Brent Jacobs

Not all internships are successful. Brent Jacobs worked as a systems engineer at a tool manufacturing company near Nagoya. He ended his internship after three months because of an overall unpleasant experience.

"My case was of an internship that just didn't work out," Brent said. "I had worked at a Japanese company before, and that experience was completely different. It was great." But at this particular office, Brent discovered he had an unresolvable personality conflict with his boss. This person wouldn't give Brent responsibility, talked down to him, and didn't treat him with respect.

Living alone in the company dorm and having no friends, Brent felt isolated. Upon leaving work at 5:30 p.m., he simply went back to his dorm room. After several weeks, Brent found he had lost 20 pounds.

"I tried to change things, but that didn't seem to work." After talking to his boss and others about the situation and seeing no improvement, Brent decided it was best to end the internship. Although Brent departed prematurely, he completed all of his work assignments to the satisfaction of his supervisors, and he met the internship requirements.

Brent advises going on an internship with the clear goal of learning the language, and beyond that having few expectations. "Don't expect that they know or even care about your educational level," he says. "They'll assume you don't know how to do anything." New Japanese recruits often face the same treatment: being required to start at the very beginning in spite of their advanced university education. Nonetheless, Brent's Japanese training stood him in good stead--he landed a job at Microsoft in charge of international network sites such as msn.com.

Michael O'Keefe

Michael O'Keefe's experience was quite a contrast to Brent's. "From day one of my arrival at Nippon Steel Corporation, I was treated well," he said. Michael spent six months at Nippon Steel Corporation in Futtsu, Chiba Prefecture, working on a project that involved heat transfer in the steel-making process.

"Nippon Steel knows how to have interns," Michael said. "Some companies don't, even in the United States." Most of the interns at Nippon Steel were foreigners, but Michael was told he was the first one from the United States.

"Whenever I had a question or concern, someone was there to help me. The help I received was not exclusive to company issues, either. On one occasion, my supervisor, Mr. Nakagawa, took me in his own car to the far off city government center so that I could register for my alien registration card even though he was very busy. And some days at work he would sit down and spend hours discussing a part of my project."

Michael found his co-workers also to be very welcoming. "All of my co-workers were very helpful. I really felt like part of the group. My supervisor and many co-workers invited me home, so I got to use the dialogues we had learned in the Technical Japanese Program. In fact, many of the daily situations and interactions I had at work were part of the TJP curriculum. Going there knowing how to deal with those situations gave me great confidence."

Michael advises future interns to do two things. (1.) Contact the people you'll be working with in advance of going over. These people will most likely be more than happy to talk with you about what you can expect, how you can prepare, and what you should bring. (2.) Have something to do that's a stress-reliever. For me, it was jogging. Other than that, I guess all you really need is a positive attitude and an open mind."