Reskilling in Her 28th Year With the Company. Asking an MBA Holder About Career Development in “an Era of Century-Long Lifespans”

What made you decide to join the MBA program?

It began with a career design seminar targeting ages 45 and over hosted by the Human Resources Dept in the summer of 2020. That was the first time I ever encountered the concept of “Life-Shift.” The idea is that people are living longer and longer these days, so they should move to a new life cycle, the multi-stage life. People used to live a three-stage life (education, work, and retirement), but it’s time to change that. In a multi-stage life, you can choose and create your life from as many different options as you want in different phases in your life.

Nowadays, people are said to live for 100 years, so if you retire at the age of 60, you will have another 40 years left. I think it’s impossible to categorize over 60 as “old age.” As I explored the idea of how to live an extended life, my own values and perspectives changed. This event made me consider the possibility of working indefinitely while changing the content and location of my work.

After learning about Life-Shift in autumn, I attended Life Shift University (*) for half a year. Then, I moved on to an MBA course at Tama Graduate School of Business, which was introduced to me by the instructors. After learning and graduating from the two-year program, I obtained the Life-Shift Planner Basic Qualification in 2022.

*A program that supports career development and provides reschooling venues in view of people living century-long lives and having 80 years of work life

How did you balance work, your MBA, and other things at home?

I explained to everyone at work that I was going back to school. Particularly for my MBA, it was essential for me to leave work on time to attend evening classes, so I was grateful for their support and understanding.
The circumstances at that time were also favorable for my studies. With the COVID-19 pandemic making remote work the norm, I had the flexibility to adjust my schedule and start working earlier in the morning. Plus, my hobby of watching theater performances was no longer possible due to cancellations, so I had more free time.

To be honest, my family wasn’t very supportive at first. They thought I was doing too much for no reason; however, I am very grateful that when I actually started taking courses my husband and two daughters supported me by taking on more of the housework. I started introducing my family by saying we have three female college students in the house (laughs).

What kind of changes did the experience bring you?

I was satisfied with my work during that time, but as I met more ambitious people with different perspectives at the school, I started to wonder about my career path. In the same year, I circled the option “I want to change what I am currently doing” on my career assessment sheet for the first time.
All of these factors let me change positions in the winter of last year. I chose work safety as the topic of my MBA graduation thesis, and I felt like I could deepen my own business perspective.

On the other hand, I believe that there must be more opportunities to utilize the knowledge I acquired during the MBA program at my work.

Why do you think you were able to take the plunge and go back to school on your own time and money?

My whole shift in mindset began with a silly little thing. Seven or eight years ago, I pulled my first fortune slip of the new year, and it read, “Look forward to a year of merriment with others. Don’t decline any invitations.” At the time, I was feeling increasingly reluctant to attend social events at work and was frequently declining invitations. However, I decided to stop refusing and give things a chance. That decision has continued to this day, and I believe it also contributed to seizing the opportunity for going back to school.

People tend to search for excuses for not taking on a new challenge like “I don’t have time” or “I don’t have money.” However, the reality is that those reasons constitute barriers in only a few cases. You can find time if you look for it and, even if you fail somewhat, it won’t be so much that you can’t recover. But most people won’t starve if they spend some money on self-improvement, and they aren’t so busy 24/7 that they can’t find a little time to make a change. I believe that how a person chooses to spend their time and money determines their life satisfaction.

Although if someone asked me whether I should have done my MBA when I was younger, I would say that it would have been too challenging to do while raising my children. At that time, I was learning how to raise my kids, which is something I could only do then. So, your new challenge doesn’t have to be an MBA; it could be something else that you think is interesting to learn. I think it’s ideal if we live our life every day with the thought “I did some good learning today.”