I decided to move to MI-6 after I'd turned 30. In my previous job, I worked in sales at a chemical materials manufacturer, but in that world, strong sales channels are often already well established, and once a groundbreaking product appears, it tends to be fairly straightforward to build a long-term business around it. Still, after spending so much time working with established clients, I started to wonder how I'd keep growing as a salesperson — how to get better at winning new business and making a compelling pitch. Bit by bit, I found myself wanting to work somewhere I'd be selling something intangible, building a sales channel from the ground up.

So I signed up with a career-change platform, and among the offers that came in, the one from MI-6 stood out as the odd one out. The job listing said 'science graduates only', so as someone from a humanities background, I figured it had to be some kind of mistake and left it alone for a few months. But the word MI caught my interest, and the more I looked into it, the more drawn in I became. It matched something I'd already been feeling myself — a wish to sell something intangible that could genuinely help solve clients' problems — so I reached out again, and that's what led me to where I am today.

What stood out to me was a sales role-play exercise in the second interview. I put together and delivered a presentation on miHub® myself, and I was struck by how logical the feedback was — the criticism wasn't just dismissive, it came with real respect for the person on the receiving end.

Right after joining, there was a period when I couldn't get results and felt anxious and frustrated. Around 2022, when I joined, the term MI was just starting to spread through the industry, but conversations often stalled at reactions like 'I suppose it'll matter eventually...', and it was hard to move things on to the next step. On top of that, while most of my sales work in my previous job had been with existing clients, at MI-6 I was building a sales channel completely from scratch. That was something I'd wanted for myself, but it turned out to be genuinely tough, and I got through it with help from my manager and the people around me. Recently, awareness of MI has finally started to spread more widely, and with progress on our Hands-on MI® service and updates to miHub®, I can feel the wind picking up behind sales.

In a new field like MI, clients don't yet have much information to go on, so it falls to us to put forward hypotheses and work through them together. Because our sales work is fully remote, we have to earn clients' trust purely through on-screen interactions, and I think that's sharpened my ability to think logically and put things into words far more than before. I've also started sharing the lessons and insights I pick up in my day-to-day work with the people around me, to help the team — something I never used to do. On top of that, I've had more chances recently to lead as a team leader, and I can feel a whole new world opening up.

What I like about MI-6 is that there's real respect for one another, psychological safety is high, and a healthy culture where everyone can speak their mind freely. I also like that our fully remote, fully flexible way of working makes it easier to balance work with family life.

Looking ahead, my own goal is to lead a team of ten or twenty people one day. Finding genuine enjoyment in motivating people and watching them grow is something I could never have imagined not so long ago — and I have this company to thank for helping me discover that side of myself.

The materials industry is the second largest in Japanese manufacturing, and working at MI-6 means directly supporting its growth and innovation. I think MI-6, having built up know-how ahead of others here in Japan, has a breadth of perspective other companies simply don't have. Our strength is that we don't stop at supporting a single client's R&D or improving their efficiency — we look at the industry as a whole and think about what the next generation of R&D should look like.

Working with a sense that I'm contributing to society, and being able to hold my head high in front of my children — with that confidence, I want to keep giving everything I've got to help MI move forward.