Justin Tanaka
- Sales and Marketing Manager
- Uchimura Robotics, Inc.
School Information
School: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
College Major: Engineering
Years at College Works: 2007 to 2011
Career Information
Working For: Uchimura Robotics, Inc.
Title: Sales and Marketing Manager
Industry: ManufacturingWhat Has Been Your Proudest Accomplishment Post-CWP?
Finally having the courage to pursue my biggest dream since I was ten: being the front-man of a successful band.
College Works Career Impact
In one sentence, what has CW meant to you?
College Works Painting gave me an unshakable confidence that I can accomplish whatever I put my mind to.
How did your CW experience impact your career? Immediately after graduation? Now?
I am still in school but starting my career soon, I’ll let you know!
What was the greatest lesson you learned from your CW experience?
Making something fun and challenging are the two best motivators in the world.
Advice
What advice do you have for potential CW participants? Current CW participants?
Potential College Works Painting participants: If your first thought was, I can do that, you were right. Current College Works Painting participants: I always thought of the hard work I put in as making my future self happy. If it was knocking on 10 more doors, or booking one more estimate I knew that my future self would be so glad that I did it.
What’s your favorite memory from CW?
On the play side, as a trained sushi chef, I would say deep sea fishing in Cancun and finally seeing a live red snapper, filleting that bad boy on the deck and having the freshest sushi a man can get. My one moment that sticks out more than any other in all 4 years was my very first estimate by myself. My DM had some bad luck with a cancelled estimate and another reschedule so I only got to see one and let’s say it was not ideal (later as a DM I really understood that it was just plain bad luck). I walked into my first estimate on my own and all I could remember about building rapport from training was look for things in the house to talk about. I saw a cello in the corner, asked who played it, and lo and behold the clients knew my roommate at college from their kid’s orchestra. I walked out of that house with a deposit on a 6 grand job and holy crap did that feel amazing.
Last words of wisdom?
College Works Painting is the best internship I have ever heard of to this day. My younger brother recently got a very prestigious internship at state farm and he got to make presentations to some vice presidents. That was the highlight. I built a business at 19 years old from 32 clients and 70k in revenue to hundreds of clients and 300k in revenue in 2 years. That is an unbeatable experience.