On the turn

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How did you land this job?

I saw this open position in Intel Japan in our intranet site and I applied for it. The initial results were encouraging, after my formal application, my hiring manager offered me a free air ticket to Japan for an interview. I then scheduled this interview to coincide with Elma's "look see" in March 2000. “Look see” is an option they have at P&G to get a feel of what it’s like to live and work in Japan as well as look for a potential place to stay before an employee finally decides. At that time, we were beginning to ask ourselves what the turn of events really meant and how literally we interpreted Ruth's words, especially when we experienced traveling from Kobe to Tokyo for the first time. It wasn't near at all! To cut the long story short, I got accepted and we returned home figuring out how to proceed from there. Obviously, at that point, we were being told not to stay in the Philippines but come to Japan. With this experience, I humbly say listening to God's voice in making any decision makes anyone always a WINNER.

Since you are where you are, do you think Filipinos' IT skills are at par with the world's best?

I believe so. I have worked with different mixes of people already and I believe our dedication to our job and our ingenuity (to me this is "diskarte") puts us in a position of advantage.

Efren Antimano with wife Elma and daughter Elaina Isabelle. Photo by Glenn Calanag

What have we contributed to the system?

We don't really need to stay late at the office/lab to finish our job. This, I think, is what we got from the west—finish things fast without sacrificing other priorities. I find myself in agreement with my American colleagues in regard to this. This working habit is now being encouraged in Intel Japan. We call it Work-Life-Effectiveness, or simply WLE, a habit that local Japanese employees are beginning to adopt and enjoy.

Is this your dream job?

Yes, this was my dream job 10 years ago. I feel blessed that things are realized sooner than I expected. However, we can't just sit back and relax where we are now lest we stagnate, right? My dream right now is to be in a position where I will not only contribute something innovative to my own chosen field but also bring and share those innovations back home. How to do this is something I am still trying to discern.

What is it like to work in an American company in Japan?

Well, madali na mahirap! (Ha-ha). Madali, kasi all the company values and policies are American kasi nga American company ang Intel. Working time is 8:30AM to 5:30PM. Most employee benefits in the US are applied here as well. And most of all, written communication is encouraged to be in English and all employees inside the company are supposed to speak English. The hard part of it is when I go to a customer site to resolve a certain design issue or just attend meetings. Since most of the attendees are Japanese, they expect me to speak the language as well. Customer is always right, nga naman. Kaya I usually arrange a meeting via phone conference, when I have the option, with other nationalities and a translator joining in to make my life easier.

Ano ang mga adjustment problems mo at paano mo sila na-overcome?

Language. I was adjusting to my new job three years ago and at the same time trying to learn the language. IJKK hired me a tutor and went through the 3 modules of “Japanese for Busy People” by meeting once a week. After completing the modules, I gave myself a break for a while. Though I still don’t speak it fluently now, at least I already got the hang of what I’m doing at work. I plan to resume with my language tutorial classes soon. Purely tiyaga lang siguro ang puhunan ko.

Nasa Ibaraki ka at ang pamilya mo nasa Kobe. How do you cope with this living arrangement?

I have to bear with being physically away from my wife and my baby during weekdays. Kaya nga when I visit them every weekend, bumabawi ako. The adrenalin rush always comes to me every Friday. I also get in touch by calling home when I wake-up in the morning. Sometimes my wife calls me also at the office and we talk again when my baby is about to go to bed. Having been raised in a similar way (kasi nag-Saudi rin ang father ko for 8 years when I was 10) gave me also a wider perspective. In fact I still call my Tatay for encouragement which helps a lot in coping with the challenges. Sometimes, being away from each other makes every moment of togetherness meaningful and memorable din.

Ano ang masasabi o obserbasyon mo tungkol sa mga Pilipino sa Japan?

I always consider Pinoy’s jolliness a strength. We love to party. Our desire to be together in the community makes us even stronger. Other nationalities envy this strength of ours. On the other hand, we also have the tendency to withdraw our commitment to a group or a person when we are inconvenienced, hurt or humbled. I always believe that people in a community complement one another. It’s never a one-way street. Our strengths supplement others’ weaknesses and vice versa. We are oftentimes consumed by our own interests, making us detached from our group when everything is going well. Little do we know that those are the times we are most needed, as others are in the opposite situation.

Using the PC environment as an analogy, if you’ve noticed when you’re burning a CD on a PC, the more windows you open, the slower the performance, the lesser job done within a span of time. The more dedicated the resource, the faster the job gets done.

Let’s respond to negative situations positively. The best opportunity to express our love to anybody is when we feel like giving up on that person or we feel like withdrawing our support. In a community, everyone has a role, everyone benefits. It’s what the Holy Scriptures tell us.*

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