Conversation with Mr. Satou

On Fridays, I have a conversation with Mr. Satou, a Japanese graduate student studying regional science in the same department as I am. I signed up for a program that matched me with a native Japanese speaker so that I can practice the language. Luckily I matched with him because we have similar majors. Usually, we talk in both English and Japanese so that we both can practice our target language, but more often I like to ask him in English about his job: a civil servant in the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry – one of the most prestigious government ministry for college graduates.

We meet in the Sibley Dome, a large open space at the top of our department building. It is hard to overhear other conversations because voices rise up, merge together and echo everywhere. That’s one benefit of a dome. There are inaudible voices around you, but the only person you will hear is the one in front of you. 

“Sorry, I’m late.” He arrived in his usual blue long sleeved t-shirt, grey jeans and a rectangular shell-like backpack. 

“Oh, no problem.”

“How many exams do you have?” He asked in Japanese

“Only three.” I answered, fulfilling the usual small talk at the start of every conversation.

Being somewhat scared about my future in the last few days, I ask Mr. Satou about his job to get to know what it is like on the other side.

“What is it like to work in the ministry?”

“It’s gotten better since I started I think. Luckily, METI is one of the only few ministries that value young worker’s talent so I was able to get promoted only after four years. Other takes longer like ten years. Before that, I was just photocopying paper and brewing tea for my boss. 

I remember walking into my first job having no idea of what they would have me do. The lobbyist sent me up to the office and I was assigned a desk. They dumped a tall pile of paper next to me and the first thing they made me do was to call up clients.” 

“That must be tough,” I laughed, “then, how did you get used to the job?”

“Well, it’s mostly On The Job training. I had no idea what I was doing during my first phone call.”

“So what did you do?”
“I would just tap my colleague next to me on the shoulder and asked him what to do,” he made a gestured a phone with his hand.

Honestly, I was surprised how little preparation the ministry gave him.

“Did what you learn as a college student help you?” I continued asking.

“A little bit. I studied law. All kind of law. Business law. Industry law. International law.”

“So it’s like you’re concentrated from the start then?”

“Yup,” he laughed.

“How were your student days before the job?”

“Honestly, I skipped a lot of classes, went out with friends and checked twitter a lot.”

I don’t know why he mentioned Twitter because it seemed like such a normal task. If someone asked me what I did in college, I would not probably tell them “I check Facebook a lot.” But if he did do this, it is still surprising that he was able to get a job at a prestigious Japanese ministry. However, I never asked him about his academic standing, but I’m sure he was hiding his actual ability in school. Very humble. Very Japanese of him to do so.

“Haha, then did you wish that you should have learned more stuff?”
“Yeah, probably economics or something,” he paused for a while, “but in the end, I learned a lot on the job so I was fine.”

If I were to learn most of what I need on the job, what am I supposed to do in college? Well again, it’s not like I’m going to do the same stuff Mr. Satou is doing. 

“I don’t know what to do, honestly.” I told him after a short period of silence.

“Don’t worry too much about it, you have many years before then.”

“Yes, but I want to know what I need to learn.”

Mr. Satou looked out in the distance. It was not a long distance because the Dome was not that wide. He returned to look back at me. 

“Do you know this T-concept from design thinking?” He asked.

“Umm… not really.”

“They say everyone, when they do their jobs, is like a T,” he turned his hands into T-shaped gestures. “There are these horizontal and the vertical lines right? The horizontal line is broad knowledge in a bunch of things. The vertical part is a deep knowledge of something. This is typically your field of work.”

I nodded slowly. 

“You see, each person is a T. When you combine everyone together, it links together,” he connects his two Ts, “The horizontal broad knowledge helps you work with each other. The vertical deep knowledge is what you give to the team as an individual.”

He looked up from his hands to me and paused for a second.

“You shouldn’t worry too much about what to learn, do or know. Gain a broad horizontal knowledge of things. The vertical part? You’ll learn it as you work or intern. So worry about that later.” He laughed.

I was somewhat relieved. Talking to someone who already has experience is really enlightening. I thought that I was in a race against time to find something. Now that I know that much of what needs to be learned can be found out during the professional period of my life, I don’t have to stress as much. As I get more experience, I will be able to pinpoint what I need in college, and then I can do the necessary class shopping for it.

The “broad knowledge of things” philosophy also ties into my concern about what to learn in college. I talked to my friend before about the art of conversations, and we agreed that it is best to become a jack-of-all-trades (mostly in subjects that I am interested in) rather than a hole digger in a particular subject. Partly this is because you can talk to a wider range of people. Each conversation may bring you to a new topic area you might become interested in. In other words, you are building a web on interesting topics for yourself. There’s probably nothing wrong with knowing deeply about something if you really care about it. But there’s a charm in being able to talk to other people in what you both find interesting and not just what you find interesting yourself. It won’t work with everyone because it is impossible to become knowledgeable, even in the basic sense, in everything. But you will probably learn a lot later on anyways.

This way, there will be more potential for growing a deep vertical knowledge in something in the future.