tag drei

Third day. Seemed really long. Yet, it was really short.

Training continues throughout the month and today was one on global competency. The lecturer was really fun and her course was really interesting as well. Although I am unsure if this lecture is going to benefit my carrier on the short run, but it should when I begin interacting with various people with countless backgrounds.

I stayed at work until 23:30 today. Talking with my mentor gave me a glimpse at what I must do to my career. Some more specification is necessary, but I have found my direction.

Hope everything goes well next week as well.

better than i thought...

Day 2 had a better weather and better weather apparently does some good to factors that constitute your life. Most part of today was Excel training but this impromptu meeting was quite encouraging for me in this tough, environment.

I will cut the details. Anyway, although it's still day 2 and it's way too early to judge, I think I'm off to a great start.

corporate life begins

April 1st marks the beginning of academic year and fiscal year for most corporations in Japan. It is the season of cherry blossoms and nice, warm sunshine that greets all of those who is headed for a new chapter of his/her life. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case for me. It was rainy and cherry blossoms were blooming only halfway.

For me, today was also the day I joined my firm. Unlike Japanese corporations that prepare a huge ceremony for 100s of new grads they welcome, my first day at work was quite technical. The CEO spoke to us for half an hour, which is really a first day like event, but other than that, a lot of personnel just came and went, explaining this and that about the firm.

That continued on until 5 in the evening and from there on, I went around my floor, introducing myself to all of the people I am going to learn a lot of from. A lot of restructuring took place after my last part time job at my firm, but fortunately, my mentor (i.e. senior salesperson) was REALLY nice and he took the initiative to showing me and introducing me to everyone.

I am really sure that my expectations are REALLY high in this wacked up environment, but my new workplace made me motivated and gave me a really nice first impression. Things will definitely not go the way I want things to go, completely, but I'm off to a great start!

Good luck me...

That's the secret to life...replace one worry with another...
- Charles M. Schltz

This is what some famous comic writer quoted in the past. Like most people, I don't want to live a life filled with worries, although that wish seems to be impossible to be granted.

As some people may know, I am a very optimistic person and this optimism has helped me overcome many obstacles in the past. Thankfully, in most cases, I was able to accomplish my goal and that lead to my current status.

With graduation upcoming in 148 days and economic anxiety filling the air, the pressure of my responsibility at my employer is getting heavier. All the meaningless "what if"s continuously spur out of my mind and this situation is quite disturbing, because I know it's just meaningless to fear what probably won't happen. Still, the current, mostly economic, turmoil has the power to make me, an optimist, think too much about unnecessary risks.

In order to become more tolerable to this fear, I have set 3 goals to myself.

1. Obtain the tools necessary to start my career as a salesperson of financial instruments. Specifically, I would

a. be able to read and understand financial statements quickly and thoroughly.
b. be always aware of the rapid changes ongoing in the industry
c. gain my own perspective on investment in fixed income
d. earn techniques to gain potential customers
e. ...and through this process, don't forget the beginner's sight toward the financial world, so you would be able to explain financial instruments using normal Japanese, not financial Japanese.

2. Become more humorous and courteous to set the foundations to be an enjoyable salesperson.

3. Experience a minor setback and learn how to overcome it with effectiveness and efficiency.

These are all difficult tasks with no "correct" answers, like in schools. Especially, 2 and 3 are really difficult because I need actual experience with these matters. My advantage is that I have a lot of skills in English and office computing, with some knowledge within goal 1.

I don't know why I am writing this kind of "blue" blog entry, but bear with me. For the time being, along with these 3 goals, I would really like an additional 100,000 Yen, so I can fly abroad once again, consuming the best time period of my life more effectively, with fun and excitement.

Any investment toward me is appreciated.

november

4 months have passed since my last entry. i am becoming unable to make a constant effort to continue things, even though there are countless thoughts and ideas whirling within me.

lately, i have been working hard with the following matters:

1. graduation thesis
2. preparation for my employer
3. part-time job at a consulting firm

the clock is ticking and i must finish my thesis for graduation. although i have chosen a topic that should become useful for my operations next year, my motivation toward seminar is dragging down my interest toward that topic. this dilemma is also weighing my will down as well.

to be honest, i really don't care about the effect of taxation against financial instruments, but on the other hand, my knowledge toward accounting is insufficient to make any personal judgments to my potential clients next year and the existence of 2 parallel rules within these 2 are making things complicated.

my personal study toward my employment next year is #2. i have purchased various books that should relate to my work next year: books on corporate analysis, bond investment strategies, financial management, how to read securities filings, strategies to get new clients, and so on. i have yet to actually start reading these books, but i hope my views on this subject are accurate.

another questioning

Why are government bureaucrats a popular job for top students in japan? To be honest, it's stability and name value are the only points superior to other choices of employment.

Theoretically, governments don't go bankrupt because of their ability to print money and collect taxes. Of course, if governments take these measures to wipe their debt as a last resort, it will cause severe consequences to its economy. Most noticable of these effects is a high rate of inflation that was seen in Russia and in Argentina during their crises. Nevertheless, this theoretical stability is the reasoning for high rating government bonds can get.

Unfortunately, this does not effectively explain the popularity I mentioned in the question. Japan's got the highest GDP to government bond ratio even with the ridiculously low level of interest rate. There's no leeway left for this interest rate to go down, so the only way it can go is...UP, further increasing the difficulty of repayment. In case of a financial collapse of a government, the first ones down would be it's employees i.e. Bureaucrats, so if we look at the current financial situation our government has gotten itself into, stability is not backing up the cause. In other words, bureaucrats are working for the world's most underperforming company that generates about 30 trillion yen of debt each year.

To be continued...

photography

In addtion to the weird "peace sign" culture, I found out how people tend to take sceneric photos often without people, here in Japan. I wonder why...