Job Hunting and Dream

Back in June 2007, I was having a hard time choosing between two places where I was accepted as part timers. This last week, I was having an even harder time contemplating which job offer I should reject. Foreigners, unlike Japanese people, may say "Just pick one, you can change your job later", but still the question "Which ?" remains.

It is coincidental that the initial letters of these companies are 'S' and 'P', which are also the initial letters of my name and my wife's name, and more ironically maybe, the initial letters of my best man's name when we got married in 2006 (you can see the photo of our wedding ice below). By the way, I don't want to reveal the company names yet publicly because I still have a year before I actually enter the company.



I looked at their annual reports, which I barely understand except for their mission statements, calculated some financial ratios, read newspaper articles such as "働きやすい会社" (best place to work) by Nikkei, referred to the provided training in both companies, talked to friends, seniors and families, and even after doing all those things, I was still confused. In Japan, you can't really compare the initial salaries nor benefits for fresh graduates because they are basically the same everywhere, even for Ph.D students, unless you are comparing those of a big company to those of a small company.

The strange thing is that, if you had asked me this very same question about 10 years ago, I would have answered 'S' directly without thinking. This was my dream and one of the reasons why I came to Japan in the first place. The problem is that, in the industry of 'S', there will be relatively more overtime than that in the industry of 'P', and being a married man, I can't just blindly put my dream first before my family, although indeed the job in 'S' will be more enjoyable and fun for me. I guess people do change, and I am one of those people.

Two ways of thinking led me to my final decision. The first one is thinking about regret. How much regret would I feel if I entered 'S' and its business was not doing so well, and how much regret would I feel if I entered 'P' and its prospects were not so bright. You can always change your job but you can't always work in the company where you want to work.

The second way of thinking is inspired by the last lecture of beloved Professor Randy Pausch below, which I also put on my blog a year ago. This is one of the good things of writing blogs ! You had written the answer before you had the problem. More precisely, the thinking goes like this: "Which will inspire my children more than the other when they have grown up ?".

I chose 'S'.

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