[Stories of the Job-Changing Era] I gave up on perfection, and when I stopped looking for the "correct answer," I was able to move forward.

Hello, this is Inobe.

Back when I was job hunting.
I suddenly opened my browser and found 37 tabs open.

"IT industry job change"
"Marketing job openings"
"Success stories of career changes in your 40s"

All of them were left open, and none of them were fully researched.
And none of them gave me the "answer."

I closed the screen and let out a small sigh.

"I always end up gathering too much information."

I wanted the "correct answer"

I have always been the type to gather too much information.

I read 10 reviews to decide on lunch.
I visit three review sites to choose a movie.
And to decide on a job change... I open 37 tabs.

People around me say, "You're cautious."
I think that's true.

But, at one point, I thought to myself.

Rather than being cautious, isn't this just
searching too hard for the "perfect answer"?

"What if I fail?"
"Isn't there a better option out there?"
"Maybe now isn't the right time."

While you keep gathering information like that,
only time passes by.

It's as if you're an adventurer
who can't take a single step while clutching a treasure map.

What I really wanted was a "guarantee that I wouldn't fail."

At the time,
it wasn't that I was dissatisfied with my company.

The pay wasn't bad, and my relationships with colleagues were decent.

It was just that a vague anxiety of
"Is it really okay to stay like this?"
was slowly eroding my mind.

"Isn't there a more rewarding job out there?"
"Will I really be okay in the future with this skill set?"

Thinking that, I registered on job change sites.

I met with agents, too.

I rewrote my resume over and over again.

But I couldn't press the apply button.

"Let me gather a little more information first."
"There must be job openings with better conditions."

And so, the tabs just kept increasing.
Then, when I opened the 37th tab, I suddenly realized something.

Even though such a thing doesn't exist anywhere.

The day I decided 'it doesn't have to be perfect'

The turning point came one night.

When I went out for drinks with a friend, they told me this.

Those words struck a chord with me.

On the way home, I opened a job change site on my smartphone.
Usually, I would close it thinking, "I'll think about it a bit more,"
but this time was different.

'It doesn't have to be perfect.'

Telling myself that,
I pressed the apply button for the job listing in front of me.

The conditions weren't all met.
The salary would be a little lower than it is now.
But the job description was something I felt I wanted to try.

I thought that alone was enough.

The moment I tapped "Apply" on impulse, I felt something loosen deep inside my chest.

What I saw once I started moving

To tell you the result, I was rejected by that company.

I thought, "See? I knew it."
I thought I would stop in my tracks again.

But strangely enough, that didn't happen.

On the contrary, I realized,
"Oh, it's okay even if I get rejected."

From there, things moved quickly.

I accepted that "it doesn't have to be perfect" and applied to one company after another.
Even when I got nervous during interviews, I was able to think, "Well, that's fine."

And in my third interview, I found my current company.

The conversation with the interviewer flowed, and I honestly felt, "I want to work with these people."

The "right answer" comes later

One year since changing jobs.

To be honest, I'm already starting to think about my next challenge.

But if someone were to ask me,
"In the end, wasn't changing jobs a failure?"
I would shake my head.

Because it was only by making that move back then that I can move forward now.

What I learned from changing jobs,
the people I met,
and the courage to take that step myself.

All of these things are connected to my next step.

Moving forward while continuing to be lost

Even now, there are nights when I feel anxious.

"Was that choice back then really the right one?"
"Wasn't there a better path I could have taken?"

At times like that, I remember myself staring blankly at the monitor,
with 37 tabs of job-hunting sites open.

To the me of that day, and to the future me who might get lost again someday,
this is the one thing I want to tell myself over and over again.

It doesn't have to be perfect.
It's okay to fail.

No matter what choice you make, the fact that you took action
will build up toward what comes next.

Thank you so much for reading until the end!

See you again in the next note.