Category Archives: Journey to the Dream Job

Tomorrow, I will visit a recruiting agency to talk about a Japanese translator/interpreter job.  This is not a type of profession that I want to pursue in Canada.  But I’ve found it is not easy to get a product design job in Canada with my background…  In Japan, I have an advantage; I can speak English, and it is easier to get an English-related job.  In Canada, I have a different advantage; I can speak Japanese, and it is easier to get a Japanese-related job.  I’ll talk about a 5-month contract job, and hope it will give me extra time to explore design job opportunities.

When I graduated from U of C, international students had only three months to look for a job after graduation, and had to get a job in the area of study, i.e. industrial design job in my case.  That’s why I had to go back to Japan…  Now the regulation has changed, and we have one year to look for a job in any field.  Let’s use this advantage.

Let’s assume going a long way around will eventually lead me to a dream career path.

Now I’m doing a job called job hunting.  I spend a long time on job search, send tons of email, and get almost no reply.  How discouraging is it?  In such a depressing situation, I was lucky today though I did not get any good news; two small events encouraged me.

I went to a bank, and had a little time to chat with a bank clerk.  I told her that I’m now looking for a job and it is hard to get one.  She doesn’t know me, doesn’t know what I have done, and doesn’t know what job I’m looking for.  But she said “I’m sure you will find a good job”.  Probably she says that to anyone in the same situation.  But even such an ordinary conversation encourages me now.

In the afternoon, I went to school to teach sketching.  It was only one hour, but some students showed improvement.  I don’t remember how many times I heard “thanks Hiro”.  Can you imagine how encouraging it is?  It does not do anything for my job hunting except for adding one line to my resume.  But knowing that I contribute something encourages me while no employers need me so far.

I won’t have any special event tomorrow.  I wonder how I will manage to avoid getting discouraged.