14 years in Corporate Japan and how it all started

So, I rarely post as honestly, I don't think I have much to enrich your lives with...

But I thought I'd reflect on nearly 14 years working in Corporate Japan and maybe there'll be some hints in there for others to pull on.

So, it all started with a thud - the kind you hear when you hit the bottom of a pit.

Corporate, or even working in a company in Japan, being a "seishain" (full-time worker) was a million miles away.

I came here for a year to experience Asia and taught English to pay my way. I didn't expect to stay, but I did. I did it for love (and married her 10 years later)

So, 3 years down the line teaching and I hit a real low. Is this all there is for me? Can I do more? How?

You see, back in 2007 Japan wasn't all that open a place for non-Japanese. You couldn't just explore the job market and hop into a company at will. Everything was formal and not set up for mid-career hires (let alone foreigners), global companies were few and far between, and there was a stigma attached to teaching English - that is - if that is what you've done, that is all you can ever do. Any applications fell on deaf ears. I got nowhere and my Japanese just wasn't that good.

So I'm stuck and feel choked. I want to stay for my then-girlfriend, but if I stay I feel so restricted. I mean, I enjoyed teaching and put 150% into every job I had. But the jobs were 1-year contracts, really crappy pay, and I needed to work multiple jobs to earn even 20K a year. Pretty exhausting and didn't get treated very well by schools...sadly.

I recall having this kind of breakdown and saying to my wife (then girlfriend) I'm sorry, but I can't do this anymore. I have nothing and I can't see that changing. Going home might be my only option.

Desperation led me to look at upskilling in the form of a Masters Degree. The theory was, that getting qualified would open the door to university teaching jobs maybe??...I thought. I mean, that was the only career I could envisage back then.

I could get a Masters in Education through a UK uni - but it was 5 years and so expensive. Maybe I could go home for two years, get the Masters and come back? But, I'd be risking our relationship. Moreover, I didn't want a Masters in Education - it just didn't appeal to me.

But the idea that a post-graduate degree could open doors - I kept focusing on that.

I stumbled on the idea of getting it from a Japanese university! Hang on, Rob, I thought to myself. You ain't getting into uni in Japan. Your Japanese sucks and come on, who's gonna accept you? How are you going to pay for it?! Still, I persisted with the idea...

Two massive things happened through some very hard work...and luck.

1. I found a Uni that offered Masters Programs in dual Language.

I literally bullshitted my way to getting an acceptance letter (don't ask me how)but it was conditionally based. I needed to fund my way and it was STEEP!

2. I found about and applied for the MEXT Scholarship which is essentially designed for students outside of Japan to study in Japan for a couple of years, take their knowledge, and spread the goodness of Japanese culture in their home countries. Okay...so I'm in Japan, have been here 4 years, and I'm not intending to return immediately after - how do I BS this one?

On top of that, I had to compete with hundreds of "genuine" applicants, and somehow convince the Embassy of the U.K. that I would be one of 15 selected people to be sent to Japan to receive a scholarship for 2 years. Also, it was conditionally based - I needed a uni acceptance letter to get it.

So, I dunno how this all happened but I got the letter and winged my way onto the scholarship.

Somebody somewhere knew how desperate I was...

The funniest part of the story - I didn't get paid for leave at my at teaching gig, so I took the absolute minimum number of days I needed to fly to the U.K and back which was 3. Arriving late at night, I would get a few hours kip and then take a full day's assessment and interviews at the embassy, rush directly back to the airport to jump on a plane to arrive back in Japan late at night, again to work the next day. The stay was so short, I had to buy 2 single flights (return tickets needed a minimum of 3 days at your destination and mine was 1.5). The last interview I was so exhausted I was running on fumes and desperation for my situation was pouring down my face.

Those 2 months of waiting were nerve-wracking. Was it all in vain? Did I need to go back to the drawing board?

I got an email. I did enough. I was in pieces. I can't explain how it felt. When you want something that bad, I guess you hit another level...

So, by the end of Summer 2008, I knew I was to start a Post-graduate degree in International Relations (don't ask why) from Oct 2009, which would include a prior 6 months of fully-covered Japanese study at Kyoto University from April of the same year. All uni fees were covered - massive! On top of that, there was a stipend of about 200,000 JPY a month which was so helpful as I was commuting from Nagoya by Shinkansen every day (don't ask me why).

2.5 years of pure pain. Seriously. Oh, I hated studying. I hated writing reports. I had to write a 20,000-word thesis on the Privatisation of BT Vs NTT - OMFG - 20,000 words of pure BS. What's more, I took about 40% of the credits in Japanese which meant seminars, reports, presentations, and exams in Japanese. OMFG X 100 - I don't know if they passed me on ability or pity (I feel that latter).

So, all this pain, and I get to the Summer of 2011 and I'm defending a thesis I hate and don't even agree with, and job hunting with Japanese students 10 years younger than me. A humiliating and often depressing experience. I had attended a workshop over the few months leading up to this to "learn how to job hunt like a Japanese person" in prep. OMFG X1000 - even worse than the thesis. And here I was jumping from seminar to seminar, group interview to group interview getting nowhere and looking like a complete noob because my spoken Japanese was still shit. I was ready to give it ALL up at the end of August. Deflated.

2.5 years of effort. Writing a f##king thesis on a topic I had -99% interest in, taking a week to write and adjust 10-page reports in Japanese on topics like International Peace efforts....Man, I couldn't even do this in English! And I could not get even a whiff of a job.

Failed strategy. "I am f##ked" I thought.

So, I get this email from the career office telling me of a company doing a seminar in Osaka and they wanted to hire non-Japanese employees. I was like...yardy yardy yah..every company who said that only wanted to hire young 22-year-old non-Japanese from SE Asian countries so they could learn their trade, take it home, and open a branch office. I checked out the website and replied "Sorry, the company looks boring, I'm not interested" in polite Japanese.

The Career officer called me back and she was pissed (In Japanese) Something along the lines of "You've been rejected at every interview so far, this is your last chance, get your ass to Osaka!" I was like...how dare you!! But...actually, you're right lol. It was my last chance. So I donned my suit and went.

I listened and yeah, it was a bit boring. But I stayed awake and looked hungry! The speaker approached me at the end and said my resume looked interesting and he wanted to talk. We sat down and this ended up being the first interview. We talked mainly about football but touched on my history in Japan. I was so knackered by that point that I was just straight up. No fancy answers, I just said it how it was. I was me.

They called me for a 2nd interview on Skype (yup, Skype was a thing back then) and I spoke with a really old guy in HR who couldn't use his computer properly and there was so much buzzing, I couldn't hear him. So I nodded and just replied with what I thought were answers to his questions. I think he was hard of hearing too, so he just kind of smiled and nodded back.

Passed this one too.

Got invited to Tokyo for the final interview - 3 big wigs in 30-minute succession. But, really they were such nice people. Didn't put me on the spot. They just wanted to know who I was. I even asked the last guy "Isn't my age an issue? I've been rejected such a lot along the way". And he was like "Look Rob, you're 30 but that means you got another 40 years ahead of you. You can make an impact in 1 year and then there are 39 years to be brilliant. It really was quite touching.

About 2 weeks later I get a call and I'm hired. Floods of tears again.

It meant that all that effort had somehow been worth it.

It was mid-September 2011 when I got the call, and I was gonna start Oct 1.

It could not have been better timed. I have no money at all, and quite a lot of new debt. Things were financially quite desperate, so to start 2 weeks later and get my first proper paycheck - I'll never forget that.

So, 14 years on and things are different.

I stayed at that company for more than 11 years and always wanted to give back that trust they installed in me.

I did quite a lot on the L&D front and built myself a career that has taken me to 2 other companies.

I'm at SegaSammy now and in a role where I can add value based on this experience.

So, I'm not sure if this is my future, that I will always be doing this. I don't know if this is my purpose or my end-game.

But I look back now and then and am f##king grateful every day for where I am.

So, I know a lot of people complain about their 9-5s and want freedom, wealth, fame etc. and I get that.

But, once in a while, just looking back and seeing what you've done to get to where you are now - you might just realize that it's enough. For now anyway...