For me, this internship brought a series of new challenges. Since I didn’t have any prior internship experience, I didn’t have any idea what interns did or what it meant to work. I didn’t know if my English would be understood because I never used English for work, which made me even more nervous on my first day.

Although I went into my internship with these concerns, I was welcomed very warmly on my first day. As a result, I was able to learn many things and enjoyed the whole process.

The first thing I learned during my internship is the importance of enjoying new challenges rather than being fearful of them.

During my first week, I had the opportunity to conduct an interview in English for the first time in my life.  The person I interviewed was a veteran with multiple years of experience in the recruitment industry.  Before the interview, I was terribly nervous about the fact that I would do something new and could not fail in front of a seasoned consultant.  I began to think that the interview questions that I prepared beforehand were not good enough too.

I was very nervous during the beginning of the interview to the point where I stuttered to say my questions but my nervousness faded away as the interview went on.  I was able to enjoy the interview when I realized that I was capable of conducting an interview on my own.  After the interview, I felt a huge sense of accomplishment knowing that I have done something that I have never done before.  After going through the process of creating and editing the article I wrote on the interview, I started to enjoy being able to see my hard work pay off.

Another thing I learned from the internship was the difficulty of effective communication. 

This past month, I worked with the marketing team to help write articles and translate existing articles into Japanese. Writing an article means that you have a topic or an idea to share with others.  However, it is not easy to effectively communicate what you want to say.  The readers could get a completely different impression depending on how you choose your words.  This is why it was necessary for me to think about the reader whenever I was writing.  It is also important to put yourself in the readers’ shoes. I was able to gain a lot of feedback which made me aware of the readers when writing and made me understand how impactful each word is.

I believe that I was able to learn a lot this past month. Not only did I feel the excitement of new challenges and learn the importance of communication, but I was also able to think deeply about my future and experience how fun working could be thanks to the diverse group of people I’ve met at RGF. While cherishing everything that I have learned through this experience, I hope to continue enjoying new challenges, use language carefully, and practice effective communication. 

- Hinano Nakajima (Intern at RGF Professional Recruitment Japan)