Category Archives: Journey to the Dream Job

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.

In Japan, showing effort is often more important than working effectively.  In Japan (and probably in many other countries), many engineers like doing whatever technical things that they like rather than contributing as a team member.  Those attitudes often results in doing innovative work, but it is rare.  And now it puts me in a difficult situation in the current job.  Some Japanese engineers came to my work place.  They are supposed to supervise Canadian workers, and I am supposed to translate what they say to give instructions to Canadian workers.  But some of those Japanese geeks prefer working by themselves to sweat and cannot give instructions to Canadian workers.  First of all, working without work permit is against the law; they landed in Canada as supervisors. Second of all, they do not fulfill their duty at all; they do not supervise Canadian workers and do not let me do my duty.  This irritates me a lot.

They may be good engineers.  But are they good professionals?  No.  Good professionals should understand their role and fulfill their duty.

If I understand correctly, this is one of the biggest differences between product engineer and product designer.  Correct me if I’m wrong; designers should have a holistic view point and work as leaders in a development team, while engineers focus on technical details and work by themselves.  This is what I am aiming at.  Form does not follow function.  Engineering follows design.

Yesterday I wrote about Asian supermarket and hungry spirit.  Today, I went to a Japanese shopping mall in Toronto.  I didn’t know there is such a place in Canada. Interestingly, a Taiwanese Canadian friend of mine let me know it.  I was impressed.  If someone was watching me, it must have been weird; I talked to myself, shook my head and said “no, no, not now, not yet”.  Why?  For me, real Japanese food should be reward for achievement, except for some limited usage and for special occasions.  Limited usage includes seasonings, soup stock and such.  Special occasions include showing real Japanese food to my Canadian friends and Japanese-related events like New Year’s Day.  Achievement?  It varies, from completing a school project, finishing a school term, and… OK, this is the point.  The achievement I am expecting myself is to get a design job in Canada.  It includes becoming a successful freelance designer.  This is why I told myself “no, not yet”.

Someday, I will have real Japanese food as much as I want.

Tokyo Olympic was held in 1964.  Japanese athletes won many medals, and it was not solely because it was a home game.  Japan was defeated in WWII in 1945, and lost everything.  Then they (let me use “they” instead of “we” because I was not born yet) gradually recovered, and in 1956, Japan declared “it is no longer a post-war period”. And then Japan experienced the rapid economic growth.  Still, Japanese athletes had hungry spirit.

Recently I went to an Asian supermarket in downtown Toronto.  I used to go to the same supermarket in Calgary when I was a U of C student, but something was very different. When I was a student in Calgary, I did not have stable income and buying imported Japanese food was “luxurious shopping”.  By doing it, I encouraged myself to work (“study” for students is “work”) harder.  But now, what is it like to go shopping at an Asian supermarket?  What am I hungry for?

As I wrote in a previous post, I am often too busy to think of my future although I will have to look for a new job after April.  Recently I had a good opportunity to talk with friends who are looking for a job, in a way, like me.  It was good to share thoughts and to see someone like me from a different perspective.  I should remember hungry spirit, like myself in Calgary, or like the Japanese athletes in Tokyo Olympic.

The world was supposed to end at 6:12 am Eastern Time this morning.  But fortunately or unfortunately, it did not.  Instead, today was the last day of the work this year.  It’s been a month and half since I started the current contract job.  So far so… good?

As I wrote in some posts before starting this job, I was often discouraged.  I feel better now for some reasons.  One of the reasons is that the job is more interesting than I previously expected.  Now I work in a technical field that I had never imagined I would work in: a mixture of material engineering, structure engineering, electric engineering, and construction.  If I lived as I expected, I wouldn’t have experienced working in these fields.  Talking with engineers is not only annoying (oops!) but also interesting; they have different expertise and different perspectives.

I must admit that I feel less discouraged now because I am too busy to think of the future.  But the fact is still the same; I will need to find another job after April next year. I will have nearly two-week holidays.  Let’s use this opportunity to rethink of the future plan.

Another reason is that I am gaining work experience in Canada which I need to get a desired job.  Doing a temporary “easy” job is not bad.

Yesterday I met a Japanese industrial designer who works for a design firm in Toronto. I got to know her in LinkedIn; she is a friend of friend of mine.  It’s good to talk with people who work in the professional design world.  She talked about her job, and it was different from what I imagined in some ways.  It gave me a hint for my future career path.  I have a lot to talk, but let me pick up a couple.

It’s good to talk with people who have something in common.  She now works for a design firm, but not sure if she will keep working for the company or not for some reasons.  She is still looking for her career path, in a way, like me, though she is ahead of me.  There are two types of people; those who talk about their goal and those who take action on their goal.  I’m encouraged when I see people who strive to reach their goal.

This is the first time when LinkedIn worked for me.  I visited some design company’s pages, and when I visited the design firm’s page, I found she was in my 2nd connection through a former classmate of the Industrial Design program at U of C.  I know that meeting her does not directly get me hired by a design firm, but it’s good to make connections in the design world, and this is one of the functions of LinkedIn.

To be honest, I’m often too busy to think of my future career in these days.  Meeting designers makes me keep running for the dream job.

Having coffee and reading a book before going to the office had been my morning ritual when I worked in Japan.  One of the reasons is to leave a safety margin.  Another reason is that a day starting with work and ending with work sucks; I want to start a day with something meaningful event though it is only a little more than a few minutes.  Now I have worked for one week in Canada, and this is my morning ritual again.

Now I read Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker, dreaming that I will make it happen in the future.  The current job is not creative at all, and it is quite difficult to avoid getting discouraged without dreaming.

I found I have skipped this blog for four busy days.  Fri. 16th was the first day of the work (and then went drinking with my housemate).  On Sat. 17th, I visited my Canadian coworker’s place with my Japanese coworker who came to Canada a few days ago. Now I work with engineers, and in both days we talked about technical issues (of course) and I understood what they said (of course).  But there was a difference; what I thought in my mind was usually “aha” rather than “yes”.  When I work in “my” field, what I typically say in a meeting or conversation with fellows is “yes, and…” or “no, but…”.  This is where expertise works.

I have neither experience nor insight in the current engineering field.  This is why my response is reactive.  I was hired because I am bilingual and have a general understanding of engineering.  If I do whatever they expect me to do for 4.5 months, it is just sufficient and I make money reasonably.  But what will I get by doing that besides money?  Working experience in Canada counts, but it should not be all about it.  There will be two steps; step one will be to see what I can learn here, and step two will be to learn it whether it is expertise in this field or knowledge that will support my expertise in the field that I want to pursue in the future.