“Five of Us Walked In. One Engineer Overwhelmed Us.” — The Shock of Meeting World-Class Engineers in London

Back When I Still Had Confidence

Whoa! My entire “map of what an engineer should be” was completely rewritten in London.

It was my eighth year as a working professional.
By then, I had already gained solid experience building systems.

Java 4.
At the time, it was considered cutting-edge technology, and I had been involved in managing advanced enterprise systems.
I had worked on multiple domestic projects in Japan, and little by little, my confidence as an engineer had grown.

“Working together with overseas system engineers.”

Just hearing that excited me.
And the location was London — one of the world’s financial technology centers.

Before the training began, I thoroughly studied massive amounts of documentation.
System architecture.
Operational design.
Failure handling flows.

But something immediately surprised me.

“How can such a specialized system have documentation this detailed?”

The system itself was extremely unique.
It was heavily customized and built internally.

Normally, a system like that would become highly dependent on specific individuals.
But the reality was the complete opposite.

The manuals were unbelievably well organized.

They were structured almost like software itself.

“Make it understandable for anyone.”

That philosophy was embedded throughout the entire documentation.

In Japan, I often encountered documents that only experts could understand.
But London was different.

They were seriously pursuing “systems that do not depend on individuals.”

That made me stop and think.

People often say Japan is “careful” and “detail-oriented.”
But is that really true?

The Strange Scene Inside London’s Financial Operations Center

The next shock came when we visited the actual operations site.

Nine giant monitors stacked together.
One operator was monitoring the entire system alone.

And that same person was also giving explanations.

High-level overview.
Technical details.
Operational design.
Failure response philosophy.

The scope of knowledge was unbelievably broad.

There were more than five of us on our side.
Yet on their side, it was practically just one person.

“What…?”

Honestly, I couldn’t process it at first.

In Japan, roles are usually divided carefully:

Infrastructure engineer.
Database engineer.
Operations engineer.
Application engineer.

Everything tends to be segmented.

But in London, one engineer deeply understood everything across the system.

Of course, there was a team behind the scenes.
But the range that one person could explain on the spot was overwhelming.

Is This What It Means to Compete Globally?

At that moment, I felt something for the first time.

“Have Japanese engineers become too optimized for specialization?”

Of course, Japanese quality is extremely high.
People are careful.
Review culture is strong.

But at the same time, systems can easily become structured like this:

“I only understand my own area.”

The engineers I met in London were different.

Business understanding.
System understanding.
Operational understanding.
Customer understanding.

They crossed all boundaries.

And what shocked me even more was this:

They worked far less overtime.

“Entrust broader responsibility to highly capable people.”

Because of that, decision-making was faster.
Meetings were shorter.
Responsibilities were clearer.

In Japan:

“Increase the number of people to reduce risk.”

Overseas:

“Keep it simple with highly capable individuals.”

That difference hit me hard.

Were They Superheroes? Or Was It the Culture?

At that time, I seriously wondered:

“Are London financial system engineers basically superheroes?”

But now, looking back, I think it was something deeper.

It wasn’t just about individual talent.

Training.
Ownership.
System design philosophy.
Documentation culture.
Delegation.

The entire organizational structure was different.

In Japan, the priority often becomes:

“Do not fail.”

Overseas, the priority seemed to be:

“Be able to operate independently.”

Of course, neither approach is absolutely right or wrong.

But one thing is certain:

That experience in London changed my life as an engineer.

For the first time, I could objectively understand:

“What I can do.”

And also:

“What I still cannot do.”

And that realization changed everything.

The world is huge.
But it is absolutely worth challenging.

I can do this! I will take the first step tomorrow.