• Podcasts Podcast Feed

    Japan News

    Web and graphic design in Kobe, Japan since 1999

  • Categories

  • Archives

  • Pages

  • Article of the Day

    Provided by The Free Dictionary

    This Day in History

    Provided by The Free Dictionary

    Quote of the Day

    Provided by The Free Library

  • World Oddities
 
Here it comes...
 
10-16-2008
The ride up slows down…lessons learned
Filed Under (Living in Japan) by Mike

The last couple months have been looking pretty good for me until this week. I was starting to make good money doing weddings, we had a team together to apply for a $100,000 grant, and there was even a chance I would get a full time position. Well, I got too excited too early. My schedule for weddings next month (the busiest month of the year), and all though it could change, is pretty weak. I’ll still clear close to $1,500 but it should have been close to $2,500 or more. The grant went from $100,000 to $50,000 to $30,000 to $15,000 to “it’s not enough to do any research.” The full time position wasn’t even possible because they were looking for a Japanese teacher. Time to regroup.

So at least I am going to finish my Masters in the next few months and be able to apply for jobs without relying on networking solely. I’ll have a small textbook, an article, two presentations, three letters of recommendation and possibly one paper published by the end of the year. All in all, it has been a fruitful year.

Lessons learned:

  • Don’t finish college if you don’t know what you are going to do. When you get older you can go back and finish–unless you are going to be a blue collar worker your whole life.
  • Enter into relationships that benefit both sides if your intention is to further your career.
  • As long as you have a vision and goal for your future, what’s happening today won’t affect reaching your target.
  • No matter what people say, stay positive and continue helping others with a good attitude.
    Don’t ever get bitter.
  • Every word out of your mouth is important. One phrase can be your demise.
  • Get 8 hours of rest every night. Your health is most important.
  • Don’t be afraid to stand back and ask, “What the hell am I doing?”
  • Don’t let on that you know more about something than the other person, especially if they are older than you.
  • Tenured positions don’t pay as well as contract positions…period!
  • Learn to live with uncertainty.
     


Comments:
2 Comments posted on "The ride up slows down…lessons learned"
Zen on October 16th, 2008 at 8:32 am

It has been interesting watching your growth.


Zen on October 17th, 2008 at 10:08 am

ISFP - The Artist


You must be logged in to post a comment.