Archive for the 'Relocations' Category

Archives for Relocations

William Herbert aspired to a global life earlier than most of us elect to tackle a second language. From high school on, Herbert, who grew up in Seattle, American Samoa and Guam, planned to speak and study Japanese and eventually move to Japan. Herbert, a trailblazing lawyer with expertise in global trade, realized his expatriate ambitions despite the insular nature of Japanese business culture. One co-worker compared him to a “virus … injected into the company to stir things up.”

Undeterred, Herbert spent 10 years in Japan, including several years as the first non-Japanese hire of the country’s second largest pharmaceutical company, Sankyo Co. Ltd. “I wasn’t hired to put an international face on the company,” he says, “as much as to help them understand the U.S. legal market and recognize risks in western people and society.”

He was well-prepared the day he arrived in Tokyo at the outset of his legal career in February, 2000. Armed with a Curriculum Vitae (CV) written in Kanji, Herbert, who interviewed in Japanese, received multiple job offers at a Boston career fair sponsored by Japanese employers seeking Japanese students educated in America. (We will keep an eye on bilingual and global career fairs such as this recent one in New York City.)

Of course, fitting into the Japanese legal community is easier said than done for a Caucasian, even one conversant in both the language and customs. Sankyo “socializes” all of its new hires in a boot-camp type of orientation, says Herbert for whom the experience of living in a bachelor’s dormitory with communal facilities was not a dream come true. “I went through the orientation business program and learned how to bow, how to present my business card, how to answer the phones and write email in Japanese.”

Herbert returned to the states recently, recruited for a job in Atlanta with Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP, a law firm with a global business practice. “I have been making relatively regular trips to Tokyo, once every three months to visit clients and potential clients,” says Herbert. Like a true veteran, Herbert seeks advantages in the time-zone gap. “Email helps a lot. I can send an email in Japanese to someone during the day here and at about 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. Atlanta (ET) time they will see the email and I can view their response about 10 p.m. and respond if necessary.”

He recommends a global career path to those who seek his counsel. “I think there are great rewards associated with an international career or working in a country other than your own,” advises Herbert. “Being in a country and culture other than your own let’s you grow in ways you can’t grow back home - everything from trying different foods to learning a different language. Seeing how people do business a different way. It helps you to reexamine the way things are done here.”