Crystal’s story didn’t start in a computer science lab. She earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Japanese, and by every expectation, her path was supposed to be simple: a quiet job in a Japanese company doing HR or general administration. But life had other plans.
Her first job after graduation was with an American company, supporting Japanese clients with IT issues. That accidental step opened the door to the tech world. Starting with desktop support, Crystal quickly got a grip on incident, request, problem, and change processes. Self-driven, she earned her ITILs certification and laid the foundation for a future she never imagined.
Growing Beyond Borders, Redefining Her Path
After a few years, another surprise came along: a position at a Czech company specializing in finance and lending. In the six years she spent there, Crystal evolved—moving from IT operations to QA, then to business analysis, product management, and eventually project management. With every transition, she deepened her understanding of IT delivery.
Coming from a liberal arts background, Crystal leaned on her strengths—language and documentation—while relentlessly strengthening her weaknesses, like logical thinking. She taught herself databases, started from basic SQL queries, and eventually built complex joins and aggregation logic to analyze and extract data. That journey sharpened her analytical skills and set her apart.
Motherhood, a Leap, and Disney Magic
In her sixth year at the Czech company, life took another turn. A friend in Shanghai mentioned a job opening at Shanghai Disney Resort. It was unexpected. By then, Crystal was married with a child, and had never imagined leaving Tianjin. But deep down, she knew opportunities in tech were limited in her hometown.
After heartfelt conversations, her family offered full support. With renewed courage, she prepared for the interview. The result? She got the job.
In Shanghai, Crystal joined Disney’s ticketing system team, managing the full lifecycle of park tickets and annual passes—from issuance to verification. It was a magical job, but the reality was hard. She flew between Shanghai and Tianjin every other week—Friday night flights home, Sunday night flights back. Each goodbye to her child at the airport was a silent ache.
Returning Home with a New Way of Working
In 2022, with her child nearing school age, Crystal began planning her return to Tianjin. She interviewed with Apple and Lenovo and received offers. Then—another unexpected moment—a woman named Yuefang from Shinetech reached out in an online job group.
Yuefang introduced a role supporting a Hong Kong-based American cosmetics company, working with a global team across India, Australia, and mainland China. The role aligned perfectly with Crystal’s experience. The only hesitation? It was fully remote.
She took the interview anyway. The conversation flowed easily. Agile workflow? Familiar. English communication? Second nature. The client, targeting the Japanese e-commerce market, valued her language skills. She got the offer.
After speaking with Shinetech’s HR and visiting their Tianjin office, her concerns disappeared. She accepted the offer and stepped into a new chapter: remote work.
Finding Freedom, Building Balance
What once worried her became her biggest gift. Working remotely gave Crystal the flexibility to drop off and pick up her child, skip the commutes, and dedicate more time to both work and family. No more rushed flights or missed moments.
With just a laptop and Wi-Fi, Crystal became fully productive from anywhere. During school holidays, she and her son stayed in Hainan and Huizhou, where he played under the sun while she worked under a beach umbrella. These “workcations” became cherished memories—her son still dreams about the next one.
At Shinetech, there was no culture of overtime or office politics. Just collaboration, growth, and space to thrive. When her full-time project transitioned to automation, Crystal—despite no coding background—dove in. She learned, experimented, asked questions, and soon began writing scripts and submitting pull requests. The satisfaction was immense.
Later, she joined another team building a hospice care platform for the U.S. market. With no Chinese equivalent for reference, Crystal took it upon herself to study similar U.S. services and translate that understanding to her team. She became the bridge between the client’s business goals and the developers’ technical execution.
Nearly three years have passed since Crystal embraced remote work. Looking back, she sees a career shaped not by rigid planning but by saying yes to possibility. She never feared uncertainty. Not even turning 35.
At Shinetech, she turned potential anxiety into action. She keeps learning, keeps improving, and keeps walking forward—with trust in herself, love for her family, and readiness for the next unexpected turn.
Crystal knows this for sure: the best path is not always the most obvious one, but the one you make your own.