Home country: USA
Internship company and location: GeeXPlus, Inc. (Tokyo)
Company's official homepage: https://www.geexplus.co.jp/en/
Most applicable ICS course (s) in your internship role: Global Business, Knowledge Management
Favorite lunch place: Sapporo Soup Curry near Jimbocho Station
Post-work decompression ritual: Netflix, a walk and Stardew Valley
Unexpected skill you used during the internship: Being bad at writing kanji (a specific IP project we’re working on needed examples of kanji written by non-native Japanese speakers)
Song/playlist that got you through busy days: Bass music all the way
Internship vibe in one emoji: 🤯 or
GeeXPlus, Inc., and I’m technically a part-time partnership manager rather than an intern. This was because when I interviewed, they stressed the importance of finding people who want to work with the company long-term rather than shorter-term interns.
I couldn’t have done this without CSO and our career services director, Naoko Kasai! I made the decision to connect with CSO very early on in my time at ICS because I wanted to make sure I set myself up as well as possible to find employment post-graduation. I knew I was at a bit of a disadvantage because I came in with very little Japanese knowledge and underestimated how important that was in the job search process, even in international companies in my area of expertise (marketing/PR). I was also interested in trying to get into a hard-to-break-into industry, either gaming or anime, which felt close to impossible at the time. However, Naoko and I were able to make a strategic plan. She advised that I pursue independent research in either gaming or anime so that I had some professional touchpoint on my resume in those areas when it was time for me to begin internship and job-searching. Luckily, professor Jinju Lee was offering an Independent Research elective that focused on purpose-driven innovation, and this seemed like a great time to spotlight the origins of GeeXPlus, which was originally founded for the purpose of sharing Japanese culture globally by promoting the legal consumption of intellectual properties (IP) like anime through international content creators. The stars continued to align from there as I managed to connect with the current COO of GeeXPlus for an interview with Jinju and me for the paper. I stayed in touch afterwards and ultimately asked about internship opportunities, which led me to an interview, my part-time position and a full-time offer post-graduation. Naoko and CSO have continued to advise me along the way, offering general counsel, helping me review my offer and making sure I’m asking all the right questions!
Both of my internships have only required English. However, it’s great to have a baseline knowledge of Japanese to understand conversations happening around you in the office (since many of our staff are multilingual and we deal with both overseas and domestic clients).
What were some of your key responsibilities or projects during the internship?
I help coordinate sponsorships for our creators’ content channels, such as YouTube ad integrations, dedicated Twitch streams and social media posts. I also support the agency’s marketing efforts and its new IP production division, GeeXProductions.
I think it’s been really helpful to understand the nuances of Japanese business through learnings from ICS. Although our company is very western in its operations, we are under a traditional Japanese parent company so there’s been a lot of adjustment to how things work in that kind of environment as well. I also find all of our learnings on knowledge management to be very applicable because internal communication is a big focus for us right now.
It confirmed them! I’ve loved every minute of it.
There’s always a learning curve when it comes to a new position, especially one in a niche that you haven’t explored in-depth yet, but I absorb new things every day and feel so much more knowledgeable than when I started!
GeeXPlus is extremely focused on one specific area of marketing, the influencer and content creator space. I come from a broader, full-service agency background that touches other areas of marketing like public relations, paid media, event/tradeshow planning and more. I’ve been able to contribute to the agency by helping expand our capabilities in those areas thanks to my previous experience.
Two memorable moments stand out: (1) our fifth anniversary party where we defined the future direction of GeeXPlus alongside our talents and staff, and (2) helping support CDawgVA’s charity Cyclethon across Japan, which raised over $1M for the Immune Deficiency Foundation.
I think it’s important to be intentional with your goal-setting and how you prioritize your time to make sure that your focus isn’t one-dimensional (only on your career).
Don’t wait until the last minute to figure out what you want. If I hadn’t known what my dream was early on in my time at ICS, there’s no way I would have been able to make a strategic plan with CSO the way I did. Of course you don’t have to have all the answers right at the start of your program, but don’t wait too long to try to find your focus. One or two years flies by much quicker than you think!
I learned that although luck certainly played a huge part in this opportunity, I shouldn’t sell myself short because nothing is impossible if you’re willing to be strategic and put in the work.
I’ve successfully pivoted into the anime/gaming space, which is so hard to break into, and it has certainly opened doors for me for the rest of my entire career!