Hello, everyone! Please call me Danlin! I graduated from Doshisha University in 2017. Since I was a elementary school student, I’ve been very interested in Japanese anime and culture. Due to that,  I learned Japanese for 6 years in middle and high school. After graduation, I wanted to improve my Japanese even more so I decided to study in Japan. Currently, I am working in NEC solution Innovators as a system engineer.

I joined the School Festival Executive Committee which is a club that plans and hosts Doshisha University’s School Festival every year to support international students speak Japanese more with Japanese people. I was in charge of PR for 3 years.  As a member of the PR team, we were responsible for advertising School Festivals to Doshisha Students and prospective high school students who are interested in our school. Through PR, more and more students notice  our school’s attraction and beauty. When I first joined the committee, I didn’t have any editing software skills to create nice posters but as I gradually became more involved, I pushed myself to learn the needed Adobe photoshop and Adobe illustrator by myself in order to improve my creative skills. I made a poster design as my second trial that got highly rated by my other PR team members as a result. As time went on, when I was a 3rd-year student, I made more than 20 sign boards and posters. During my time as a part of the executive community, it not only allowed me to be more fluent in Japanese as I was dealing with the PR, but it also improved my creative skills to the point I am flexible with various editing softwares. It was a very valuable experience for me as joining this club allowed me to grow as a better professional.

What I wish I had done during college

I don’t have any particular activity that I wish I would have done but If I were to go back to college, I want to get a driving license during college. As life’s pace changes when we start working, we don’t have so much time to take basic life necessities such as a driving license once you start a career. Personally I like traveling, especially driving a rental car to go wherever I want to in the tourist destination. If you like traveling, I really recommend you to take a driving license during spring or summer vacation before you become really busy once you graduate or other things that you think would make your life more fulfilling once you embark on your career path in Japan.

Research About your Industry of Interest Thoroughly!

Do research of your interested industry deeply! The deeper you research the industry, the more you can be sure whether you can realize your dream in that particular field. No matter what kind of job interview you are going to be doing, the interviewer will ask you “Why did you choose this company?”, while there are so many similar companies in the same industry. Questions such as  “What do you think of other competitors?” are frequently asked during interviews as well. Once you prepare yourself with the substantial knowledge of the industry of the applied company, you can easily answer the company’s strengths and the differences compared to other competitors. If you are unable to explain why you want to work for a particular company, I am afraid that you will have a hard time passing your interviews.

  Do as many internships as possible!

My second advice is to join as many internships as possible. I don’t recommend 1-day or 2-days internships, because most of the time it’s hard for you to understand the atmosphere, working environment, and job details by only doing so. Instead, look for internships that are at least a month long. This way, you can talk and work with employees in the company so that you can know what it feels like working for the company; what’s the flow of every day job in that company, and get used to the working culture. If you do various long term internships, you can definitely know whether the company suits your preference, and allows you to compare different types of jobs to help you decide your starting career.

  Communication Skill

Speaking fluent Japanese doesn’t mean you have good communication skills. Someone who has a good communication skill is able to express ideas and messages effectively. The reason why communication skills are more important than just mastering Japanese is because you are required to communicate with colleagues as well as clients through emails or verbally on a daily basis at work. Being able to state your idea concisely will affect how effective your work is. Furthermore, clients don’t have all-day to listen to your explanation! You have to be fast, constructive and accurate in order to make them understand your context while not wasting their time!

Schedule/Time Management Skills

Schedule/Time Management is a fundamental skill for deciding your working performance. No matter what kind of company you will go to, teamwork culture will not change. If you are late to finish your part of the task, the whole project will be affected and the whole team has to wait for you. What's worse, there is a chance the team will lose clients because of your unpunctuality. In order to avoid that from happening, what you need to do is manage your schedule and put attention to “Hourensou” which means reporting the progress of your work, contacting your colleagues when some urgent things happen, consulting with your boss and team when you need a hand. This is a very basic skill yet some fresh-graduates undermine the importance of this. Time management is fundamental to business ethics especially if you work in Japan where punctuality is also the sign of respect.