Making a decision about life
How do you decide which way you should take your life? The high road? The low road? The back alley, or the expressway? Perhaps you’d like to head into the country, or you might want to ride in to the big city.
I travel along the Road of Life, and I see branches stretching out as I pass by. I don’t know where I’m going. I don’t know what scenery I want to gaze upon, I don’t even know if I should swap my bicycle for a car or a train.
But what I feel, very strongly now, is weight of the Path Taken, or Not Taken. I feel as if the road I choose now will commit me to a certain direction, will have a grave impact. Even though it’s theoretically possible to bail out a couple months down, hike back and try something else.
I’m just about ready to sign an offer with a venture company. I got to know them through an INSEAD friend. They are made of Tokyo University grads who have fled systems/management consulting and finance, to start their own hip and quirky IT company patterned after Silicon Valley startups. In case you are not familiar, most Japan startups (if they exist) are pretty staid, boring creatures who are more like subs of bigger companies.
The pay is really bad though, about the same as when I joined my first company. I had a much better offer from another company to join their new bizdev division for marketing in-house tech, software and user interface, but I liked the people at the venture more.
Still, I dunno if I’m making a mistake. At this venture I’d be working with young, smart and cool people who have the freedom to pull in or start up any project they want, as long as they can show it could make a return. They do everything from running online wedding planning sites, to digital art exhibits, to music exchange communities… Basically, they are a bunch of geeks who decided the only work worth doing is stuff they like. It’s amazing but they are actually in the black. Probably because they pay their people peanuts!
At the other company, which is about 13 years old and a veteran video game and mobile content creator, I’d be no.2 in the new business division, basically doing strategy, marketing, running through ideas and turning the most promising ones into something marketable. Sounds really awesome, but I keep getting the nagging sense that these guys aren’t going to get far. They are too small, the ideas I saw are close to vaporware, and most tellingly, the boss with whom I would be working closely, doesn’t really talk to me. Having a conversation is like pulling teeth.
Aside from that, I’ve spoken to (don’t laugh) Pokem** Corp, which does marketing and branding for all *ahem* Pikapika products. They talked about sending me to England to help start up their new office there, doing localization, marketing and events. Again, coool as hell. But… I would prefer to be in Tokyo. I wonder if I’m a fool for dismissing this one based solely on location.
Also had an interview with Insurance Company H as a QA Designer for Variable Annuity Applications. Yeah, I had no freakin’ idea what that meant either! Surprisingly though, for a 200 year old insurance company the Japan side, or at least the QA team, is pretty sprightly and dynamic. The Japan branch was established just 5 years ago, and the QA team 3 years ago, with a grand total of 1 and a half people! Now they have 8, but they are really understaffed because the business is growing like mad. At first I thought they were a Real Proper QA Division, and me without any formal QA training would be considered underqualified. But it seems that they are winging it as they go, and so when they heard that I also ran my own QA division alone and blind, instead of frowning at my half-assed experience, they actually seemed to respect me!
Anyway, waiting to hear back on their thoughts.
But… it’s a bit too late. I’m due to give my answer to the venture company’s offer on Monday. There’s no way I’d hear back from H by then… the interview was just a feeler for me anyway. Next week Tuesday I also have an interview with a Big Consulting Firm. Again, no real interest, just sniffing the grass on the other side ^_^
So, to wrap up, I’m sitting here, in practical terms I really have only one choice, which would be to take the venture offer. I’m running out of time on the visa, so it make sense to grab this one, secure my work visa. I tell myself I could try it for 3 months, and if I think it’s not worth it, I’d be in a better position to hunt for a new job.
So my reservations are, what kind of work would I be doing? Cool web projects are fine, but wouldn’t it be cooler to start new business lines or help run fledgling divisions? How much do I value the people component of a company over the pay? Where does this decision leave me in terms of career progression? Can I go back to living in a shoebox? Heh…
I keep thinking I should do like a SWOT analysis and whatever on this… I mean, how does one figure out what to do with your life? Usually I know what I want, and boom I go for it, but this time I have doubts and uncertainties galore. Masa says I’m hesitating because this time I don’t really know the answer to, “What do I want”. Me and most of INSEAD!
I guess I should sit down and draw up a chart. I think I already know the components of my ideal job:-
Team
A great team who are geeks who really like me, but who are damn smart. They know how to manage people and projects, they can teach me stuff. We can work hard but have a good time hanging.
Work
A variety of stuff, from project management, to heading teams, to developing new business ideas and products. No grunt work! Or rather, minimum amount. More B2C – B2B systems work is bleh – with a chance to touch on marketing and strategy. Cool industry that fits with my interests, such as gaming, anime/manga, music, internet, tech, events. However, knowing that many of these industries are actually very traditional and uptight, so you don’t want to be directly involved, you just want to be able to touch it, in a sense. Bonus points for the opportunity to read, write and discuss stuff that I’m passionate about.
Take Aways
Still working on this. For now, when I go into my next job, I want to be able to say, “Dude, I can manage any project or team, I can help you start a business from scratch, I can deliver you a refined idea based on your needs, I can analyse your situation and determine a strategy, I can separate the wheat from the chaff and know what’s the most efficient allocation of resources.” This sounds like a consultant, who also executes :P I also want to have the confidence to start my own business.
Pay
Enough so that I can live in a nice big place in a good location! That means spending about 100,000yen on rent. Other than that, I’m not fussy. Of course, more is always better.
Location
Tokyo, Tokyo, TOKYO! At this point, I don’t think there’s any other choice. Perhaps in a couple years, or if Hekiru retires, my feelings will change. But, for now, I desperately want to put down roots and reconnect with people, and this is the city in which I want to do that.
