Internship is the key factor to carefully choose the company.

Three years ago, I came from France to work as a postdoctoral fellow and to have the experience of this internship program. My graduation field is organic chemistry and I had my internship in a chemical company, DIC, but working on engineering plastics.
Because I do not have the Japanese culture, I think it is necessary to divide my impressions in two parts:about Japanese companies in general and about the company I worked for.

Working in a Japanese company means following many rules that are especially very strict in terms of safety. I worked in a division with many people, and I was impressed by the community spirit, also that everyone seemed to know every machines, every experiments… I was also very surprised by the polite Japanese used by everyone, so when I came back to Osaka after only 3 months internship in Chiba, I couldn’t understand « Kansai ben » anymore! In addition to my discovery of Japanese corporation, I really started to feel that having internship at DIC was a good choice. I was (and still am) in a technical department that is very active, and leads to challenging problems to solve. Also, DIC is a company where people can express themselves and develop their ideas, I felt that workers were listening to my opinion even if I was just a student. Because DIC is a global company, I remember I was expecting to observe international meetings, worldwide discussions, and handle many English files… but not so much! Because, the working organization is typically Japanese! I had to become familiar to this situation.

Therefore, my advices for students are to carefully choose the company you want to discover, and to adapt quickly to the working style to show you are someone reliable. However, you may have to do some compromises in your choice (due to moribound economy…), but I really think that’s a chance to discover something else that can definitively suit you! Ganbattekudasai!

IDec（アイデック）とは
IDec（Innovative Doctor education center）は、大阪府立大学高度人材育成センターの通称です。
▼高度人材育成センター