Multiple Skills? Idea Synthesis of Web Development with Other Fields

Ryo Fujiwara
Le Wagon Tokyo
Published in
4 min readFeb 6, 2021

--

It’s the first weekend of February 2021. Nothing special, but for me, it actually means something because every year since the mid-1980s, my high school music program hosts non-competitive Jazz Festival, inviting many high school jazz bands from across the state of Illinois, and even across United Sates to perform and be critiqued by professional jazz musicians and watch a professional jazz band play in the night (such as Gordon Goodwin Big Phat Band, Count Basie Orchestra, and Woody Herman Orchestra, just to name a few). And from 1999, it has been broadcasted on both internationally on web — when it was still on broadband and on 40-some second satellite delay, and locally onChicagoland TV station.

2019 New Trier Jazz Festival featuring Count Basie Orchestra in Winnetka, Illinois, USA (Hosted on every first Saturday in February)

I always remind myself of this annual event to keep on coding and create web products.

I have acquired several skills in my career and in my lifetime.

I am not trying to be braggadocios with my skills — but all have common thread as I have created “art” in some sort of capacity (broadcast arts, culinary arts — specifically sushi, creating websites/apps), with the foundation coming from the love of composing and creating “musical arts”. I still have passion to compose jazz big band music, as I initially attended college to become a jazz composer. (Ended up majoring in broadcast arts and minoring in jazz).

This is how I set my own room.

My current job title is UI/UX designer, but the company that I work at allows me to do UI/UX designs, both front-and the back-end coding, and also produce videos/webinars for some projects.

That’s some load for one person! Phew! 😅

Yes, the jazz program gave me the love to create “art” of all sorts, and whom I admired A LOT in my high school and still do, just happens to wear many hats and work at Facebook as a CPO and as a right hand man to Mark Zuckerberg, is an accomplished jazz pianist. If I can be as half as good as he is in being multi-talented, I’d be okay.

In other words (from a couple of speeches from TED Talks), I am likely to be a multi-potentialite.

The purpose of writing this is not to dive into what being a multi-potentialite is.

I’m writing this because attending Le Wagon Tokyo coding bootcamp let me use all these skills come to fruition and let me see a vision that I have going forward with my career.

I worked at Rakuten for a few months as a UI/UX designer, but I never got the motivation to be a UI/UX designer full time, though there was one another issue that made me leave the company, as I do better in a smaller setting, preferably at most 20 people in office, and in and out of office to do work, something that I had experience working in the TV industry from shooting in studios to filming in locations.

My current company allows me to go to clients places, do partial remote work, and do what I wrote above. Even as my time as a sushi chef, I was able to work in the office as well — mainly to help create websites and be part of Public Relations and Planning division, so I’m used to not having my own desk or sitting there all the time.

So how did Le Wagon Tokyo coding bootcamp or becoming a “slash” web-developer in addition to my prior career help my career?

I gained web design certifications in 2014, but knowing HTML, CSS, and basic JavaScript and jQuery felt outdated and I needed to know more about creating web products/pages in using other languages, like React and Vue in addition to back-end languages. I tried both React and Vue before attending LeWagon, but I had no luck in going forward.

It may have taken almost two years, but I’m now getting hang of the back-end with Ruby, PHP (twig), and more comfortable with front-end, mainly Vue.js.

Though my idea for Demo Day was not chosen, the 5th week was definitely a turning point in the bootcamp. Product Pitch, and creating web product…that seemed to click with my experience in marketing/planning, and broadcast.

Le Wagon strengthened my passion to create web product, from planning, product design, coding, etc.

I’m likely stop with job search after my current job, and get more serious with taking the risk and going ahead with my startup, which is similar to what my high school jazz program is doing annually every February (virtually this year because of COVID).

(Thank God, me playing doesn’t exist anywhere on Internet, but I remember sitting in front row with fellow band mates during this night concert by this professional band)

John Fedchock — trombonist (standing on the left) and his Big Band playing on 2002 New Trier Jazz Fest in February 2002

Some of us do not have a true calling to what we can call as a career, and probably will be working as an entrepreneur, a freelance, or getting called by project to make a living.

But with the landscape of web industry and because we rely on our smartphones and computer daily more than ever, especially during these difficult times, it’s never too late to learn coding from Le Wagon Tokyo and combining them with the passion(s) that one may have, if one of the strengths is idea synthesis, being able to create a product from combining two or more different fields.

--

--

Ryo Fujiwara
Le Wagon Tokyo

Formerly sushi chef, broadcast creator/director, mainly UI/UX designer