Hello there!
My name is Jennifer DeVries, a fourth-year university student from the U.S.A. and an avid cafe-hopper and coffee lover. In May, I started my first-ever internship at Titan Consulting in Tokyo, Japan. It’s been an anticipated experience for the past couple of years, ever since I decided that I wanted to do an international internship in Japan when I first entered university. These logs will serve as a public diary to not only describe my experiences and daily tasks but also to help identify and document my areas of growth that will (hopefully!) develop over the next eight weeks at Titan Consulting.
This is a three-part series, so please look forward to the next two logs. I hope you enjoy it!
At Titan Consulting, I’m doing an internship on the Business Innovation team. Their primary focus is on recruitment of individuals in the areas of digital, IT, data, corporate strategy, and consulting services. The Business Innovation team is made up of nine other experts, all of who have their specialties within the team. Even within my first few days of being at the office, it was obvious that the atmosphere of Titan was a very relaxed one. With an open-concept office environment, it is easy to see who is present and absent, as well as who may be working intensely to close a deal with a client. I think that this helps promote a sense of community in the office, as everyone is easily accessible if needed, and not physically closed off into a cubicle. In addition to this, the office itself, which is based in the Yebisu Garden Place, hosts a wonderful view of Tokyo Tower and Fuji-san as well (unfortunately, only on clear days).
Over the past two weeks, I not only launched into a new position as an intern but have started helping with a variety of different projects to assist the Business Innovation team. One of these projects involved going through the company’s job portals and LinkedIn to locate and document available jobs for my team to use when they need to locate positions for their candidates. This required endless searching and sifting through multiple pages and websites of digitally focused jobs and their descriptions to ensure that they were what my team needed. In addition to this, I was also asked to go through the spreadsheets of companies that Titan has connections with already and organize the clients and candidates in those companies. I had to ensure those market maps were updated by checking each individual and their current position at their companies to see if they had been promoted or moved to a different company. This sounds rather repetitive (spoiler: it was). But these kinds of tasks have been enjoyable for me as I find great satisfaction in organization and crafting alphabetically oriented lists to improve accessibility for my teammates. Organizing these spreadsheets has probably been the simplest but most rewarding part of my internship experience: helping others around me behind the scenes to ensure that everything can flow smoothly when they approach their own tasks and interact with clients.
However, as Robert T. Kiyosaki said, “Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.” Because I have never worked in a corporate setting before, there have been a few areas in which I have failed or made a mistake already. It is a constant battle of reminding myself that I have a responsibility as an intern and my actions hold weight, but also, it is my first experience with recruitment and consulting work. There is still so much I do not know, so having a balance of grace and grit for myself is a highlighted thought in my head as I work on my projects and contribute to the company.
Here are some of the top takeaways that I’ve had so far from my experience:
- Pick yourself up and dust yourself off after failure, but remember why you fell in the first place.
- Communicate and ask questions when unsure.
- The world of recruitment is a lot bigger than you might think!
In addition to starting my internship at Titan Consulting, I have also been embracing the new environment and exploring the area around the office! The company office is based in Ebisu (Shibuya), so there has been an endless amount of options and choices when it comes to fun cafes and restaurants. Due to my love for coffee, it would not be uncommon to find me strolling around the streets of Ebisu during my lunch breaks as I search for my next cafe to enjoy. One of the cafes I visited recently is JOE TALK COFFEE (ジョートークコーヒー), located less than a 10-minute-walk from Ebisu Station. The body of their espresso is smooth with little acidity and has a good balance of flavors. Additionally, they offer great financiers and baked goods. If you are ever in the area and need a caffeine boost, I would highly recommend checking them out!
I hope you enjoyed this log of my initial experiences at Titan. Thank you for reading.
Until next time,
Jennifer DeVries
Intern at Titan Consulting K.K.