My name is Saif Shahabuddin from India. I completed my bachelor’s degree in India where I majored in Mechanical Engineering. During that time, I was engaged in many projects, one of the most memorable ones was the designing and fabricating of an all-terrain vehicle, ATV. In that project, I was part of the manufacturing team, where we had to design the ATV from scratch, purchase the materials, and perform in-house manufacturing. I love speed racing, so I was the lead driver for this project. In a nutshell, it was a great learning experience with fun. 

During my job-hunting, I came to know about a job fair for international students, where many reputable companies from Japan came to recruit fresh graduates. I thought it was a great opportunity because I always had a feeling to live in Japan and learn the culture, language, and Japanese mindset. It felt like this was my second golden opportunity, so I thought to myself, “why not give it a try?”

Clubs・Internship

I was engaged in organising many different extracurricular activities outside of academia during my university years, such as TEDxNTU, city tours for new students, BBQs, karaoke, and other recreational activities to rejuvenate students from their tedious studies.

While I was doing my bachelor’s, I had always thought about studying abroad and going to Japan was my dream. But during my search for universities to apply for master’s, I discovered that Japanese was mandatory for the courses and I lacked Japanese language skills at that point in time. However, I decided to pursue a master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from Nanyang Technological University, NTU, Singapore, as it is one of the top-ranked universities and is close to my home country, India. There is no doubt, Aerospace Engineering is difficult even though I wanted to challenge myself and move out of my comfort zone. During my studies, I connected with a lot of people and participated in various projects like the development of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) during my 6-month internship at Rolls-Royce. 

Ambitious and Fearless of Failure

Since I have never been active in job-hunting in Japan, therefore I am not sure about the Japanese job market but as general advice to students: be ambitious and fearless of failure! I believe everyone should dream big and pursue whatever they like. Put your best efforts forward and most importantly, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. We are humans and are bound to make mistakes. What’s critical is that you learn and remember the mistakes. However, it is better to learn from others’ failures and mistakes as well. Never stop dreaming, learning, and taking action to achieve your dreams.

Networking

As a university student, I would also advise networking and there are many opportunities for students to participate in seminars, expos, and exhibitions. I participated in the ASEAN Career Fair, automobile expos, aerospace expos, and additional events related to my interests. These are very good platforms where you can meet people in your own field of interest, even if the event is not specifically for finding a job! Also, there could be a possibility to get an overview of corporate working style from the conversation. Therefore, in my opinion, make sure to do your homework. For example, prior search about the company profile or reading about the person of interest to engage in a productive conversation. Try to initiate the conversation yourself because they might not approach you. It’s like if you’re thirsty you must go to the well to drink water, the well will not come to you. 

Be Positive and Patient

Lastly, be positive and patient. As students, we want everything quick, however, everything takes time. Therefore, if you are not getting opportunities don’t feel disheartened by the job-hunting process, have some patience, the door of great opportunity will open for you sooner or later.

Advice for Engineering Students

Advice for engineering students specifically, I think some students are just doing engineering without having a passion for it. It’s not about what you do but how you do it. There are many different fields within engineering, so try to grasp the knowledge and think. Being a student is hard, but don’t stop thinking. That will bring more creative ideas, which is what engineering is all about.

Communication

Communication is a beneficial skill for your relationships within and outside of your work life. If you don’t have good communication, you will have a hard time. However, in Japan, the main language is Japanese, therefore it’s important to know a certain degree of the language. I am social in nature and because communication is key, I practiced Japanese with many Japanese people within or outside work. The best thing is that Japanese people know we are foreigners and are not good at Japanese. Therefore, they will try to understand our mistakes and support us to the best of their abilities, which is often difficult to find in other countries. 

Positive Efforts in Your Work

Japanese people are very hardworking: your work needs to be easy to understand and precise since they expect perfection. That means you need to put extra effort into your work and not slack off. Make sure to give over 100% of your effort and you should always strive to become better. 

Routine Self-Reflection

You should also perform routine self-reflection. I never did it as a university student but after entering KKE, I try to manage my time in the company so that I can find time to improve myself. I used the GTD (Getting Things Done) method, where organizing the daily tasks in such a way that one should not miss any priorities while being efficient. And it reduces the time to sort out the tasks by doing 頭の整理 (clearing one’s mind).

Currently, I’m working in the Business Development Department where I am introducing 3MA, a technology developed by the German Fraunhofer Institute for Non-Destructive Testing, called IZFP. I believe that this technology will bring a drastic change in quality assurance (QA) methodology for Japanese automobile and steel manufacturers. My work scope is very wide in this department: I am engaged in marketing activities, technological development, and so on. I support business developments in all aspects and my role is quite diverse. In my first two years, I mainly focused on understanding this technology and how it works by reading journal papers and books regarding 3MA technology. I also interacted with a German scientist from the institute so that I can start using 3MA as a user. This technology was different from what I did in my engineering. Though I studied related technology, 3MA is a relatively new and interesting technology. Trying new projects and new things makes my work interesting and not monotonous. 

3MA has a sensor to determine the material properties of the manufacturing products. For example, in manufacturing a car's body parts, at different levels of manufacturing processes, QA is performed prior to introducing the product in the market. It is common in today's approach that the automotive industry destroys the actual parts to perform the quality testing of the products. Hence, once it is destroyed it cannot be used again, thus practically, QA for each product is not possible. Hence, the advanced 3MA technology comes into play,  where complete QA is possible for vehicles without performing destructive testing, eventually saving time, money, and material. Now the manufacturers are more into non-destructive testing which is innovative. 

At the same time, I struggled in Japanese because of my poor language skills. However, my Senpai (senior) is very kind and helpful since he is good at English and knew that I lacked Japanese skills. He helped me with learning Japanese culture and interviews with clients which occurred at least twice a month. I tried to take notes and would have a post-interview session with my Senpai so that I can understand the issues, requirements, and problems to find out the best optimal solutions for our clients. For those customers who found value in 3MA, I continued to provide value in the form of measurement trials, and by gaining a lot of feedback and technical experience through this work, I promoted marketing and technical development for business development. 

Besides my main work, I engaged in projects with other departments to think of new ideas to solve the current problems related to any field like medicine, construction, automobiles, etc. It was a new initiative by the company executives to join different skill sets to find solutions for the existing issues within society. This brought me a good opportunity to learn from others like their ways of approach in pursuing the given problem, teamwork, networking, etc., and helped in the development of new skills and improve my Japanese language. 

Currently, I’m working in the automobile industry and utilizing knowledge regarding manufacturing techniques acquired during my bachelor's. However, studying at the university and performing manufacturing, in reality, is slightly different sometimes. Problems ​​occur in manufacturing that are new and not known in books. I learned some interesting know-how about manufacturing experienced from the clients during discussions.

Difficulties

Japanese was of course one of my biggest difficulties. As I had mentioned, I mainly focused on learning about 3MA technology and which is in English because the tech is German-based. However, many interview processes with the clients including understanding the issues and brainstorming sessions with the team for good solutions were all in Japanese. At this point in time, my Japanese has improved to a certain level, leading to an increase in my work scope. I have been working as a project leader for some projects where I performed planning and execution, manage the resources and schedules, and prepare the proposals and reports in Japanese with support from my Senpais instead of just reading and participating in the discussion which I used to do in the starting days, hence giving me a sense of reward for my work. Of course, this brings a sense of responsibility and pressure to manage the project, like a regular discussion with the team members regarding progress reports, solutions for new issues, etc. Still, I’m in the learning phase which I believe is eternal since we learn at each step. If I self-reflect, I am certain that I have improved my Japanese within three years despite its difficulty level and now my use of Japanese has increased from 5% to 60-65% making my work way easier than in my starting years.

Communication in both English and Japanese 

Without a second thought, I grabbed the second opportunity to come to Japan which I’d been dreaming of. However, I wanted to work in a good company environment like everyone where there is no discrimination regarding race or gender and equally treated their employees. Hearing from one of my Indian seniors about KKE's friendly environment and full support despite no work experience and Japanese language skills motivated me to pursue my dream with KKE. During my research about KKE, I found an interesting message from Hattori-san, the chairman of KKE, stating that this company uses information and current technology to become an excellent advisor for society and to solve the problem for the society which motivated me to do something for the society with KKE.

I believe it is common for students to experience a big transition phase from university to corporate life being unaware of the future leads, which can be exciting while anxiety-inducing. KKE is a great platform where we use the knowledge gained from university while being able to enjoy learning new phases of corporate life. Being a foreigner, Japanese is a barrier oftentimes however,  at KKE, it’s considered a skill which is gained over time gradually improving Japanese and practicing Keigo (formal Japanese) at work. KKE knows how to support foreigners and give them sufficient space to grow, treating them as a family. For me, KKE is like a second home. In KKE, there are around 35-40 international employees of different nationalities. On the other hand, in KKE, we have many recreational clubs to promote work-life balance, like billiards (which is my favorite), baseball, surfing, basketball, skiing, music club, etc. Recently, there was a live music event performed by the KKE members at a café which helps to enjoy life besides work. I believe it’s a place where I learn, grow, and do what I love. There is a saying, "The best way to gain self-confidence is to do what you are afraid to do".

In KKE, there are four domains, like construction as the main business and in addition to it, manufacturing, decision making, and IoT. These domains differ vastly from one another which is why KKE  has many unique individuals from different backgrounds. Even, if an employee does not like the nature of work and is for a change, there is a possibility to try a new domain without being confined to only one option. Furthermore, many projects are in collaboration with different departments which brings new skill sets and gives a good opportunity to explore and learn. In a nutshell, each member earnestly hopes to foster a strong mutual bond of ‘Absorb and Radiate’ with KKE and harness the best in themselves to the benefit of society as a whole.