It was a long process of job hunting, but when I met my future colleagues at the Renesas Electronics job fair booth, I knew immediately that I wanted to join the company. I was amazed! They were very nice people, and looked extremely happy. I thought to myself, I really want to work there.
Back in Sudan, I had been involved in my country’s first project to launch a cube satellite into space. But as the research and resources in this field were still lacking, after around a year and a half, I decided to further pursue my studies in satellite and space systems by applying for a scholarship to study in Japan.
I admit my fascination with Japan began long before I realized it. When as a child, I watched Arabic dubbed versions of some popular Japanese anime such as Chibi Maruko Chan. At the time, I did not realize those animations were made in Japan, and I only found that out years later. Of course, Japan also boasts trailblazing research in space systems. I joined the University of Tokyo and spent five years completing a Master’s degree in aerospace engineering.
My Master’s research project was about mass properties identification for a debris removing satellite. For my Bachelor’s, I researched on the attitude determination and control system of cube satellites.
My plan to return to Sudan and work on the space satellite project fell through as the funding of the project was terminated. So, I decided to stay in Tokyo and find work.
I decided that perhaps space is not where I should be focusing on, and since I have a background in engineering, I thought I should get some experience in business, learn about the market and how companies work. That’s when I started job hunting, and it was a very long process. My Japanese is not that great, and I think most companies require a certain level of business Japanese.
As an electrical and electronic engineering student I have closely carried out projects using ICs and microcontrollers. So, during job hunting, technology and IoT companies were top on my list. Renesas Electronics is one of the largest semiconductor manufacturers with advanced technological capabilities and I thought I wanted to be part of the wheel that is steering the future innovations in the industry. Workplace culture, environment and work-life balance were some of my biggest concerns at that time. Meeting Renesas employees at one job fair and seeing how comfortable and motivated they were working at the company made me realize this is the kind of place I would like to work. Moreover, they were okay with just a conversational level of Japanese which was a great relief to me.