If you are one of few readers of this blog, you can probably tell that the design has changed. The web host recently changed the database, and the users have more choices of templates. As I wrote in a previous post, there are many web services that replace designers’ job like designing business card, but users often feel frustration; they have to choose from a limited number of templates. Now I have felt the same; I am given hundreds of templates that I can choose one from, but none of them is what I want. I had to compromise.
But they are, of course, very professional. Now I’m writing this post on my BlackBerry at a bar. I confess that I don’t know how to do it; whatever hardware the user uses, it opens in the most suitable way. This should be quite simple and easy for professional web developers, whether they have a sense of design or not. I’m sure there are plenty of people who have design skills and web development expertise. As I wrote in another previous post, I’m thinking of starting a small business in the future with my design skills. But how can I compete with people who have both design skills and technical expertise while I only have skills?
Anyways, let’s concentrate on job hunting for now, whether it is a part-time or full-time. But I will keep looking for opportunities to improve my design skills and use it in the real world.
Is this post not well organized? Hey, please go easy on me. As I wrote, I’m in a bar. I’m drinking!
Author Archives: Hiro Shibata
Charity is…
Hakone is one of my most favorite travel destinations in Japan. You will see how beautiful it is in my facebook photo albums, like Hakone in Red, Hakone motorcycle day trip, or Hakone trip. Hakone is in my home prefecture, and I am proud of it.
It has been about two years and one month since the earthquake and tsunami hit Eastern Japan. Believe or not, there are still piles of debris in the suffered areas, and many of them have been exposed to radiation. Although the level of exposure is very low, those local governments cannot afford to appropriately dispose of the debris. They need help from other local governments. According to a recent Japanese internet article, the town of Hakone decided to accept some of the radiation-exposed debris and safely dispose of them in the town. Now I have a new reason to be proud of Hakone.
The mayor of Hakone described some of the reasons. One of the reasons is that Hakone will most probably be one of stricken areas of an anticipated big earthquake of the region. Anticipated big earthquake? Yes, many researchers expect a big earthquake in the region based on scientific observations, though they cannot tell when it will hit. Another reason is that the economy of Hakone is supported by tourists from all over Japan including the suffered areas in Tohoku (North-East Japan). They help other people because they are helped by others. They help people in a disaster-affected area because they know they will be helped by other people because of a similar disaster in the future.
The Japanese proverb says, “情けは人のためならず” which literary means “charity is not for people”. Some Japanese misunderstand that it means charity is not “good” for others, but this is wrong. It means that charity is not only for other people but also for yourself; if you do something for other people with sympathy, they will do something good for others, and eventually someone else will do something for you in the future.
Now I need help. Have I helped others enough?
What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger. Really?
I am not strong.
As I wrote in a previous post, I was fired and this is the second time to look for a job after graduating from McMaster University. I created this blog when I was looking for a job last time. If you read early posts, you see how discouraged I was then. I applied for many jobs, but all of them except for one responded. I was really depressed, but it did not kill me. Did it make me stronger? No, I’m depressed again.
I am even desperate; whether I am happy or depressed, what I can do now is to keep looking for a job and apply for any job I can do. Oh well.
Recently I found this internet article, This Is Why Your Resume Was Rejected. This is very, very, very discouraging. But this is the reality. One good thing to know is that I am not alone.
Meeting my “client” and “students”
I am not good at making money. I am not good at it at all.
Yesterday I went to Toronto to meet my “client” and my “students”. As I wrote in a previous post, I designed a logo and business card for a friend of mine for free. I’m not paid, so she is not really my “client”. As I wrote in another previous post, I go to McMaster to serve as a teaching assistant in a class where I leaned last year. Yesterday’s class was at OCAD in downtown Toronto. I am an unofficial volunteer TA, and they are not really my “students”. But these are priceless experience for me. Networking is one of the things I expect, but it is only a tiny part.
Designing a logo and business card was an interesting experience for me. Firstly, I used some Adobe Illustrator functions that I knew but had not used. If I choose to do a freelance design job, I need to be familiar with those functions, and it was a good chance to practice it. Secondly and more importantly, I found my role as a designer. There are many web services to help freelancers to design logo, business card and web site. Those users choose some design from templates but not everyone know how to choose good ones. Moreover, those templates do not satisfy everyone’s preference and the users have to compromise in some degree. My role is to derive the client’s needs and preferences, visualize it with a set of design skills, and realize it with another set of design skills. I need to practice it some more times before starting a business.
As I wrote in a previous post, I like teaching, and hearing “thank you, Hiro” after teaching is my delight. It does not matter if I make money by doing it or not. Am I stupid? Maybe. But who cares?
What to call myself
After not having worked for four days, I am officially unemployed from today. Now what should I call myself?
When I went to a job fair early last month, I brought some “business” cards and called myself “in-between product designer”. I was employed then, but was “in-between” a design school and a design job, so I called myself “in-between product designer”. Since I launched my portfolio web site a few years ago, I have described myself as “in between” in the web site for this reason. My LinkedIn headline is still “In-between Product Designer”, but since I am officially unemployed now, this is no longer a joke. On LinkedIn, you can call yourself as you like. I’ve found that some people call themselves “Freelance Designer”, but I doubt some of them. I dare to honestly call myself “in-between” there.
As I mentioned yesterday, one of the options I am thinking now is to do a part-time job and prepare for starting a small business. Probably I will not do product design at least in early phases of the business. I will focus on graphic design, web design and presentation design. This is why the subtitle of my portfolio web site has been “Total Design Solutions by Hiro Shibata”. Today I made new “business” cards and called myself Total Designer. I know I will need to explain what it means, but it’s better than writing “Product Design, Web Design, Graphic Design, Presentation Design” to make it messy.
Anyways, I will wait for the former company to ask me to come back to work as they said (which I doubt) for a few more days. Even if they actually ask me to work for them again, it won’t last long and I will need to look for a new job anyways. In next few days, let’s sit back and make a plan for coming few months, and then look for a part-time job.
I’m fired. Now what?
It’s tricky. My “original” contract ends at the end of March which is today. A couple of weeks ago, they, actually “he”, decided to extend my contract for three weeks and said he would probably extend extension. I had been quite busy until a couple of weeks ago and did not have time to prepare for job hunting, and my plan was to look for a job during the extension period. A week ago, a day after I signed a new contract, he suddenly decided to cancel the new contract. Why? Because the project is way behind the schedule because of his mismanagement and he decided to send back most of the Japanese workers, which dis-necessitates interpreters. Technically speaking, I am not “fired”. He has the right to cancel the contract by notifying a week before, which is clarified on the contract. From a legal point of view, it is acceptable. But from a humanitarian point of view, is it? It could have been avoided, but he chose to cut disposable temporary workers.
He said he would ask me to work for them again two weeks later when they are ready to restart the project. Do I trust him? No. What happens if it takes three weeks, or four weeks… which is easily predicted based on their past management. I should look for a new job right now, but the problem is many of the others, mostly Canadians, expect me to come back. He brutally “fired” me, but now, for others, I generously wait. Am I stupid? Yes, definitely. But I don’t want to be like him. I don’t want to betray other people’s expectation. OK, I will wait for one week.
Using disposable workers is a “good” business strategy. Well, he expects me to come back, so I am a “reusable” worker. Anyways. But is it, I mean, is using disposable workers sustainable? The three pillars of sustainable development are environmental responsibility, economic security, and social well-being. Theoretically, the “good” business strategy misses the last pillar. However, in fact, sadly, many companies use the strategy and they survive or even prevail, like the Japanese car companies that “fired” thousands of temporary workers to make them homeless a few years ago. This is the reality.
So, now what? Even if they ask me to work for them again, I will need to look for a new job later. Now I am thinking of two options: one is to look for a full-time job, and the other one is to look for a part-time job and prepare for starting a small business. I am tired of fooling my time and talent because of someone else’s mismanagement. Fortunately or unfortunately, I have time to think of my future plan.
As I wrote in a previous post, let’s see how the looser will fail.
Free(lance) designer???
Now I’m doing a design job for free for a friend of mine. She is the other Japanese interpreter in my work place. Now I work night shifts and she works during the day, and we worked together for a while before I started working night shifts. She is just like me; she came to Canada to work here, but found it difficult to get hired because she does not have work experience in Canada though she is a talented person, and currently do an “easy” job to acquire job experience in Canada. She is thinking of working as a freelancer, and I recommended her to make freelancer’s business cards, and suggested that I design it for her for free.
Why free? I hesitate to charge my friends for my design work, and this is only one of the reasons. Now I am thinking of working as a freelance designer, and I need to show examples of my design work. I will add her logo and business card design to my portfolio. I am also simulating working with clients. Ideally, in the future, she will give her business card to her clients and mention that her friend, which is me, designed the logo and the business card, which advertises me. If it works, it’s a good deal for her and me, isn’t it?
Today I met her to show some design ideas and to refine them with her, and she enjoyed it. She told me that it is fun to see her logo coming along. It is fun for me to see someone enjoying my design work. Now I know this is what I want to do. Designers’ role is to realize other people’s idea with design skills. This is a good simulation.
Whether it is a freelance job or a job for free, designing for people is fun.
Two years since the earthquake and tsunami
It’s been two years since the earthquake and tsunami hit Eastern Japan on March 11, 2011. I was in Japan then, and still remember everything like yesterday. My home is far from the epicenters (it was not “epicenter” but there were multiple epicenters), but it was the biggest and also longest earthquake I have ever experienced. Everything around me changed since then: TV programs on every channel reporting the updated information of the suffered areas all the day without advertisement, lack of food due to damaged infrastructure and panic buying, never-ending aftershocks and earthquake-sick, rolling blackout, messages and donation from all over the world, confusion, hopelessness and the feeling of unity…
Today someone complained to me that tons of tsunami-related garbage from Japan have reached BC coasts. Who’s fault is it? Nobody! No one deliberately sent any garbage from Japan to Canada. Some people expect the owners of the “debris” to pay for cleaning, but they cannot even afford cleaning up their land. I want those complainers to understand that thousands of people in the affected areas still live in temporary dwellings since their hometown is still filled with debris.
I wrote I remember everything, but not really. I quitted a job a day before the earthquake, and scheduled job interviews were cancelled. In the great confusion, many companies were not ready to hire new employees. But I dared to think I was lucky; I had a place to live and a warm bed to sleep in while thousands of people lost everything. Now I don’t know what I will be doing three weeks from now; the current contract job will end at the end of this month and I am still looking for a job. Can I think I am lucky now? Now I turned off the room light and lit a candle to remember the rolling-blackout nights.
One more reason to light a candle. R.I.P. all the victims of the earthquake and tsunami.
Job Fair. It’s fair.
Today McMaster University, partnered with Mohowk College, offered a job fair for students and alumni. Since the current contract job will end at the end of this month, I took a day off to join the job fair.
As I wrote in early posts, I sent my resume to many companies and recruit agencies, and all of them except for the one who offered the current contract job did not reply. I had no way to know why they did not reply, and got discouraged. But job fair is fair; everyone can talk to recruiters and see how they react. I talked to many people. Some of them politely explained what they do, listened to me and gave me some positive words, while some others automatically received my resume. I could tell whether I can be a candidate to be considered or I am not qualified and do not interest them. This is one of the good things about job fair.
Another benefit of job fair for me is that I can measure my verbal communication skill. If I saw the recruiter’s reaction, I could tell how good or bad my communication skill is. It was like preparing for job interviews.
How did it go? I had some positive impression of a few companies, but for now I dare not to talk about it because I do not want to be disappointed. I will write about it if I have got any good news from them. I hope it will happen.
Now, what should I do to save the Earth?
As I wrote in a previous post, I bought a car, often drive to Hamilton, and wonder if it was a smart choice or not. It saves time, costs more, and obviously bad for the environment. Owning a car and driving it is fun, but I dare not to count it for now.
China is a tremendously honest country; they focus on economic growth of today and do not care about the environment of tomorrow. An internet article, Politics of pollution: China’s oil giants take a choke-hold on power, describes it very precisely. They know how to reduce pollution, but do not do it because it costs and slows down the economic growth. They do not admitting that compensation will cost a lot more or even impossible.
I still remember that one of my in-class presentations in the Faculty of Environmental Design triggered discussion on ethics of products. I used an example of Fair Trade products; they are generally more expensive than other products of the equivalent quality, but people choose to buy those products for some reasons, and probably many of them choose it because they feel they are doing the right thing. The advertisement titled Follow the Flog probably targeted those people like me.
You must do something about it.
This advertisement makes me feel better; I don’t need to launch a movement. But, dose it, really?
Some companies in more ethically-advanced countries have found that business focusing on sustainability is also profitable. An internet article, 5 Lessons From The Companies Making Sustainability More Profitable Than Ever, describes how those companies make profits while providing “green” products. To make a long story short, the users of those products do not have to be environmentally-conscious people but can be cost-reduction-conscious people to be environmentally friendly.
OK, now, what should I do? Can I keep using my car if I follow the flog and use sustainable products to save money? Not really. This discussion continues.