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Working Life - Masako' New York

Real working life

By Masako Yamada


これが社会人の生活だ!

雅子さんが社会人になって半年以上が過ぎました。アフター5は優雅なプライベートを過ごし、ときには友人を自宅に招いてパーティー…雅子さんはこんなふうに社会人生活を思い描いていました。しかし、現実はどうやら違うようです。これまでベールに包まれていた雅子さんの職務が、今明かされます?!

髪の毛やほこりが落ちないよう、無菌服で全身をすっぽりと包んだ筆者。仕事柄、無菌室で働くこともある
I realize this column is supposed to be about "Working Life" but that I haven't talked much about my job. I work as a physicist at a large research center in upstate New York. This is the first time I've had a full-time job.

All students graduating from doctoral programs must decide whether to stay in academia or enter industry. I figured the salary would be better and the work easier in industry. I also thought that in the future I'd like to shift from doing research to being a manager. I know I can't compete intellectually with brilliant scientists at a university, but I thought I might be able to sell my social skills at a company.

I've been working for over six months now, and I see that my vision of industry was not exactly accurate. What was especially inaccurate was my dream to work from 9 to 5 and have a rich personal life after-hours. My large living room is divided into two sections, so I envisioned setting up an art/music studio where I could work on projects and invite people over. In reality, my living room still has boxes that I haven't unpacked since moving here, and I haven't touched my piano in months.

I also have to get used to a completely new vocabulary. Common words at work that I'd never heard before include "deliverables" and "action items." Deliverables are the products we must deliver to our customers. Action items are the small tasks we must do to deliver those deliverables. After meetings, I often have a list of action items to accomplish within a few days. This doesn't allow much time to learn a new skill.

Given the fast pace at the center, it's crucial that we manage our time well. Most employees of the company, including myself, can't function without Microsoft Outlook. This software enables us to keep track of our e-mails, the addresses of our contacts, and our daily schedules. I get a reminder "beep" every time I need to be at a meeting.

One common activity at work is the teleconference, a.k.a. the "telecon." Many of our projects are team efforts involving lots of people in different states or different countries, so this is the best way to communicate. Walking down the hallway, I see many people talking on the phone with headsets, since all this teleconferencing can cause neck strain on a regular phone.

I currently work on two projects, so I participate in two weekly teleconferences. I also attend two old-fashioned project meetings a week, as well as countless sub-meetings. I find these meetings useful, but some people I know spend 10 hours a week in meetings, and at this point, things get ridiculous: We are supposed to be doing research after all!

I find the actual research the most interesting part of my work. Although we are not given unlimited free time to learn new skills (because profits must be made), I've been given the opportunity to use many pieces of laboratory equipment that I'd never seen before, since I only studied theoretical physics in school.

I've been honing my skills by doing as many experiments as I can, occasionally even into the wee hours. In retrospect, I wonder how I managed to go to Starbucks twice a day in graduate school, in addition to taking a two-hour lunch. If I worked as hard in graduate school, I probably would have graduated in three years, not six.

I'm very happy with my job, and I feel I've been adjusting well to my new environment. I feel fortunate that I'm now working at the intersection of two worlds: business and science. I may have been wrong about the number of hours I would end up working, but I definitely wasn't wrong in my prediction that I would enjoy working in industry. I don't miss the university life at all.



Shukan ST: July 11, 2003

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