Japanese business is like, you can experience it here. The VALUENEX in the US seems to be very different from the VALUENEX in Japan in terms of business culture because the one in the USA seems like a Silicon Valley type of small company while the one in Japan feels like a bigger Japanese company. I think the experience I got was great, there were a lot of cool people that I was able to meet.

Q: WHY DID YOU WANT TO INTERN AT VALUENEX?

For me, the reason why I was attracted to VALUENEX was definitely the data visualization aspect. I really enjoyed putting all these documents and data into creating something visual and you can see the big picture rather than go through every single document. Also, I was pleasantly surprised by VALUENEX’s social connections with a lot of other companies.  

Q. WHAT DID YOU ACTUALLY DO DURING YOUR INTERNSHIP?

During my internship at VALUENEX, I used patent data to create insights for our clients. Through the projects I was assigned to, I learned how to make stories and narratives that help businesses and corporate leaders make proper decisions for their businesses.

Q. WHAT DID YOU LEARN DURING YOUR INTERNSHIP?

I was able to learn about the business aspect of a company. I learned to not just look at data and show that “this is just what it is” but you have to make it understandable and actually create a narrative that people can follow and understand.

Q. WHAT WAS THE MOST MEMORABLE PART OF YOUR INTERNSHIP?

The most memorable moments for me was when I was able to go to the Insight Café. Because I mainly work remotely, it was very nice meeting everyone in person including the CEO and the other interns.

Q: MESSAGE TO FUTURE VALUENEX INTERNS?

One thing is to not be afraid to mess up. It’s better to be proactive rather than waiting for every command which I honestly was guilty of at the beginning of my internship. You start to get more confident once you get used to things, and you’ll be able to lead stuff once you start producing insights.

Q: DO YOU HAVE ANY FINAL MESSAGES?

I can’t think of much on the spot right now, but it was a pleasure working with everyone!

Q. WHAT DID YOU ACTUALLY DO DURING YOUR INTERNSHIP?

My day-to-day task was to prepare presentations to either pitch what a potential partnership could look like to prospective clients, or deliver information based on current client needs. This process included researching the company and their business field, then using VALUENEX Radar to help that client gain new information or extract new insights, and finally, bring everything together in a presentation that concisely explains the main takeaways.

About halfway through my internship. I started working with Jerold on a project for the Radar itself. This was a stability testing project where we were trying to test the precision and accuracy of the Radar, figuring out how reproducible the results of the Radar are given a data set. This is where I brought some computer science knowledge in as I had to create an algorithm that calculated the relative distances of the documents on the Radar to see if there were significant changes when the sample size of the documents that we used increased or decreased. That was a very interesting technical project.

Q. WHAT DID YOU LEARN DURING YOUR INTERNSHIP?

One fascinating thing was that VALUENEX has such a diverse set of clients. I thought it was cool to work on multiple different projects where I would have to explore various unique domains. In many ways, you get to explore different niche fields because VALUENEX has such a diverse set of clients. On a personal level, I learned about startup culture in that there are a lot of random tasks that must be completed and people get done together. One day, when Jiyoung bought a TV to set up at the office, we spent a couple of hours assembling the TV and mounting it on a stand. Though not at all related to my general job, this was a fun activity that I got to do. This symbolizes the spirit that at a startup, there is a lot of work to be done and someone’s just got to do it, so I thought that was really cool.

Q. WHAT WAS THE MOST MEMORABLE PART OF YOUR INTERNSHIP?

VALUENEX is a big company in Japan, but the US team functions like a startup. Because of that, even as an intern, I felt like I had a significant say in how things happen at VALUENEX. Within the first couple of weeks, I was handling my own presentations. At first it seemed very daunting, but it felt very satisfying and rewarding on a personal level that Jiyoung and everyone trusted me with that opportunity. In a small group, it becomes close-knit. Whenever we were all at the office together, we went out for lunch together and enjoyed a meal for an hour of time. The most memorable part is definitely the people. Everyone I interacted with at VALUENEX was very helpful, kind, and supportive, both professionally and personally. We had a couple of happy hour events after work on Fridays, like table tennis tournaments or karaoke nights. Those kinds of memories, I will definitely remember because it was a nice fun way to spend my summer for sure.

Q: MESSAGE TO FUTURE VALUENEX INTERNS?

I think the main message I would have is that since the US division of VALUENEX is relatively small, any individual VALUENEX intern will have a significant amount of influence in the company. That should be seen as an opportunity to explore and do what you can. It's valuable to try new things and take risks in whatever projects you are assigned to and go out of your way to seek your own opportunities and projects to help the company. One thing I can speak to on a personal level is regarding the stability testing project I described earlier. I was not initially assigned that project, but I remember one day seeing Jiyoung and Jerold talking about the project on the whiteboard. I was interested in what they were doing because it seemed relevant to some of my studies. I eventually gave my input and at that point I was functionally part of the project. Jiyoung and Jerold were happy to let me contribute in my own way. My main point here is that interns will have a lot of freedom and flexibility to impact the company as much as they can. This internship is a valuable opportunity to take advantage of that.

Q. WHAT DID YOU LEARN DURING YOUR INTERNSHIP?

I learned about the tech industry and learned how to work around datasets, the Radar, presentations, answering questions, and gained business and professional acumen. Furthermore, I learned how to communicate via a virtual setting and manage my time.

Q. WHAT WAS THE MOST MEMORABLE PART OF YOUR INTERNSHIP?

I found the community at VALUENEX to be fun and enjoyable. I found my Final Sales Pitch Presentation to a VC firm the most memorable. I felt comfortable answering questions for the client even though I had Jiyoung and Nakamura-san backing me up.

Q: MESSAGE TO FUTURE VALUENEX INTERNS?

I would say don’t be afraid to use the Radar to explore. The Radar is a cool piece of tech and we’ve only hit the tip of the iceberg regarding its capabilities and limits. Also, don’t be afraid to ask questions. I was initially cautious however I grew more comfortable within the workspace. This opportunity is very cool because you can see business development and software development and be in on the meetings and big calls with VALUENEX.

Q: WHY DID YOU WANT TO INTERN AT VALUENEX?

I first got my feet wet in the world of data science last summer during my internship researching the spread of infectious diseases. I got familiar with a lot of data visualization packages and data processes. That’s what got me into data science and helped me figure out that this is something I want to pursue. When I was navigating career fairs, I remember looking through all the businesses, and that VALUENEX does some really cool data visualization, data analysis, data science and was really looking forward to talking with you guys—you guys were actually the reason I went to the career fair! I wanted to further my career in data science.

Q. WHAT DID YOU ACTUALLY DO DURING YOUR INTERNSHIP?

I would say I had two main tasks: on the consulting side, and on the technical side. On the consulting side: taking notes on meetings, researching M&A cases, researching litigations, and how to better understand what these companies are doing in their respective markets. And then I also used VALUENEX Radar to assist in drawing insights and creating presentations for our clients. On the technical side, I’ve been assisting on some of the algorithmic side to help draw clear and better insights for our clients. I did name normalization, scraping tools, and other analyses.

Q: MESSAGE TO FUTURE VALUENEX INTERNS?

To people who are interested in joining: if you are a bit unsure of what you want to do as a career, this is a good starting place! You get good exposure to a lot of different tasks—there's the consulting side, the business side, the startup side, web building, data science, building tools, and so much more. This is a good starting role because it’s so flexible. You have a new task and challenge every day; and then you can confirm your current interests as well as explore new ones.

To current interns: definitely be patient, since the radar can be really frustrating and daunting to learn. But you will conquer it and be using it in no time. You’ll also be helping move this company further into the US market, so always think about different benefits and uses for the tools.

Q: WHY DID YOU WANT TO INTERN AT VALUENEX?

I had been interested in different fields. I had mostly been interested in e-commerce in most of my previous internships, and I had always been interested in consulting and saw that VALUENEX was really interesting, since it is such a data-driven company. When I was interviewing, they were very warm and very sweet, and I thought it would be a good place to work.

Q. WHAT DID YOU ACTUALLY DO DURING YOUR INTERNSHIP?

I primarily worked on several different projects: I worked on name normalization, a project motivated by the fact that when you look at a data set, there may be many different ways a company can be named. So, I helped make datasets cleaner and much more easily consumable. I also worked on a project where I was trying to understand what patent opportunities there were for a certain company. I also worked on smaller tasks like improving an algorithm, helping synthesize the different patents, and trying to better understand and create stories out of them.

Q. WHAT DID YOU LEARN DURING YOUR INTERNSHIP?

I learned more about how consulting works. Since I worked mostly in e-commerce, I didn’t have much experience with clients so it was interesting to see how a client-facing company functioned. I also didn’t have a strong background in patent data, so it was really interesting to see and understand VALUENEX Radar. In general, I was able to play around with a lot of different functions, especially string-oriented functions, which I normally don’t get to work with, so it was really fun to work in areas I was less confident in.

Q. WHAT WAS THE MOST MEMORABLE PART OF YOUR INTERNSHIP?

I think I was really impressed with some of the work and projects done, and how complex they were. It was slightly difficult since my internship was a remote internship, but it was really helpful to have such a supportive and communicative team.

Q: MESSAGE TO FUTURE VALUENEX INTERNS?

I think VALUENEX is a very valuable experience. I was able to try a lot of different things, and I would recommend that if there is a project you are curious about or interested in, then you should always reach out about it! And don’t be afraid to ask for help! I had a lot of check-ins when I was confused or needed help on a task, and everyone I asked was really helpful in providing me with guidance or bringing others along to give guidance. So, seek help and ask for guidance when you need it!

Q: WHY DID YOU WANT TO INTERN AT VALUENEX?

One of the reasons I wanted to intern at VALUENEX was because of the career fair. I had heard from a number of companies, and among them, VALUENEX was one of the companies that really interested me. I have a background in different fields: history and computer science. Most of the companies I’ve talked to showed interest in computer science, but completely ignored my history background. Then there were others who only looked at my finance background. I think the future is where these two things — history and computer science — intersect. I think the most valuable skill set is developed there, and I knew I could get that skill set by interning at VALUENEX.

Q. WHAT DID YOU ACTUALLY DO DURING YOUR INTERNSHIP?

Since I'm an intern, I get to do a lot of things, and since there are a lot of people who need support at the US Office, I got to help with whatever they needed help on. Also, I think it's up to you to decide what to do with your internship. In my case, I had an idea to do something with insurance companies, and for the next few months, I think my main job will be to do projects on the platform with insurance companies.

Q. WHAT DID YOU LEARN DURING YOUR INTERNSHIP?

I learned a lot of things. First of all, I really enjoyed using the platform. It made me think more about natural language processing and text processing. I also learned a lot about how the platform works in practice. In the insurance company project, I learned to think critically and in very creative ways, and I was able to apply these skills to my other work.

Q. WHAT WAS THE MOST MEMORABLE PART OF YOUR INTERNSHIP?

Generally, I like that you can come up with the idea for yourself and actually try it out, and sometimes your ideas can be part of the big picture. I think it's really great to be able to make something happen with your own ideas, while at the same time being exposed to so many other projects that are going on. I am very grateful for the variety of work experiences during my internship.

Q: WHY DID YOU WANT TO INTERN AT VALUENEX?

I was very interested in the approach VALUENEX was using. At a university career fair, I saw the VALUENEX radar listed in a brochure and thought it was very compelling. It was something I hadn't thought of-- how to use clusters and various other data to generate insights from the radar. I had never encountered anything like it. I listened to a data analyst at VALUENEX talk about what they do, and I found VALUENEX’s approach to be very interesting. I ended up applying for the internship because I wanted to gain experience in data analysis.

Q. WHAT DID YOU ACTUALLY DO DURING YOUR INTERNSHIP?

It has only been two months, but I have taken part in many different projects. As a Data Analyst Intern, my job was to clean up the data, generate insights, and bring innovative solutions to clients. For example, when we worked on a project for a consumer electronics company, we were able to get information from reviews and used radar data to help us find unexpected solutions. The projects range in their applications, one project involved investigating future ecological scenarios for industry impact, while another project involved cleaning data and discovering insights on product regulations.
In the project we are working on now, the client is interested in using VALUENEXRadar to forecast the future of a particular company. The projects and tasks that I am involved in are very diverse and the skills required for each project are different, so I use the knowledge I have to help.

Q. WHAT DID YOU LEARN DURING YOUR INTERNSHIP?

I've learned a variety of technical skills in my courses, but the data provided in these courses was always perfect and there were always ways to produce insights. However, at VALUENEX, I had to deal with real-life data. I realized that data is often not as clean as it should be. During my internship, I learned a lot about collecting, cleaning, and analyzing data from a variety of sources so we could gather insights from the radar. It was great to gain a lot of experience through my work with real clients.

Q. WHAT WAS THE MOST MEMORABLE PART OF YOUR INTERNSHIP?

I was really impressed with how helpful everyone was and how collaborative each project was. In some of the companies I've worked for before, each person usually just attended to their own project. However, at VALUENEX, we were always discussing other projects and helping each other out, even if we were working on our own projects. We also shared our thoughts and discussed our perspectives on how to approach different problems as a team at VALUENEX. I wasn't expecting to intern in an environment that’s communicative, so I was really impressed.

Q: MESSAGE TO FUTURE VALUENEX INTERNS?

VALUENEX is a great place to gain a lot of hands-on knowledge, process data, and generate insights from data. You'll learn what it takes to solve the difficult problems that are happening in the real world and bring your own insights to the table. I think it's a great place to grow and learn. I think that all future interns will really enjoy this process.

Q: WHY DID YOU WANT TO INTERN AT VALUENEX?

I have a quirky history with data science. I am a data scientist by practice, but I’ve worked for a professional basketball team in the past. I decided that I wanted to do something different this time, and I heard about VALUENEX at a career fair at my university. I learned that the company is headquartered in Tokyo, and thought, “That's cool!” since I wanted to potentially work in Tokyo.   

One of the employees who attended the career fair told me about VALUENEX Radar, and that the main internship would be in consulting. I thought that if I interned here, I would be able to learn about the different fields in consulting and use my data analysis skills to learn about data science.

As a matter of fact, I'm still a student, so I'm trying to figure out what I want to do in the future and what kind of career I want to have. Many of my classmates will follow the traditional tech route, but I think what VALUENEX has to offer in an internship is very unique. I already have a basic knowledge of data science, but I wanted to use the skills I had in a way that would allow me to learn something new. So, this internship was exactly what I was looking for.