Hello! My name is Pornwibha Choowong from Thailand. People usually call me Pon. I studied at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU) and graduated in 2017. Prior to this university, I lived in Japan when I was 6 years old until I was 12 due to my father's job. I went back to Thailand after that and returned eventually to APU to continue my undergraduate studies. I decided to study and work in Japan because I saw so many Japanese companies emerging in Thailand which caught my attention and interest to know more about such companies in Japan. That was my reason for coming and choosing major in business at APU.

Most memorable thing I did during college

Thanks to my college years spent with students from all over the world at APU, stereotypes in terms of nationality or even gender no longer exist in my mind.

My communication skills were also greatly developed at APU. I was not confident with my English before I enrolled but after four years of being in a multinational environment with lots of exposure and experience, my English really improved a lot. 

APU Multicultural Week

The most memorable activity during my time at APU was the “Multicultural Week” event. Student organizations represent their own country and share their culture, which is held annually for a duration of one week. During my experience, we performed traditional dances, exhibited our traditional art, and performed for a show based on our country’s culture. I participated in Thai Week during every year of my campus life. It would take months to prepare for Thai Week and during the course of the preparation, arguments and conflicts with other members happened from time to time. We were all just students after all, who had to basically do things from scratch without prior knowledge in project management. Starting from getting sponsorship, planning the theme, and creating materials; these things had to be completed with utmost dedication with all the members of the Thai student organization and other international participants. But while doing that, I learned many new things and it helped me in ensuring the event was successful with my team. I honed my ability to convey my thoughts to others when it came to figuring out how we could attract more people to the events and I also learned to manage team members effectively. Thanks to these experiences back in college, I am currently working at Calbee with utmost confidence.     

What I Wish I Had Done during College

One thing I wish I had done during my time at university was an internship. Needless to say, I am really content with the company I work at now, but doing internships can enrich a student’s understanding about companies or industries. Truth is, I was not fully aware of companies or industries in Japan when I first started my 就活(shukatsu: Job-hunting in Japan). Doing an internship would certainly have opened up more options and provide more insight for me outside of my campus. In addition, the privilege of being a student allows you to challenge yourself on many things, so I recommend students to try new experiences that things like internships can provide.

Analyze Your Strengths

My advice to students is to start from knowing yourself, especially your strengths. In my case, I decided to apply to Calbee because the company was expanding its business overseas including my home country of Thailand. I aspire to use my experiences gained overseas to take part in international business, and Calbee could offer opportunities like that due to its emphasis on global expansion in the coming years. Not to mention, being trilingual and having an open mind towards many different cultures were a strength I could call my own. Also, I chose this industry because I love to eat. Another thing about the company that aligned with me was that I heard that it's corporate culture was really open to listening to the voices of its employees regardless of gender or nationality.

Make Sure You Click Well with the Company

It is important to compare yourself with the vision and mission of the company that you are applying for. Searching through the company’s websites or attending seminars that companies and universities host will help you get more detailed information that may influence your applications. One thing I noticed after I started working is that the corporate culture regarding communications in Calbee emphasize on reporting on your tasks / contacting others frequently / asking for help. So they company wants it's workers to not be afraid to ask questions! Moreover, in my opinion, asking somebody for help in order to know more information about something is not something to be shy about.

There are so many important things, however, among them I would recommend two skills.

Business Japanese Language Ability

Needless to say, but people have to get good at the Japanese language if they want to work in Japan. However, it does not have to be perfect. The important thing is to know how to communicate well while working and being careful not to accidentally come off as rude. When I was a university student, many of my peers who gave up studying Japanese. But If you want to work in Japan, you have to study hard for Japanese.

Adaptability (Flexibility)

Another important factor is adaptability. If you work in Japan as a foreigner, there would definitely be some cultural differences between here and your home country. Therefore, it is important to be flexible and adapt to the Japanese working environment. However, I am not saying that you need to assimilate 100% in to the Japanese culture. Keeping your identity and unique perspective as a non-Japanese can be a really important strength. On an unrelated note, practical sub skills like proficiency at Microsoft Excel is definitely a huge boost to your career when starting out.

Currently, I am responsible for the planning and marketing of Calbee products. I had many great experiences in Calbee up until now when interacting with colleagues from various departments. In my 1st year, I was assigned to a product called Frugra ;one of Calbee's most famous products. Everyone in the team supported and taught me thoroughly about the stages of producing the planning, and selling the product. Surprisingly, I was appointed to be in charge of,building a marketing strategy for Frugra even though I was a still a newbie. In my second year, I had the opportunity to be in charge of marketing new products and selling them to new markets which was a really great challenge Currently, my position was rotates from the Frugra department to the snack department (Sapporo potato, Vegetaberu). Even after a few years of working in this company and being in charge of different products I am still working as passionately as I was in my first year.

Challenges at a Professional Level & The Solution

There were many challenges while working at Calbee, especially during my first year. For example, I did not know on which occasion I should be using email or phone to contact other company representatives. Therefore, I realized how important it how to ask my seniors on things I was not clear about to prevent making any mistakes.

Currently, I am responsible for planning and marketing products like Sapporo potato and Vegetaberu. Because these products are long-time sellers, it is difficult to convey the more technical side of the product to customers who are already familiar with it when coming up with new points to be used in marketing. Moreover, we found out the main customer of Vegetaberu are women who have children, which led us to studying their consumer behavior. In order to understand them better, we often perform investigations in great detail and hold surveys to better understand our targeted audience.

Driving Force & Future Plan

After going through such difficulties mentioned above, it really makes me feel happy and proud to see our products lined up in stores. Some customers even call our customer service to request for a certain product to be restocked again. This really drives me to strive for better. 

Currently at Calbee, we are aiming to increase overseas sales up to 40% of overall sales by 2030, yet Calbee’s atmosphere itself is not as global as it should be at this moment. That is why I really want to join the overseas business at Calbee because I truly believe that global expansion is essential to our company’s growth in the long run. In the food industry, increasing the number of customers directly connects to the growth of the business. I have experience living in Thailand, so I am confident to utilize the strength I have to contribute to the company.

Flexible and Diverse Organization

Calbee offers a great working environment for everyone regardless of gender, nationality etc. Especially for the marketing department, the number of women is actually larger than that of men. There are people from other countries in the department. too Flexibility is another benefit of the working environment at this company. We have the freedom to choose where and when to work because of remote-working and flex-hours. In this company, there is no traditional bureaucratic hierarchy such as young employees being obligated to stay until their superiors clock out or the such. I can vouch that it is a very flexible company to work for. 

Proactive Proposals are Encouraged

In business, we are encouraged to propose new ideas and challenge ourselves as long as the idea is backed up with reasonable points. Therefore, Calbee is a great place for someone person who wants to strive for better. In my experience, our team collaborated with comedians who participated in a very famous comedy show. In that show, one of the comedians used one of Calbee’s products, Sapporo potato, in their skit. During the course of this collaboration, we produced a special edition product. Being part of a big movement in society is one of the greatest things that you can experience by working at Calbee.