Q1What department do you work for, and what are your job responsibilities?

The Sales Division is currently staffed by four people, including an assistant.
My job is to communicate with customers and to perform launch-related tasks for products that have not yet been released to market. In specific terms, my job involves working with suppliers and with other departments within the company prior to the final release of a product, creating prototypes. To use the technical jargon, I perform an integrated job that includes the “prototype” and “production model” stages and ends with final delivery to the customer.
My main duties involve coordinating schedules while communicating directly with customers, and sometimes they require solving the problems that arise during the production process. The prototype and production model development period is the most important period when it comes to delivering products of the highest quality to end users. This period is challenging and involves a great deal of responsibility, but I find these tasks rewarding.
One of the most interesting aspects of sales at Shinsei-koki is the wide range of fields that we deal with.

Q2What is your daily work flow?

After I arrive at the office, I check my email. After that, I proceed with work in cooperation with other departments. This includes attending departmental debriefing meetings, responding to customers, making arrangements for production setup, setting up meetings, and getting other company departments involved.
In the afternoon, I visit customers (to make deliveries). After I return to the office, I check my email again, and then I prepare for the next day before heading home.

Q3Do you find your job rewarding?

My job is rewarding when I am able to earn the trust not only of customers but of suppliers as well. I find it very pleasing and rewarding to know that if they have a problem in particular, they can ask me for help as a salesman, and I will do something about it. I have also gained a certain amount of trust due to the fact that people both inside and outside the company are willing to talk to me about work that is outside my area of responsibility, and I am grateful for my current work environment, which allows me to do that.

Q4What hardships and difficulties occur in the course of your work?

There’s a huge range of knowledge and information that relates to the products our company handles, and I had to learn accurate information for each and every product, which was difficult at first. It was especially difficult for me because I attended a liberal arts university, which meant I had to learn a lot in relation to the scientific fields. In situations like that, I try to improve my knowledge by asking questions of senior employees and supervisors right on the spot in the course of my job to confirm things. Naturally, I also perform my own research right away and try to solve problems on the spot as much as possible.

Q5What do you like about your workplace?

Our company is a very open place by nature, and I think it is a very cheerful workplace. I feel that the barriers to interpersonal relationships are also low within the company. It is easy to go beyond the barrier between junior and senior employee, or between superior and subordinate, in our communication—within the limits of common sense, of course—and that makes it a pleasant environment to work in. Since it is a creative workplace, we sometimes clash with each other, but in the end, we discuss how to make effective progress and bridge the gaps in our thinking. I think it’s a good thing that our current team is able to find ingenious ways of proceeding with projects. Another attractive aspect of our workplace is the close relationships that exist between people of all ages and both sexes, even in private life.

Q6 Is there anything you’d like to say to future employees?

Even looking only at the domestic market, there is a variety of industries and occupations. Since I joined the company, I have discovered the existence of numerous professions that I still don’t understand. In that regard, the first thing I would like to say to new graduates is that you should broaden your horizons and go see various things for yourself. This will ultimately help you find the industry and occupation that are right for you. I hope that for now, while you are still a student, you take on various challenges, broaden your knowledge through numerous experiences, and find a company and workplace that will suit you in the future.
Also, for those of you who are thinking about changing jobs, I think that my current workplace offers great interpersonal relationships and is an easy environment to fit into. We have also adopted working style reform that makes it easier to take time off and that minimizes overtime work.
Overall, I think this is a good place to work. Feel free to ask me any questions you have.