Accepted for Upstage AI DevOps Position 👏🏻

At LINE, there were people who gave me negative emotions and experiences, but thankfully, there were also many who provided positive ones. I should make sure to personally thank those who gave me positive experiences before I leave. And to those who gave me negative energy, I should also be grateful — because ultimately, they motivated me to change jobs and served as great examples of what not to do.

Hansol, Hyunmin, Japan training cohort (Sunwoo, Jiin, Soi, Hyunguk), Oracle team, Voom development team, Dongui. Shinken, Kkudeok. I should especially treat Sunwoo to a meal.

I've finally succeeded in changing jobs ⭐️👏🏻 And to one of the most promising AI startups in Korea — a company called Upstage. On top of that, it's a company led by Sung Kim, someone I truly respect, which gives me even more confidence that this is a great choice. It's not as large a corporation as LINE, so there are some shortcomings in terms of stability. But as the saying goes, "high risk, high return," and I don't think many startups can offer better conditions than this. Let's work hard. The compensation negotiation also wrapped up nicely, so I'm really excited.

The decision to resign was agonizing, and the process of changing jobs was rough, but on the other hand, I'm overwhelmed with happiness at joining such a great company — one that feels almost too good for me. The things I studied while preparing for interviews and the interview experiences themselves have had a really positive impact on me. Especially Runbear, May-I,

Mindset

This is a truly important turning point in my life. Though I'm just one employee, I want to make a positive impact on the company, help it grow, and contribute to the company's motto of "Making AI beneficial" — helping people use AI easily and for good.

Small steps, but let's start building the pyramid from now on

Because of the negative image of pyramids from the Bible, I used to think negatively about the idea of accumulating knowledge. But if you start fresh every time, there's no progress. There are no shortcuts in learning — building step by step on what you've already learned is the fastest path. That said, a pyramid can't stand firm forever, and it shouldn't become a life goal that turns into an idol.

• Faith Pyramid

  This is an area I've neglected for too long. It's a pyramid infused with the hopes of my mom and family.

• Relationship Pyramid

  Trust isn't built overnight. That's exactly why you need to put in extra effort. Be someone who lightens the mood with humor, shows respect through thoughtful questions, and extends a hand during tough times.

• Language Pyramid

  One thing I've noticed while trying to learn English and Japanese is that it always feels brand new each time. I lacked continuity — I should have reviewed what I learned the day before and built upon it by connecting new material. This pyramid received a lot of time investment but yielded the least efficiency. I've also come to realize how important language is through working, navigating social life, and being in a company. Language plays a huge role in enhancing my career and my value. Kim Youngjun from the Imon Observability team, whose name is similar to mine, writes technical documents in English at a near-native level. Khan-san is Arab yet remarkably fluent in Japanese, and other leaders I've met — Jongkyun-san, Younghee-san — also seem to have very high linguistic intelligence. Junghoon from the Redis team also learned Japanese faster than anyone and is great at Korean too. Showing that you excel at one thing creates the expectation that you can quickly learn other things too, and they actually do excel at other things. Just as I learned Korean well — and writing in Korean was hard at first but my speaking and writing improved over time — let's steadily build up English and Japanese too. Speaking also needs practice. I've realized that rather than saying whatever comes to mind, the thoughts that were processed while walking — thoughts I'd already had and refined — come out confidently. Rather than simply practicing speaking, I think it's necessary to regularly organize, refine, and structure your thoughts. You can pretend to be a good person for a day or two, but after a week, a month, a year, everything shows. If you normally carry good thoughts and righteous values, good words will naturally come from your mouth.

• Database Pyramid

  Databases are an area where I have higher expectations for myself compared to others. My first career started in a database organization, and the HBase I worked with for 2 years and 10 months is just one of many databases. I need to continuously build knowledge in Redis, MongoDB, and MySQL as well.

• Development Pyramid

  I was never on a dedicated development team. Most of the development knowledge I have was self-taught or learned through Googling. I need to collaborate with developers to build great products, so let's learn the necessary knowledge. The less you know, the more you struggle; the more you know, the better products you can build and the better relationships you can forge through the right approach. To that end, let's start with Kim Younghwan's Spring lectures, AWS Certificate, and CKAD to build a feel for development.

• AI Pyramid

  I want to build an AI table tennis referee. And being at the forefront of AI companies, I believe I need the capability to follow up on the rapidly changing AI trends and understand what the cutting-edge technology is. Let's solidify my understanding of fine-tuning concepts, Langchain, Langgraph, LLM papers, segmentation, and OCR.

• Table Tennis / Badminton Pyramid

  This is the only pyramid where I can confidently say I'm good at something. And it's something where I've reached the highest level. In the case of VR table tennis, it's a game that taught me many lessons. What happens when you obsess only over scores (results)? It showed me that there are limits if you rely on luck and learn only tricks without building fundamental skills. The lower the tier, the more you see people losing their pride, losing their manners, and not giving their best for every point. And generally, if someone's ELO is high, there's a reason for it. Many have steep growth curves. There are many who give great feedback, and after matches, there are kind people who take the effort to leave warm, grateful messages.

• Health / Appearance Pyramid

  Having been in a remote environment for a long time, I'd lost sight of the importance of appearance. Most people tend to judge others by first impressions, and honestly, I'm the same — if abilities are equal, I'm drawn to someone who looks better. It's also important to give a pleasant feeling when working together. Now that I'll be meeting many clients, maintaining my appearance has become even more important for my position. Not to intimidate others, but at least to ensure my development capabilities aren't undervalued because of my appearance. Let's dress as neatly as possible. Let's also have confidence in ourselves. It shows in your expression. Physical health, after faith, is arguably the most important element in life. If you lose your health, you lose everything.

I'm going to become a cooler, more professional person

• Someone who works diligently even when no one is watching or evaluating — just to be proud of themselves.
• Someone who considers others' evaluations as shadows and doesn't waver easily.
• Someone who knows their own value, believes in it, acts on it, and keeps growing.
• Someone who builds their pyramids a little each day.
• Someone who knows it's hard but challenges themselves and expands their comfort zone.
• Someone who doesn't lose their humanity and positively impacts those around them — an altruistic person.
• Someone who doesn't obsess over money and willingly invests in values they believe are right.
• Someone who uses ChatGPT well but can also evaluate GPT's answers and apply them selectively.
• Someone who thinks about teamwork and injects positive energy into the group.
• Someone who is honest and transparent.
• Someone who is healthy both externally and internally. (Someone who manages themselves well)
• Someone who works like a pro.
  • "Software Engineering at Google."
  • Moments at LINE where I felt someone was truly professional. (Preparing questions in advance)
  • Taking ownership
  • Someone who structures their words before delivering them
  • Anti-patterns — things I told myself I'd never do
    • Pretending to know when you don't
    • Being stubborn
    • Not writing test cases
    • Writing sloppy commit messages
    • Writing sloppy technical documents
    • Giving feedback just to criticize
    • Blaming others, making excuses, being arrogant
    • Knowing things only superficially
    • Jumping to conclusions
    • Growing alone
    • Focusing only on results
    • Playing politics
    • Not putting effort into communication
    • Not growing and hoping for luck
    • Rationalizing to protect what's mine
    • Immediately pointing out flaws when you see them
    • Passing things off to others
    • Not pandering to popularity

Things to do tomorrow

• Go to church
• Study Spring
• Study AWS
• Plan the 11K Busan trip (1 night, 2 days)
• Study Kafka
• Study English