◆ Conversation Starters ◆ No.19 'New Employee Training: The Shaved-Head Tribe's Mt. Rokko Traverse: Bank'
Let me tell you about the one-month new employee training I went through when I joined Bank A about 40 years ago. There were about 165 university graduate recruits and about 70 high school graduate recruits. (Three years later, high school graduate recruitment was discontinued.) It was held starting April 1st at a training center that was in the Kansai region at the time.
I received advice from a senior colleague: 'For a banker, personal grooming is essential, and your hairstyle is especially important. During new employee training, we shave our heads completely to keep that in mind. So, if you don't get it shaved completely at a barber right before joining, you'll be criticized during the first-day hair check and will have to go back to the barber.'
At the end of March, I went to my regular barber, explained the purpose, and had him shave it completely. When the haircut was finished, it was shaved surprisingly short, but since Bank A was an extraordinary place, I asked the barber,
'Could you shave it a little more?'
He replied, 'Well, if I shave it any more than this, it will look so unsightly that it will be unbearable to look at!' So, I felt reassured and headed to the entrance ceremony.
There were four classes for university graduates, and each class was handled by a pair consisting of a lead instructor and an assistant instructor. The moment I saw the instructors, a shudder ran through me.
Everyone had the back of their heads shaved so high and shining blue that I had never seen anything like it in this world... It was certainly terribly unsightly! ...Moreover, there was an abnormal atmosphere that gave off a sense of intimidation to others...
Although I thought, 'Wow...', I remembered the barber's words, 'It's impossible to shave any more than this!', and was able to calmly undergo the hair check that started immediately. However, the moment the instructor saw the back of my head,'Do it over!'was the result.
Almost everyone was sent to a nearby barber that evening. Some of my peers had accurate information and advised, 'No matter how you shave it, they'll make you do it over, so it's better not to go to the barber at all,' so they joined with messy hair.
That evening, there was a huge line at the barber shop near the training center, but they used clippers to shave the back of the head, followed by shampoo and a blow-dry, costing 1,000 yen per person and finishing in 7 minutes. This barber shop,seemed to be a regular event, and the three of them skillfully created the 'shaved-head tribe' with broad smiles on their faces.
During the new employee training, we were divided into three dormitories, and I was in Dorm T, where I lived with four people in one room. There were two from the West and two from the East, and while I was from a local university in the West, the others were from Kyushu University, Hitotsubashi University, and the University of Tokyo.
Bank A had no entrance exam, only interviews. But when I think about it,
out of about 165 people, more than half were from the former Imperial Universities—University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Osaka University, Kobe University, Nagoya University, Hokkaido University, Kyushu University—as well as Waseda and Keio. However, I had 7 interviews alone, and the last one was with the Vice President.
The one-month training was packed with various events and became a training experience that would remain in my heart for life.
One of them was a 'Mt. Rokko Traverse,' an outrageous march where we were woken up at 4 a.m., entered the mountain from Takarazuka, and walked a total of 40km to descend to Shin-Kobe after 3 p.m. (though it wasn't Mt. Hakkoda in winter...)
Climbing was hard, but since we were all climbing together, I could still endure it. However, because I had no mountaineering knowledge, I hadn't trimmed my toenails properly, and during the descent, my nails hit my shoes, causing the nails on both big toes to turn pitch black from internal bleeding and die.
If it were today, if '235 people of the shaved-head tribe in jerseys' descended to Shin-Kobe all at once after 3 p.m. on a Saturday, I think they would definitely be reported to the police.
In the business skills training, a guy named B, who had heard from a senior colleague that there would be practice in counting bills, had practiced before joining. While no one else could fan out the bills, B alone showed off fanning them out beautifully.
The whole class looked on with envious eyes,'Oh, oh, that's amazing!' and B was also full of pride. However, since bills are counted from the right, they must be in a fan shape where the left side overlaps on top of the right in order, but his were reversed, and it turned out he had just developed a strange habit.Too bad!
I was the same; in third grade math class, I was bad at the abacus, and I would do my abacus homework using long addition. At the time, the abacus was essential even at the bank, so
before joining,I bought a practice book for abacus beginners and practiced two-digit addition.
'Well, with this, I should be able to handle the abacus to some extent...'
I thought complacently.
Abacus slips were distributed, and we started adding 10 slips in order. At the signal to 'Start,' I flipped the first page of the slip and my eyes went wide. There was...
¥102,769,477—
the second was ¥34,223,009— the third was ¥988,654,321— and so on. If I entered them into the abacus as they were, it would go down to the decimal point, and I couldn't even place the abacus for a single slip. To top it off, the fourth one was a slip that I couldn't even read as 201,035,9211 yen.
Damn... I underestimated the bank...
<To be continued in the second part... Scheduled to be sent next Friday>
💛 If you like, I would appreciate it if you could 'like' or follow me.
<Back Number Best 5>
[Popular No.1] => Started note to have various people see this article!
◆ Conversation Starters ◆ No.22'Love is a Heat Haze' The saddest time in my life ｜
[Popularity No.2] ⇒ The secret to the strength of the bank I joined!
◆ Conversation Starter ◆ No.20'New Employee Training Shin-Osaka Station 270 people in tears: Bank' |
[Popularity No.3] ⇒ Going to a Love Hotel in the middle of the day with the Foreign Affairs Manager!
◆ Conversation Starter ◆ No.21'Is there any rationality to snack bar prices?' |
[Popularity No.4] ⇒ It's mind-blowing!!
◆ Conversation Starter ◆ No.3'Pioneer of the Times' |
[Popularity No.5] ⇒ Personally, No.2
◆ Conversation Starter ◆ No.13'My son's and my"first paycheck"' |