Bridge engineers are an integral part of offshore development. It is also a strong ally who interacts with overseas companies on behalf of Japanese companies. In this article, I thoroughly explained how to become a bridge engineer, the roles and skills required, and the attractiveness of work.
table of contents
- 1. What is a bridge engineer (bridge SE)?
- 2. What is the work of a bridge engineer?
- 3. Skills required of bridge engineers
- 4. Rewarding the bridge engineer
- 5. The image of a person required of a bridge engineer
- 6. To become a bridge engineer
- 7. Summary
1. What is a bridge engineer (bridge SE)?
Bridge engineers play a major role in the field of offshore development. The competence of a bridge engineer can be said to be the key to the success or failure of an offshore development project.
A bridge engineer is a person who acts as a bridge between an overseas company and a Japanese company, and an engineer who gives instructions and manages the overseas company on behalf of the Japanese company . Sometimes abbreviated as BrSE. Often compared to a system engineer (SE), the work of a bridge engineer is more extensive.
1.1 What is offshore development where bridge engineers play an active role?
To understand what a bridge engineer does, you first need to know what offshore development is.
Offshore development means that a Japanese company asks an overseas company for development . By the way, offshore is an English word that means offshore.
System development sites in Japan have various problems. Especially big is that there are not enough engineers and labor costs are high. The solution to these problems is offshore development, which involves low labor costs and a large number of human resources overseas.
On the other hand, in a similar language, a company in a big city in Japan requesting development to a rural area is called near shore .
1.2 What is the role of a bridge engineer?
The bridge engineer goes between Japanese and overseas companies and coordinates both .
At the same time as communicating the instructions and system specifications of the Japanese company without fail, we also convey the progress and issues of the overseas company to the Japanese side. If necessary, we may also provide technical guidance to local engineers.
In other words, it’s like taking on the mentor of a project manager, a system engineer, and developers at the same time.
2. What is the work of a bridge engineer?
In the entire system development, the offshore development is mainly requested in the development / testing phase. Therefore, the basis of the work of the bridge engineer is to follow the development and testing so that they proceed without any problems.
2.1 Explanation of how to work and how to proceed
Normally, when a project is launched, a project implementation guideline is created. In this guideline, the escalation route when a problem occurs, the meeting body (holding cycle and attendees), the method of task management, etc. are written. Each stakeholder (interested party) will proceed with the project while observing it.
The same is true for offshore development, but the bridge engineer further understands the culture and characteristics of the partner country, creates and develops the procedure, and conveys it to the members.
2.2 Explanation of project plan / design document
Give your project schedule and milestones and give details of what to do by when.
Show the actual design document and decide whether the overseas company can understand it, and if there is something that you cannot understand, how to improve it.
2.3 Schedule management such as confirmation of progress and deliveries
Check the plan and actual results to see if the project is proceeding without problems, and if there are any problems, we will take corrective action. Quality control, such as looking at deliverables to see if there are any quality issues, is also an important task for bridge engineers.
2.4 Business report / consultation to Japanese companies
We will report the progress, quality, and issues that have occurred to the Japanese company that requested it.
Depending on the content, we may consult with a Japanese company, or conversely, we may convey instructions and requests from a Japanese company to an overseas company. It’s a “bridge” job around here.
3. Skills required of bridge engineers
So far, I’ve seen what offshore development is and what a bridge engineer does. Now let’s see what skills a bridge engineer needs to get the job done.
3.1 High language ability-English is essential
As long as you work with an overseas company, English is essential.
Bridge engineers work with companies in different countries. Different countries speak different languages, but English is still a universal language. Many countries have English as their official language as well as their mother tongue. As long as you can speak English, you don’t have to learn many languages.
3.2 Communication skills
Communication skills are important for bridge engineers.
It is necessary to convey instructions to engineers from different countries and cultures to understand them so that project development can proceed smoothly. In some cases, we may listen to on-site issues by focusing on the listener.
No matter how good your language skills are and how you can give accurate instructions, if you have poor communication skills, you will become a literal “bridge” person.
3.3 IT technical skills
Bridge engineers naturally require engineer skills.
Not to mention system development skills. Understanding the specifications and level-to-level explanations for engineers’ programming skills can only be achieved with extensive development experience.
Test skills are also important. You need the technology to efficiently test and find bugs, or the insight to see what potential defects are from the test results that come from the field.
4. Rewarding the bridge engineer
Although bridge engineers are called “engineers,” they work as SEs, programmers, and even PLs and PMs. Bring together a large number of development members and stakeholders to make the project a success .
On the other hand, the wide range of work means that the problems to be solved are also wide. Not only the lack of development ability of engineers, but also problems related to development such as communication problems with local engineers, budget and progress, etc. will be taken care of at once.
That’s why the joy of a successful project while solving a problem is so great. Not only is the success itself happy, but the moment when you feel the growth of the engineers who came with you is also the best.
5. The image of a person required of a bridge engineer
Bridge engineers work with a large number of development members and stakeholders. Therefore, communication skills are important, but you also need to be a person who is easy to talk to . It does not work for people who respond bureaucratically or from the top.
When a problem occurs and the cause is sought, the cause can be deep-rooted and widespread. In such a case, the bridge engineer will actively work to solve the problem. Therefore , it is necessary to have the ability to act and a sense of responsibility .
As long as I interact with foreigners before being an overseas engineer, I may not be able to communicate with “compassion” and “breathing aun” like Japanese people, and there may be a culture unique to that country that is not familiar to Japan. .. Still, the project must go smoothly.
Therefore, it is necessary not only to have high language skills but also to have a deep understanding of foreign cultures. People from overseas sometimes work as bridge engineers in the country where they were born and raised.
6. To become a bridge engineer
To become a bridge engineer, work experience is more important than qualification. It can be seen from the fact that many bridge engineers have stepped up from developers and SEs. Therefore, first of all, gaining development experience and management experience as described later is the royal road to becoming a bridge engineer.
6.1 Gain practical experience in system development
Work experience is commonplace but important for bridge engineers. That is also where I want a general experience from upstream to downstream of system development.
More specifically, it requires experience in designing functions and specifications based on requirement definitions, programming and testing, and management (progress management, issue management, budget management, etc.).
6.2 Obtain a Project Management (PMP) qualification
Do you know the qualification of Project Management Professional (PMP)?
It is conducted for the purpose of measuring the candidate’s experience, education, and knowledge regarding project management and confirming it as a professional.
Source: Project Management Institute Japan
Obtaining this qualification proves that you have knowledge of project management. Moreover, since this qualification is an international qualification, it is the strongest weapon for bridge engineers on the world stage.
If you want to become a bridge engineer, please consider getting this qualification.
6.3 Improve your language skills
Of course, English proficiency is essential for bridge engineers. Even countries with less widely used local languages may recognize English as their official language. Even if this is not the case, companies that work overseas will naturally adopt English, which is widely used in the world.
Both companies doing business do not speak English as their official language, which means that even Japanese companies and companies in countries that use Chinese as their official language may communicate in English.
From the above, it goes without saying that language skills, especially English, are important.
7. Summary
IT engineers have different career paths. From programmers and testers to SE, then to PM and PL.
If you are interested in working abroad, have confidence in your language, or if you are a returnee from a foreign country and want to be a bridge between the country you grew up in and Japan, then you should definitely choose a bridge engineer. Add it to one of your career path options.
