Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

I drank the other night with two of my young coworkers.  I mentioned about how I planned my career for the next 2-7 years.  The young girl, Tomoko, mentioned that most Japanese people never really both thinking about career paths.  It's an interesting thing because I remember hearing from other recruiters the problems that they have when trying to get Japanese people to switch jobs.  I know this isn't true for every Japanese person, since I've met numerous Japanese people who look for better career opportunities.  Still even though people never understand the notion of a career path. 

It feels like people here don't know how to plot their life.  The average Japanese lifespan seems simple: work hard to get into a good school, sleep through a university, try to get into a decent company with some notion of lifetime employment, find a marriage partner, have a small family with your parents and relatives helping you out to get your own place, then retiring back in your hometown.  And of course people dream of becoming famous or going on TV, but many probably realize that would never happen for them.

Still though, just figuring out how to make it to a good level like CTO or director I feel are things that never cross people's minds here.  It seems people feel that as long as they (i.e. guys) work long enough for a company, they eventually will receive promotions based on seniority.  While that is true, you often see middle management who are lazy and clog up many companies with their presence.  The few success stories of young people in corporations are rare, but the ones that did happen like Livedoor/Horiemon, was a strike against young people in Japan.

In talking to my young coworkers they seem to have an inkling of potential leads to the next level, but I don't feel they know what the end point ought to be.  In my case, for instance, I realized that when I started working for ecommerce companies, my goal was to eventually move into larger companies with massively sprawling websites with the final end points being at spots like Amazon, Yahoo, or ebay (this was before Google).  In working with Ticketmaster, I realized I was able to learn enough about the big picture and started moving in a different direction where I wanted more creative control.

For Japanese people, I don't think they see the same type of career paths, the concrete direction that can take them fast and smoothly up the corporate ladder.  Of course, many here are hindered by the thought police in that switching jobs is a sin.  However, with the lack of stability from many companies, it's not nearly as bad as before.