Myeong-Jo Son

South-Korean Myeong-Jo Son, also known as M.J at NAPA, works as a Senior Software Developer developing NAPA Designer and concentrating mainly on 3D model-based approval topics.

Coming from a Classification Society background, Myeong-Jo had understood earlier in his career that there is more to shipping than just optimal and effective shipbuilding. Through that he got interested in the lifecycle of a ship and how utilization of big data, 3d model/digital twin, cloud environment, etc., could be helpful in that. Getting to know NAPA products at a maritime industry conference, “I was impressed how advanced NAPA was progressing in this area,” says M.J.

“NAPA is very well-known both as a product and a company in shipbuilding industry globally, and continuously evolving to expand its technical capabilities to cover the demands in ship operations.”

Myeong-Jo Son, Senior Software Developer

When M.J relocated to NAPA in Helsinki, Finland, to assume his job role as a Senior Software Developer, it meant a big change for him and his family. It was challenging to squeeze our life into a container and wait for it to arrive, but we enjoyed that experience and decided to take it as a shorter version of a road trip, M.J recalls. After arriving in Finland, everything was smooth, and since “NAPA’s People Team arranged the relocation expertise for us, we could soft-land to the unknown country.”

M.J appreciates NAPA’s flexible way of working and the parental leave system of Finland and recommends this as a very family-friendly environment to others. In discussing the attributes related to a person who would do particularly well in his work environment, M.J explains his views as, “Here the work culture requires some sort of self-oriented and self-motivated mindset, which is quite different from the boss-directing work cultures. NAPA is a self-managed company, where everyone participates and can use their voice on various decisions to drive the company in the right direction.

“NAPA is something like organic: it lives, it changes, it thinks, and it acts, and all these are consequences of coordination and cooperation by Naparians, themselves, as a self-managed company.”

Among the biggest motivators for M.J in his work is that he is contributing to making the NAPA product users’ everyday work easier, quicker, and simpler, thus improving their contribution to human and marine safety and eco-friendliness. On the personal side, he has most enjoyed the experiences related to his new country’s nature. He identifies witnessing the aurora borealis and the trip to Lapland with his family as the highlights of his new life so far.