This second installment of Asilla's member introductions focuses on Tatsuki Ichijo, 22, who joined Asilla's overseas office, Asilla Vietnam, after graduating from college in California in the summer of 2019.
He chose to work at the overseas office instead of the Japanese subsidiary, and we would like to introduce his activities after half a year and send a message to those in his age group in Japan.
Let me tell you a story based on the premise that I have a very innocent personality. There were a few Japanese in my university class, and the majority of them wanted to work in Japan after graduation. If you get a bachelor's degree in the U.S., you can get offers from large and well-known Japanese companies quite easily (although you need to be prepared for that).
Every winter, there is a career forum for Japanese people held in Boston, Massachusetts, where large companies are recruiting all over the place. You are screened several times, but in some places, you get an offer in as little as two days. This is amazing. If you are job hunting in Japan, it can take one to several months to get a job offer from one company, right? Large corporations, for example, will say, "American bachelor's degree, hired in 2 days! The Boston Career Forum is the place to do it.
In the winter of my senior year, I was planning to attend the Boston Career Forum and had booked a flight to Boston and a hotel room, but at the last minute, I felt something was different and cancelled my trip (laugh). I wondered if it would be really interesting to go to a "big company" in "Japan" like everyone else.
Let me tell you a story based on the premise that I have a very innocent personality. There were a few Japanese in my university class, and the majority of them wanted to work in Japan after graduation. If you get a bachelor's degree in the U.S., you can get offers from large and well-known Japanese companies quite easily (although you need to be prepared for that).
Every winter, there is a career forum for Japanese people held in Boston, Massachusetts, where large companies are recruiting all over the place. You are screened several times, but in some places, you get an offer in as little as two days. This is amazing. If you are job hunting in Japan, it can take one to several months to get a job offer from one company, right? Large corporations, for example, will say, "American bachelor's degree, hired in 2 days! The Boston Career Forum is the place to do it.
In the winter of my senior year, I was planning to attend the Boston Career Forum and had booked a flight to Boston and a hotel room, but at the last minute, I felt something was different and cancelled my trip (laugh). I wondered if it would be really interesting to go to a "big company" in "Japan" like everyone else.
Let's talk. pic.twitter.com/17gjzdCV6E
— Yuzo Nishijima (@NishijimaYuzo) November 3, 2019
After canceling my trip to Boston, I was searching for various jobs online, thinking that I did not want to work for a "big company" in "Japan," although I did not have a specific job in mind. That's when I found Asilla on Wantedly, which I had used once to get an internship. I was interested in Asilla because my current girlfriend is Vietnamese and I had in the back of my mind that I wanted to go back to Vietnam after going there in 2017 and '18.
I originally lived in the U.S. for four years from the age of 18, so I am used to living abroad. If anything, Vietnam is closer culturally than the U.S., and it is easier to live there as a Japanese person. I lived in California, but in rural areas of the U.S., white supremacy is still prevalent, and people will raise their eyebrows if you walk around with an Asian face (as one of my Asian friends experienced).
Working abroad? Is it safe? (In fact, one of my Asian friends experienced this.) There may be a lot of people who feel defensive about working abroad. However, from my experience, even if you come to a foreign country just because it looks interesting without thinking too much about it, you can totally make it work. If a problem arises, you can look it up on the Internet and solve it. That is how you grow. For a 22-year-old like me, working abroad is no problem at all. I can say to myself, "Oh, yoga? It sounds interesting, so I'll give it a try.
On my business card, I am now an assistant manager, but in reality I am a jack-of-all-trades (laugh). In reality, however, I am a jack-of-all-trades (laugh). I manage the servers for our company's services using a Mac terminal with a black screen, work as a project manager, and interview people who apply to the company as a human resource manager. If necessary, I also do the annotation work that the part-time workers do. I also translate. I also carry the president's bag (both Japanese and Vietnamese). To be honest, I sometimes wonder if I am an amoeba because I am so flexible.
Since Asilla is a start-up, it does not have an organization that is already in good shape, but rather, it is at the level where it is necessary to create an organization. So, I am sometimes asked to create an organization, and then I am asked to do it myself. I always feel like I'm trying my best to keep things running, even though my knowledge is always a bit patchy (laughs).
When I finish work on time every day, I am exhausted both physically and mentally.
The first reason I chose Asilla was because the president (Mr. Kimura) was an interesting person. During our first few Skype interviews, for some reason he mentioned Honda's founder, Soichiro Honda. People should always continue to learn, and it is never too late to set aspirations." He went on to talk about his plans after the IPO, which, to be honest, surprised me. In a company with a president who can talk about dreams like this, dreamers are bound to come to the company like friends.
They talk about their dreams while having lunch together, talk about their dreams while walking around Taipei at night on a company trip to Taiwan, and talk about their dreams again on the couch they ended up on to relax. It's interesting. Even if our future paths will be different, we will get together again in a few years and have a beer hoi and a moc hai ba zho! (*means "toast" in Vietnamese). This is Ajira Vietnam.
We would like to make our company not a seemingly luxurious cruise ship floating on the lake of a consumption-based capitalist economy as it has been in the past, but an adventurous one, like a boat rowing into a new ocean with sustainability and diversity, which will be valued in the new era of economy.
Also, after the IPO, I would like to live in a major city in Southeast Asia for 6 months to a year each. Jakarta, Bangkok, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City. Maybe even Brunei. I would like to live in such a way that I can create high added value while being a traveler.
Yes, I agree. If you think "this job/company/industry looks interesting," I don't think it matters where it is located. I think it is a waste to give up on a job/company/industry that you think sounds interesting just because it is not in Japan. If you think it sounds interesting, you should study English or programming in order to get there. Don't decide today's menu based on what is in the refrigerator. Let's go shopping based on what you want to eat right now.
This world is vast and there is so much to discover and experience. 20s is a period to experience many things. The ability to take risks and act without fear of failure is one of the strengths of the 20's. If you gain a lot of experience in your 20's, it will be a good foundation for success in your 30's and 40's. I think it is important for people like Mr. Ichijo to take risks and make a difference.
I hope more and more young people like Mr. Ichijo will take risks, turn down good careers in Japan and the U.S., and come to difficult places like Vietnam to experience many new things.
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Madam Hien, Mother of Asilla Vietnam.
She is a superwoman who handles all back-office operations.
We have never thought of him (Ichijoki) as Japanese. He drives a motorcycle, thinks like a Vietnamese in his daily life, and learns Vietnamese very quickly. Oh, and he learns bad words even faster."
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Asilla, Inc. is looking for people to work with us! Please take a look here.
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