After countless jobs, I found my place in a Startup
LIGHTENED is an online platform where international students in Japan can find various long-term internship and career opportunities. This time Ririka Takahashi, a member of the Customer Success Team at LIGHTENED, talks about the struggles of job hunting and her passion for her new job at LIGHTENED.
An expat returns home for university
I spent 10 years of my life in an international school in Thailand, growing up in an environment surrounded by people from overseas. I went to Thailand when I was 8 years old. My life overseas was so long compared to the time period that I lived in Japan, that I almost thought of myself as Thai. It was not until middle school, when asked for my thoughts about the Atomic Bomb in Hiroshima in Humanities class, that I realized I am Japanese. Having grown up in Thailand surrounded by non-Japanese friends, I did not feel I was Japanese, and so felt uncomfortable being asked about my opinions as a Japanese person. However, since that class, I started to pay attention to the reality that I am a Japanese. By doing so, I became more curious about my roots and wanted to live in Japan again. And so, I finally decided to go to university in Tokyo.
During my university days, I was an active girl. Since I decided to live in Japan and contribute to its society, I started to think about my future career from the beginning of enrollment. I worked as an intern for the Ministry of Education when I was a freshman, as a research assistant at VisasQ and a sales intern at Tesla. I did various summer internships as well. I took almost every opportunity put in front of me because I didn’t want to narrow my possibilities. From the public sector to private sector, I experienced numerous internships. Of course studying is important, but I wanted to make the world better through business as well. I was also engaged in extracurricular activities such as organizing and hosting international conferences.
In addition to the internships, I went to the National University of Singapore as an exchange student for half a year. I picked classes that I was interested in, like economics and the history of Southeast Asia, the relationship between Singapore and Japan, etc. This experience strengthened my will to work in Japan and motivated me to do a job that will also impact the whole of Asia.
The frustration of job hunting
Despite so having so much job and overseas experience, when it came to job hunting, I had a hard time. My intern experiences taught me that no matter where I work, there is always something I can learn and some area in which I can play an active part. I felt there were so many options to choose from, all kinds of careers seemed interesting to me. That was when I encountered LIGHTENED, and felt that I can make a positive impact on society.
The future illuminated by LIGHTENED
What motivated me most to join LIGHTENED was my personal connection to its service. During my college life at the University of Tokyo, I was surrounded by international students. I felt that a lot of my friends were very confused about the job hunting system in Japan. They didn’t know what it was like inside a Japanese company nor how to write an application form. Even native Japanese people like me still struggle with this complicated application process. International students don’t know how to find a company that suits them, so their choice is often limited. Only bigger companies are putting effort into recruiting international students, so only they are well known to them. For people who don’t speak Japanese, it’s difficult to know the variety of career options. LIGHTENED however, provides an efficient system to support international students in finding their dream job.
With Japan’s aging society and lack of workforce becoming ever greater public concerns, it’s important to maximize the foreign talent here. Working at LIGHTENED, I feel that I am part of the solution to this huge problem.
My role at LIGHTENED
My main responsibility as a member of the Customer Success team is to make sure that our clients are able to reach their goals by using our service. We work closely with the sales team who is responsible for customer acquisition, then together create a strategic plan suited to each client. This requires a lot of research and logical thinking. Communication and relationship building skills are also essential, as we’re expected to identify and resolve underlying issues. Once the strategy is made and has been approved by our clients, we proceed to execute it. Currently, LIGHTENED provides an English PR article service for client companies, in order to raise awareness about the client company to international audiences. The Customer Success team are solely responsible for this service. This includes interviewing the company and the workers, writing and editing the article and publishing it. (You can check them out here) Once published, it is also the customer success team’s responsibility to collaborate with the marketing team to distribute marketing to the desired audiences. Lastly, we measure analytics collected from various sources to ensure that the client’s needs have been fulfilled.
Offering individual strategic consultation to clients can be challenging, but the responsibility that comes with it is hugely rewarding. By providing this service to clients, I feel I am able to make a real impact for their company. What I also love about my job is that I get to work together with people from different teams, both in and out of LIGHTENED. I really enjoy the process of collaborating with other teams to reach a shared goal.
A place where young energy gathers
LIGHTENED’s members are from all over the world. Vietnam, China, Taiwan, and the UK. Everyone has their own unique story, and it is these diverse backgrounds combined with individual’s passion that make LIGHTENED so special. A lot of our members are aspiring entrepreneurs. They are doing an internship at LIGHTENED because they want to get first hand experience in starting and running a business. Our youngest member is only 18 years old, their attitude to work and aspirations are inspiring. Since we all speak different languages, sometimes communication is a little bit difficult, but we all share the determination to learn and grow.
The best thing about LIGHTENED is that the members are given important tasks with great responsibility. Our actions greatly impact not only LIGHTENED but also the client companies. There is some level of pressure but it is outweighed by the rewards, you can see the company getting bigger and bigger as you work harder. Being part of a company like LIGHTENED will definitely push you to grow.
We are hiring for our new project!
LIGHTENED is currently hiring a B2B marketing intern who is highly motivated to build relationships with potential clients. If you wish to learn the fundamentals of running a business, or if you identify with our vision of achieving a more diverse society, LIGHTENED is for you.
Want to join the LIGHTENED team? Apply for our open roles here!
