TheLeong.com

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the future. Not like way into the future, but mainly the great task of finding a JOB. I’ve had to work on resumes and cover letters for my X420 class, and there’s this career fair coming up at the end of October in Boston. I think I’m going to go. It’s a bunch of Japanese companies, which is something I’ve been considering. The big hangup, however, is that most of these companies ask for Business Level Japanese of American applicants. I’ll admit, my Japanese is pretty good, especially conversational, but BUSINESS LEVEL? Uhh I don’t think so. It’s like keigo (honorific language) on steroids. That’s my main reservation about going to Boston. I’m just counting (I mean hoping) that there will be some companies who only ask of conversational Japanese ability, and/or companies there who interview in English. Boston would be a fun weekend trip as well.

X420 is also doing it’s own little job of making me stress out and think about getting a job. The class itself is cake; I go to class sometimes, and spend about 30 minutes a piece on the homework assignments. I’m doing really well so far; the class is graded on a point system, and I’ve been making plenty of points. It is, I suppose, a good excuse to make me work on resumes and stuff like that, since otherwise I probably would neglect to do them. I need to start going to job fairs, sending out resumes and cover letters, and in general just actually go out and hunt for a job. Graduation isn’t until May (I should find out when I need to register for that), but I have a feeling I’m going to need to find and have a job by the end of March at the very latest. Maybe I should just take the easy way out and do JET (teaching English or something in Japan). The pay isn’t great, but it’s not bad. And I’d be in Japan. Do I even want to be in Japan?

Speaking of the job hunt, and X420, I have to admit how much I hate some business students. I know, I’m a business student, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about certain business students (there are a lot of them) that take this all too seriously. I’m talking about the kids who wear suits to stupid company presentations IN CLASS (not like real company presentations, just them coming to talk to a class), go up and try to BS smalltalk with the presenters just to “stand out,” and in general just try too hard to be “professional” and just trying to get a job. It’s hard to explain, but I think you know what I’m talking about. There was such a presentation in my X420 lecture this past Thursday, and when it was all over, everyone is in line to throw their resume into the company folders. One of the presenters is up at the front of the room, and I hear this one kid in front of me trying to make smalltalk. Not even meaningful conversation. Just pure BS. It was so forced and uncomfortable it could have been on Curb Your Enthusiasm. And of course he tried to turn his comment into a handshake and a “Hi, my name is Retarded Moron, blah blah blah.” These kids do it all the time. I am not going to kiss up to someone to get a job (OK maybe just a little, but I still gotta keep my dignity). If someone is going to hire me, it’s going to be because I’m awesome. Which I am. Look at my resume. You will hire me.

I’ve decided (OK not really, it’s always been kind of a given) that there are 3 main categories of job that I might be going for. Also there are hybrids of these categories. The 3 are: Marketing/Advertising, Television or Film, and Japanese related. Right now I have no clue which one I want to concentrate on. I have a feeling that the marketing path will get me the biggest starting salary…somewhere around 50K plus. That’s pretty darn tempting. Television is probably something that I would love the most. Japanese would be fun, but I don’t know if that’s something I should do right away. Especially since I don’t have business level Japanese (ugh). If I were super lucky, I could land a job doing TV advertisements (CMs) for a Japanese TV station. Let’s be honest, I’m not going to land something that sweet right away.

This post was pretty pointless (I say that all the time, mainly because it’s true). Just wanted to let everyone know that finding a job is a huge pain in the butt and I wish I could just get paid a handsome salary to stay at IUSTV the rest of my life. Oh, in other news, I finally got Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and it is one of the sweetest films I have ever seen. Even if I’d never played through FF7, I think this would still be one of the greatest films ever. The CG is amazing; about 3820498 times more impressive than Toy Story. Everyone should see this movie right now. I’m totally buying the DVD when it’s released in the US at the end of November. For now, my torrented version works great.