News Letter

1.I-HoP News (by Mariko Katagaki)

As you may be already aware from the emails sent via Hi-System, some of I-HoP’s new approaches have been started, “JLPT Online Practice Half-test (E-learning)” and “Evening Japanese Language Course: Beginner (5/30,6/6,6/30)”.
The deadlines for registration are getting closer, do not miss the opportunity to start/practice Japanese!

Dates to watch out for:
*Application deadline for the “JLPT Online Practice Half-test (E-learning)” is 5/21 (Today!)
*Application deadline for the “Evening Japanese Language Course” is 5/24.

Especially, the “Evening Japanese Language Course” has been organized for MC, DC students and PDs, who are currently carrying out their academic life mainly in English.
According to the I-HoP’s annual “Career Plan Survey” in these three years, there were many requests for support learning the Japanese language.
In Hokkaido University, several classes are already available, however, the response of the survey said researchers can hardly participate in the available morning classes since they have other engagements, such as meetings or experiments, during the same time.

In response to such voices, I-HoP will hold beginner level course in the EVENINGS on May 30th, June 6th, and 13th.
The course consists of 3 lectures considering the busy schedule of researchers at Hokkaido University. Looking forward to your registration!

2. Memo from the Visiting Professor (by Yoshichika Iida)

My dear International Students and Researchers,

I was an audience of an auditorium in Shibuya, Tokyo among 200+ young students from all over the world anxiously waiting for Justin Tull, representative of the judges, made the announcement of the winner. “Team Aquamou – Hokkaido University is the winner of Tokyo quarter-final”. First time ever in the history of Hokkaido University’s relentless challenge to the Hult Prize, so-called “Nobel prize of students” for creation of a new social business idea to solve global social problems, to win the regional summit competition which was held in 25 cities in the world. Member of the team Aquamou led by Ifeanyi Chukwu, a master-course student of School of Fishery Sciences, will attend 6 weeks “Startup Accelerator” program in London from the end of July where they will receive coaching and mentorship, opportunities for networking and team-building with MBA course lecturers, business executives and venture capitalists or investors.
If you wish, which is your Vision, to solve global social issues such as defined by UN’s SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), and have a unique talent, which is your Mission, that you or your team can provide, then challenge to your objective with Passion will make yourself an entrepreneur. Vision, Mission, and Passion are the three most important elements of a successful venture company.

3. Seven Steps of Career Management Process

In the coming seven months, this section will explain the seven steps of Career Management Process that you need to follow through when you plan to start job hunting or change your career path. The process outlines the cases for non-academic career pursuit but it in general covers most of the academic career as well. The seven steps of Career Management are defined as follows:

Step-1 Make up your mind for the change
Step-2 Assess your value
Step-3 Identify Jobs and Tasks
Step-4 Gather Information on companies/institutions
Step-5 Initial Decision to narrow down to a few targets
Step-6 Recognize the gap and catch-up with training/education
Step-7 Apply for a Job

The topic of this month is Step-1, “make up your mind for the change”. Career Management is dealing with yourself and your life. You own the process in principle but if you have a family and dependents, you may have to take the requirements and expectations of those dependents into your consideration. Because of the aforementioned nature, the career management process requires a high level of your dedication and endurance once you have started the process. In order to achieve a satisfactory outcome at the end, you will have to proactively decide, with your strong will, to start the Career Management Process, rather than being forced to do so. In making your mind up, you may want to explicitly state your Career Vision in writing. Career Vision is an image of your long-term goal in your life. Even though the current or upcoming job may force you to divert from your Career Vision, it will encourage you to think about positive co-relations to your vision if it is put in writing and is visible to you all the time. In this Step-1, you need to define, at least, the following conditions:

a. Schedule (important if you have time limitations such as visa validity, graduation, end of your current term, etc. which defines the critical decision date)
b. Minimum income
c. Plan-B (if continuing what you are currently doing after the critical decision date is not feasible, and you do not find any other tangible opportunities, you must be prepared for Plan-B in which you can survive)
Because life is the relentless continuation of unexpected or unplanned happenings which may give either positive or negative impacts to your career pursuit especially at the turning points, career management may not proceed as planned. If you have a clear career vision and are better equipped with skills, mindsets, and versatility, you may be able to turn even “critical unwanted events” into “once-in-life opportunity”. This is called “Planned Happenstance Theory” If interested, please read the article such as the following:
http://plannedhappenstance.com/aboutus.html