Became Open House PR! Former “Mezamashi” Announcer Chikako Takagi: “All First-Time Experiences

Norikazu Otsuka (74), Natsuko Kojima (54), and Megumi Yoshida (46) were in front of me. Their faces are so tiny! Their faces are so tiny! I still remember how excited I was that I was about to enter this world.

Chikako Takagi (43), who made her debut as a weathercaster on “Mezamashi TV” (Fuji Television Network) in the spring of 2002 and has since worked as a freelance announcer, recalls her first meeting with the cast of the program. With a smile as lovely as it was then, she says, ” After that, I was allowed to go to many places and work with superstars, but I got used to it, or rather, there was no excitement that surpassed that face-to-face meeting.

Nicknamed “Chika-chan,” she was the face of the morning and a familiar face to many, and her current title is “Chikako Tada,” which translates to “Public Relations and Advertising Department Manager, OPEN HOUSE GROUP Marketing Division. She was scouted while a student at Yokohama National University and was active in many TV programs. After getting married and having a baby, she retired from the entertainment industry and became a beautiful PR woman.

Recently, the departure or career change of so-called bureau announcers affiliated with TV stations often makes the news. In the announcing industry, where even popular station announcers are not secure in their positions, the survival of freelance announcers is even fiercer.

There are a lot of freelance announcers out there, but only a handful of popular and talented ones are able to stay at the forefront of the industry after marriage or childbirth, I felt that it would be physically difficult in my environment to work as an irregular announcer while raising a child.

She was 39 years old when she made the decision to change careers after a spectacular start in a popular TV program. She felt that she could not expect to grow further in a competitive profession with a rapid generational change. Saving work to raise her children was a temporary measure, but when she thought long term into her 40s and 50s, she could not envision herself advancing in her career. I wanted to experience working in a company as a member of an organization.

Although it was a big decision to retire from show business, she made the decision surprisingly quickly, saying, “I didn’t think about it for months, and I didn’t feel conflicted about it. When she thought about changing jobs, she did not look at all the options, but focused on the real estate industry.

I decided on my own. I told my family after I had made up my mind, so they didn’t oppose my decision. Bold?　Is that so surprising? (Laughs). I had decided that if I wanted to work outside the media, I would work in the real estate industry. I was interested in European architecture and disaster prevention, and I majored in architecture at university. But even so, I was about to turn 40, had a child, and couldn’t work overtime. Who would hire someone who has a child and can’t work overtime? So I wanted to at least have a certification, so I got certified as a real estate agent beforehand.

The pass rate for a real estate agent is a narrow 15% to 17%. I couldn’t get it into my head like when I was a student,” he said. I had to work hard to memorize all the information. ……It had been a long time since I took the university entrance exam, and my brain was numb from the full rotation of my head (laughs). (Laughs.) The real estate exam is held only once a year. If you fail, you have to take it again next year. I was desperate because I knew that if I didn’t get the certification, I wouldn’t be able to move on,” he says with a laugh. Studying while raising a child was difficult. One month before the exam, she cut back on her sleep, and in the end, with the help of her family, she managed to pass the exam on the first try by securing time to go to the library.

Even if you get the certification, that’s not the goal. I had never worked for a company before, except for a part-time job as a waiter at a wedding hall when I was in college. It was the first time for me to write a resume, so it was more like job hunting than a job change activity,” he recalls cheerfully.

This was my first job change and also my first job search, so I registered with “Rikunabi. He says, “It must have been really hard for the agent to find an inexperienced human resources person on the eve of 40 and while raising a child. Although he was well-known and well-liked, his inexperience, age, and child-rearing status made it possible for him to get the job offer quite quickly.

However, if a nationally known announcer had come to a job interview at a general company, it would have been very exciting to hear her say, “I used to watch you on TV! I’ve been watching you on TV!

I never did (laughs). (Laughs.) They usually start with self-introductions and ask me why I changed jobs and why I wanted to apply for the job. It was a very normal interview, like, ‘I want to contribute to your company by making the most of my previous job. When the interviewer was someone who had changed jobs from a very large advertising agency and a very famous foreign consulting firm, I asked him why he had changed jobs (laughs).

I joined “Open House Group” in May 2007, and my life as a company employee was full of firsts. Buying my own commuter pass, clocking in and out of work, expense reimbursement, and various procedures…… were all new experiences.

Some freelance announcers do all the paperwork themselves, but popular announcers at St. Force have a manager in charge who takes care of even the things they don’t even realize they need to do. Once on the spot, she is surrounded by production staff, stylists, hair and makeup artists, and many other supporters so that she can concentrate on her work as an announcer. That’s the kind of environment I’ve been in ever since I debuted as a student.

I had a lot of firsts at my age, which was fun, and I was just crazy about it. At the same time, I realized how blessed I was and how much I was helped by the people around me. It was only because I was looking for a job that I became aware of this. As a freelance announcer, I rarely used a computer, and the only thing I did was look at manuscripts and scripts that were sent to me and update my blog. So I had almost no experience using Word or Excel. When I was asked to send a PDF file of a document, I would just say, “What’s a PDF file? I was at the level of “What is a PDF? I had to ask the people sitting near me all the time. When I think back on it, it was really embarrassing, and I think people would have said, ‘This person doesn’t know anything’ (laughs).

It takes courage to jump into a new environment. The deciding factor in choosing the “Open House Group” as a place to do so was the desire for “personal growth” through work and the need to balance work and family life. She also emphasized the fact that she is a mother with a daughter who will be in elementary school this year.

The Open House Group is a company that understands the importance of prioritizing childcare and family, and the return rate of employees taking childcare leave over the past few years has been 100%. They also give priority to children’s events, such as athletic meets. My supervisor also encourages me to ‘finish the job rather than halfway through. rather than halfway through. The deciding factor for me to join the company was that I thought, “If the company continues to grow year after year, I will be able to grow quickly,” but the first interviewer was a mother raising a child, and I felt that “at this company, I can raise a child while working.

Last year, she was busy preparing for her daughter’s entrance exam, using up all her paid vacation time, but she was helped by the support of those around her. But now the so-called “first-grade barrier” looms. She will graduate from a day-care center that offers extended day-care services and enter elementary school, which will shorten the time she can leave her child with the school.

Even if I am able to leave my daughter with a preschooler, she will have to go to bed earlier and get up earlier in order to commute to school, and I have no end of worries about her studies and friendships. For a while, I think I will need to spend more time with my daughter than ever before, so I am considering working shorter hours. I really appreciate that the company allows me to consult with them about shorter hours or remote work depending on my family’s situation. I sometimes feel sorry, but right now, time with my daughter is important. I’m going to try to focus on that and do my best when I can.

Her cheeks relaxed and her face became that of a mother.

She overcame her “super-newbie” period when she struggled with computer operation and now handles many tasks as a middle manager. Haruka Hakariya, who also works in the Public Relations and Advertising Department, told us about her activities.

In addition to general PR work such as writing press releases for the media, approaching media representatives, handling interviews, operating SNS, and creating in-house newsletters, I also make use of the skills I acquired at my previous job, such as hosting press conferences and in-house events, and being a personality for the company’s radio program. Tada sometimes emcees award ceremonies for outstanding performers, and is sometimes approached by a colleague who says, “I watched Mezamashi TV! I was watching Mezamashi TV!

She is still climbing up the ladder with the help of those around her,” she says modestly, “ but in addition to her announcing skills as a host and personality, there are other situations where her experience as a media “insider” unexpectedly comes in handy in her current job.

For example, when interviewing for a TV program, I would ask about the project and then say, ‘They will probably want to show this part, so you should prepare for it. I can predict to some extent, ‘They will probably want to show this part, so we should prepare for that.’ I can also predict to some extent, ‘This part may not be necessary. Also, if you spend a lot of time preparing and filming, but only a few minutes are shown on the air, some people may feel, “I spent so much time, but that’s all I get? Some people may feel that “that’s all there is to it, after all that time. As someone who has worked in television, I can explain this sense of “length” (air time) within a program. As someone with experience, I can explain that too. I think this is where my previous experience comes in handy.

As the company continues to expand and the number of people on the team grows, he says his current challenge is to develop his skills as a middle manager.

When you think about training, it is important to give young people experience by assigning and delegating tasks. However, I have a habit of carrying the workload alone from my days as a freelance announcer, and it has become so ingrained in me that I can’t ……. It is not you, but your subordinates, who should be able to produce results, which will contribute to the organization. I would like to acquire the management skills to be able to skillfully create such an environment.”

In his private life, he says, “Right now, I am only able to stretch, so I would like to exercise. I want to take care of my body, such as Pilates and yoga, because I am worried about my physical fitness if I don’t take care of myself after I pass 40 years old. In addition to exercise, she also wants to study English and “if I have time, I want to do this and that (laughs). But I still have a lot of things I need to do.

Her “Chika-chan” smile, which is so soothing and relaxing on a hectic morning, remains unchanged. However, I have learned that she has the audacity inside her to leave the glamorous places she is used to and jump into new fields when she feels she cannot grow. It seems that she will continue to change flexibly with her soft smile.