06 Oct Tokyo Internship in Business: How I Worked from Home
Hi everyone! My name is Aleks Klomp and I am a third year law student at The Hague University of Applied Sciences studying International and European Law. I participated in the Remote Tokyo Internship program this summer with Absolute Internship! I had always wanted to experience what it would be like to work for a company in Japan, but as the world was changing I had to adapt and make the best out of this situation.
“You should totally go for an Absolute Internship program if you have a specific goal in mind. It will help you build up your resume and give you invaluable work experience.”
My Remote Tokyo Internship
I was and currently still am an intern at Kenja K.K., an enterprise cloud collaboration platform provider based in Tokyo. Personally I find it to be a very interesting and innovative company, because its mission is to revolutionize workplaces using blockchain technology. Its platform has many use cases for different types of companies. Besides being able to guarantee security and GRC (governance, risk and compliance), Kenja also uses blockchain to streamline certification processes so that companies can abide by government regulations more easily.
My main responsibilities and tasks
My main internship tasks revolve around Due Diligence and assisting the Business Development department. They include taking notes during meetings with clients, contributing to internal meetings and holding presentations. I also continue working on two big projects that involve Market Research. I occasionally have to do some ROI (return on investment) calculations, make KPIs (key performance indicators) and OKRs (objectives and key results).
My biggest challenge
I think by far the biggest challenge for me was waking up early every day for about a month. I did this because Japan is 7 hours ahead of the Netherlands and I really wanted to work during Japanese working hours to get the most out of my internship experience.
Looking back I definitely do not regret making this decision, since I did not miss out on any meetings and could interact with my colleagues without having to worry about time zone differences. Furthermore, I think it is a bit of an interesting story to tell others!
Achieving my goals
I have been studying Japanese since September 2019 and I hope to one day work in Japan. This Tokyo internship has already given me a lot of valuable work experience, so being able to put this on my CV will definitely increase my chances of achieving this goal.
The future
Initially my Tokyo internship was supposed to last one month while I was on vacation, but Kenja offered me an internship extension. Now, I only work for two hours per day every morning before my classes begin. This is according to my own time zone of course. Studying and working simultaneously can be a bit tricky at times but so far I have not had too much trouble managing the two.
My advice to you
You should totally go for an Absolute Internship program if you have a specific goal in mind. It will help you build up your resume and give you invaluable work experience. You will also have the opportunity to network with people in your field which will prove to be very useful for you later on in your career.
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