[No. 26] Wataru Sakai

Before entering university, I couldn't decide on just one thing I wanted to do—I thought about writing novels, researching psychiatry, or studying law. In any case, I had a hard time choosing a faculty to apply to. In the end, because I liked physics in high school, I enrolled in the Faculty of Science and Technology at Keio University under Category 1, which allows students to advance to the Department of Physics. However, when it came time to choose a department at the end of my first year, I easily changed my mind and decided to advance to the Department of Biosciences and Informatics, which seemed to offer studies in information engineering, a field I was interested in at the time, and research related to the medical sciences.

After entering the Department of Biosciences and Informatics, it wasn't that I was completely absorbed in my specialized subjects. I found myself more interested in the content of the liberal arts courses I took as general education subjects, and I couldn't clearly envision the job I wanted to do in the future. Many of the things I learned during this period are not directly related to my current job, but I believe they enriched my life by stimulating my curiosity and interacting with knowledge from other fields to give me new perspectives. I am still a person with little life experience, but I feel that Keio University provides a foundation for acquiring a broad perspective that will serve as a strong support when I face problems in my long life ahead and need to think of solutions.

At the end of my third year, my laboratory assignment was decided, and I joined the Ota-Miyamoto Laboratory. There, I began research on genetically modifying E. coli to efficiently produce a certain enzyme. As was typical for me, I didn't just focus all my energy on my assigned research topic. During the regular literature review sessions, I would present research papers on Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia, which were not directly related to the lab's research, simply following my own interests. I am truly grateful to Professor Ota and Professor Miyamoto for their patient guidance, even though I was far from being a model student. The training camp at Lake Yamanaka and the casual chats with my classmates between research sessions are also fond memories.

From here, I'd like to write a little about my job hunting experience. As I mentioned earlier, I had long been unable to form a clear image of my future career. However, from around the middle of my third year, I became interested in information technology, obtained an Information Technology Engineer qualification, and even started building my own PCs. Partly because of this, I went for a job interview for a systems engineer position at the beginning of my fourth year out of curiosity, but I was rejected without much trouble. So, after carefully considering what I should emphasize in an interview, I interviewed for systems engineer positions at other companies, and even for a game programmer role. Perhaps people generally start job hunting after deciding what they want to do, but in my case, the image of the job I should pursue gradually solidified as I continued my job search. I believe I was able to get through the job hunting process by using this vaguely formed vision of the future and the IT knowledge I had acquired through self-study as my weapons.

After interviewing with several companies in this way, I passed an interview and decided to join Hitachi, Ltd., where I currently work. Even within the IT field, there are various job types and roles, and it's not clear whether I will continue developing web application programs, which is what I'm doing now. Considering my past, it seems to be in my nature to be interested in a wide range of things and to take longer than others to make choices. Therefore, I plan to clarify what I want to do in more detail as I gain various experiences. I am sure that my experiences studying at Keio University will be valuable in that process. Finally, I would like to conclude by expressing my gratitude for being given the precious opportunity to write here, a space filled with contributions from distinguished alumni, despite being a junior with a less-than-stellar academic record at the university.