{"id":36331,"date":"2014-09-30T17:33:47","date_gmt":"2014-09-30T21:33:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=36331"},"modified":"2014-09-30T17:33:47","modified_gmt":"2014-09-30T21:33:47","slug":"decades-after-jet-who-moved-my-%e3%83%81%e3%83%bc%e3%82%ba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2014\/09\/30\/decades-after-jet-who-moved-my-%e3%83%81%e3%83%bc%e3%82%ba\/","title":{"rendered":"Decades After JET: Who Moved My \u30c1\u30fc\u30ba??"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yvonne Thurman-Dogruer<\/a> (Kagoshima-ken, 1994-95)<\/strong> is a former JETAANY President and Treasurer. She has a Master of International Affairs degree from Columbia University, had a ten-year career at its Center on Japanese Economy and Business, and ran her own business for a number of years.\u00a0 Yvonne currently consults for small businesses and start-ups while continuing the full-time job-search.<\/i><\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t read Spencer Johnson\u2019s best-selling book, but I love the title.\u00a0\u00a0 It seems \u201cWho Moved My Cheese\u201d advises on how to deal with changes in one\u2019s life (anecdotally, mice in a maze sniff around to find their cheese, they do, then somehow the cheese is moved, and the mice have to start all over and sniff their way to find it again)…something we can all relate to. I\u2019m looking for my cheese right now, evaluating the decisions I\u2019ve made up until this point in my professional life, and trying to see where I\u2019m headed.\u00a0 Often, I\u2019ve decided to move my own cheese.\u00a0 Change is good. Well, when you are the one to initiate the change, it\u2019s usually good. When something else moves your cheese it\u2019s downright unsettling.<\/p>\n

When I was a young twenty-something I felt very much in control of my professional development (didn\u2019t we all?). The JET Program started a great journey and unsurprisingly set my career path for more than a decade following.\u00a0 I applied for it on a whim after college, and started to move my cheese.\u00a0 What an exciting year that was!\u00a0 The time immediately following my return home from Japan was also one of fun professional discovery, as it is for most JET alums.\u00a0 In 1995 I finished my JET contract in Kagoshima and dabbled in the fields of international education and international relations.\u00a0\u00a0 The non-profit world drew me in, and my career path started to take shape. Over the course of the next few years I worked at Japan Society for a bit, set my sights on graduate studies at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), and then became a program officer at Columbia\u2019s Center on Japanese Economy and Business.\u00a0\u00a0 I found a very active JET alumni community working and studying at Columbia, which was great, because that meant I was with people who sincerely understood and valued the depth of experience I had while working and living in Japan.\u00a0 Grad school was the very logical next step for me to take, and in 1999, I was accepted into the program at SIPA after two arduous rounds of applications. Then the real work started.\u00a0 I surprised myself and chose an international finance and business concentration (you see, as an English major in college I somehow skated through four years without having one accounting or economics class).\u00a0 Perhaps I was overly-confident of my ability to take on new challenges after living in Japan, or, I was being practical — I knew if I wanted to be an effective organizational leader when I grew up, I\u2019d need strong quantitative and finance skills.\u00a0 The next big journey started, and for three years I held on to my full-time job while doing my graduate work.\u00a0 I moved on up to the east side into a shoebox of an apartment on 88th Street and cried through every Accounting 101 assignment in the wee hours of the morning, with text books and papers scattered across my very stylish black pleather<\/em> futon.\u00a0 Painful, but good years.\u00a0 In retrospect, no matter how challenging the work, life in general had order to it.\u00a0 I was on the path to one clear, undeniable goal of getting that degree.\u00a0 Sometimes I miss the simplicity of it all!<\/p>\n

Working as a program officer at an international research center in a top academic institution may sound truly awesome, and it was.\u00a0 However, I did plan to move my cheese once I finished my degree to explore other opportunities.\u00a0 Well, life is what happens between making plans. September 11th happened\u2026during my final year at SIPA. On-campus recruiting came to a halt.\u00a0 The job market froze. The world turned upside down and we all seemed to function at a bare minimum — or at best, on autopilot for a while, trying to cope with the shock of it all. Not so good times.<\/p>\n

Grateful to have a very good job in a very good place, I stayed on at the Center.\u00a0 I was promoted up to a Director position, took part in some groundbreaking research and programs, and managed two major book projects with leading Japan scholars around the globe. I had a great team, an awesome sempai<\/em>, a nurturing and encouraging environment, and I learned volumes about management.\u00a0 Then, it came time again for me to break out and explore.\u00a0 But wait– it\u2019s 2008. The economy is tanking. I had a stable job at a good place (something I covet now).\u00a0 What do I do?\u00a0 I choose to leave it and become an entrepreneur. <\/p>\n

Irresponsible decision? Silly? Crazy? During my farewell party at the Center, a business professor came over to wish me well and asked, \u2018Yvonne, my goodness, why leave now?\u201d Good question. I explained that I had to take a chance like this when it felt right for me. I had no control over what\u2019s going on in the world outside, but I had tons of energy, and wanted to push myself to discover what I could do. Switching far from the world of an international research center, I started up a specialty all-natural food business in Jersey City. That\u2019s when I really moved my cheese\u2026a big, big, hunk of cheese.<\/p>\n

My husband and I became business partners and gave DollyBella Bakery<\/em> our all.\u00a0 It was in every sense a success. Running my own small business grounded me and I loved it. The concept was so basic: I create something of value; people like it and buy it; people order it again. Of course, it was the hardest we ever worked.\u00a0 Meanwhile, the “cheese” in our personal life was moving around and around, in a good way. We just got married, bought a home, and now had a mortgage.\u00a0 After nearly four years of DollyBella, I made a practical business decision I am very proud of — to end the business. \u00a0As any entrepreneur knows, running a start-up is a financial sacrifice (that’s why it must be something you love!).\u00a0\u00a0 I continually analyzed the cost and benefit of keeping operations going, and when I examined the salary I could instead be making on the outside working for someone else, it seemed right for us to see the business through to a successful exit, and put myself back in the job market. It was hard to keep emotion out of the decision-making process, but I did it.<\/p>\n

With my combined experience in organizational management and entrepreneurship I found a niche in leading small start-up non-profits, and in 2011, I was recruited to do just that. I liked it…looking at the big picture, taking the many moving parts of an organization, finding direction for them and get it all functioning as a whole. The problem with small start-ups, though, is their fragility. It takes a long time to get cash flowing while working towards growth, and sometimes payroll can’t be made.\u00a0 That was the situation I was dealing with.\u00a0 I realized that somehow, I put myself smack dab in the middle of financial sacrifice again — only this time it wasn\u2019t for the good of my own business.\u00a0\u00a0 Charity begins at home and bills need to be paid, so I left that executive director role (on good terms and all), sure I\u2019d find another job soon after.\u00a0 I did, and in this latest small non-profit experience I was brought on as an interim director to develop a strategic fundraising plan and internal policy for a foundation which had just gone public. I was pretty charged up about the mission, and after two months the Board offered me the opportunity to come on as a full-time executive director.\u00a0 But, during those two months, I saw practices and methods which I didn\u2019t agree with (some were downright unethical), and it was clear I would not be given the power to change them for the better.\u00a0 I turned down the offer.\u00a0 I was really disappointed about it all — the small staff had so much potential, and the commute was a dream.\u00a0\u00a0 Most importantly, who wants to turn down a paycheck??\u00a0\u00a0 I had to trust my gut, keep my integrity and walk away (giving a courteous 30-days\u2019 notice, of course). I moved that cheese myself again. I was sure my next role would be with a stable organization where I could make some positive contributions. Well, that was a year and a half ago.<\/p>\n

I never thought I’d be searching for a job for this long, but this is where I am at, trying to keep steady on unsteady ground.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just about someone having moved my cheese; the ground is moving as well.\u00a0 Remember that classic wooden labyrinth box game where you tilt the surface to get the silver ball around the maze without it falling into one of the holes?\u00a0 It’s like that.\u00a0 Forget the cheese.\u00a0 There isn’t any cheese anymore.\u00a0 Some invisible hand lifted my cheese away from the maze.\u00a0\u00a0 I’m left wondering, are we all playing a different game now?\u00a0 There are so many friends and acquaintances around me who are long-term unemployed (to the point where even extended unemployment benefits run out).\u00a0 Professionals are losing their jobs, cannot find similar ones, and are faced with the challenge of having to redefine their professional selves.\u00a0 It’s not easy.\u00a0 I find myself moving in so many different circles and industries during my search this last year, trying to match up very specific, individual skills to the needs of a potential employer because that neatly-wrapped package known as The Resume just ain’t cutting it.\u00a0We may be at a crossroads in this market where we need to concentrate less on The Career and more on the next job opportunity (notice I didn\u2019t say \u2018the next job\u2019) that presents itself, in order to get the next paycheck.\u00a0 It\u2019s as if there is more value in offering an a la carte<\/em> menu as opposed to a prix fixe<\/em> one, if you will. Seems quite backwards.<\/p>\n

So what are the rules of the game now, with so many career-driven people out of work?\u00a0 And what about those who are currently ‘underemployed’ or have a job that isn’t allowing any room for development and growth? In this environment, do they just have to be ‘thankful to have a job\u201d?\u00a0 At what cost?\u00a0 Was I being irresponsible at times when I chose to change my current work situation, when it wasn’t working?\u00a0 Do I regret leaving that last opportunity? Not so much (keeping my integrity wins out). Do I regret leaving a paycheck? Yes.\u00a0 Boy, I could really use a piece of cheese right about now.<\/p>\n

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Yvonne Thurman-Dogruer (Kagoshima-ken, 1994-95) is a former JETAANY President and Treasurer. She has a Master of International Affairs degree from Columbia University, had a ten-year career at its Center on Japanese Economy and Business, and ran her own business for a number of years.\u00a0 Yvonne currently consults for small businesses and start-ups while continuing the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[73,825],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advice","category-lifeafterjet"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkZ7m-9rZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36331"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36393,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36331\/revisions\/36393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}