As I’m rapidly approaching my graduation from this program, I get this question constantly. “What do you want to do? What are your plans?” It’s a question asked out of polite interest, or excitement, but it can often be a source of stress. I’m someone who always sort of figures things out on the fly, and that hasn’t changed at all. But now is the time to start thinking about it.
I have heard from some of my software developer friends that they would like to do work that is impactful–that helps people, or makes a positive change in the world. They say that they sometimes feel like their efforts are useless, that while maybe they look good on a resume, they don’t actually have any meaningful impact in peoples lives. It wasn’t something that I’ve really had to consider until now. Before, in a past life, I worked to help children with special needs with their behavioral issues. It had a major positive impact for the children, their families, their teachers, and basically anyone else in their life. This isn’t to say I’m a saint and that you should praise me–but my impact “for the greater good” was fairly measurable. While sometimes things didn’t work out the way I wanted, I usually felt good about my work. It made the hard days easier, and the easy days a blast.
But now? I’ve always liked helping people. Accomplishing something for yourself is great, but accomplishing something for other people–it’s an easy way to make your life feel worthwhile (at least for me). I’d like to find something like that with my career in software development. But it’s less clear cut. How many people develop an app that changes peoples lives? Or create a website that helps people, in more than a minimal way? It’s more difficult in this field to find something where you create meaningful change in peoples lives. I could be wrong! I’d love for people to drop me a message and give me some ideas. I think this is where my “go with the flow”-ness helps me.
In an ideal world, I’d find something that combines two of my larger passions–programming and Japanese language. I have some ideas. For one, I’ve noticed that many many Japanese websites don’t have an English translation built in, or the ability to ship their products to foreign countries. I would love to help people with that. There are so many small to medium sized businesses in Japan that could benefit from a software developer who is bilingual in Japanese and English. I’d love to help them share their products and their ideas with the world. I’ll give you an example.
This little baby is made out of candy!! This is the art of amezaiku, where the artist, or shokunin, takes hard candy while it’s still warm and malleable, and uses tools like tweezers and scissors to form the candy into a variety of fanciful shapes, with animals being very common. This art is very cool, but very rare. It is estimated that there are less than 100 amezaiku shokunin left in Japan, with less than half that number being people who sell their creations. Of those who sell their products, most do not offer their products online. I would love to help people like this bring their products to the world, to help share traditional Japanese culture. Because it is becoming harder and harder to find.
If you’re interested in reading more about amezaiku, Mental Floss has a really good article, here:
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/628146/amezaiku-japanese-candy-sculpture
