Profile

A very energetic high school

In high school I scored 5 points in physics and was a volleyball player who loved sports.

I once stayed home sick, then showed up to practice after school anyway, and the coach was not pleased.

A longer-than-usual university

After a gap year I entered a mid-tier humanities university (international relations).

I studied in Oregon twice (one short year and one two-year stay), so university took about six years in all.

Credit transfer let me graduate in the same major from both schools, which left me with two degrees.

First step as an engineer

It was the middle of the employment ice age. I applied to about 50 companies and got nowhere, then joined a systems company through an introduction.

Desktop and web apps were mixed at the time, and I started to get interested in web systems.

I left after a year and a half, and I am still grateful to that company for giving me a first step when I had nothing.

Contract and secondment years

After leaving a full-time title, I worked as a sole proprietor, sent into many projects.

Even in my second and third years I was expected to be immediately useful, and that was hard.

I sometimes cried on the train home, feeling useless when nobody expected anything from me.

When a project ended I would take time off for school, and in my twenties I spent a lot of time and money on myself.

Overseas, to Canada

After six years in Japan I wanted to use the English I had learned as a student, and to see how far I could go, so I moved to Vancouver.

I was 31. I found a one-year web design and development course and entered on a student visa.

More than half a year after graduation I still had no job and my savings were running out. Just as I started to think it was over, I was hired by my current company.

After nearly two years of processing I received permanent residence. I was genuinely happy. I felt I had chosen where I would live.

And now

It has been 15 years in Canada. I live with my wife and our daughter. Somewhere along the way I became skilled enough to teach other people.

I still study three or four hours a day. Web engineering is creative work, and it gets more interesting as you can do more.

Web skills travel. They still work if you change cities, or leave Japan.

If these articles help you grow and someday give you more choices in life, that is what I hope for.