How did you study the Japanese language？

It does take time to understand a language and culture. I have learned how to make a proper distance in relationships and how to behave in a group atmosphere after I made some Japanese friends. I watched TV dramas to catch images of Japanese university students, but it is important to speak to them. I think the most effective way is to make friends in order to master the language. It has been 9 years since I came to Japan. I like it here because the cities are clean, and the people are well mannered. I feel comfortable living in this country.

What did you use to collect information when job hunting？

First, was the career center. Secondly, I accessed job hunting information sites on the internet and got information on joint information sessions and seminars for international students. Finally, I participated in those events to collect more information. Although I was thinking about IT, consulting and manufacturers to utilize my information-related knowledge, I decided to focus on the IT industry at the early stage. In the process of job hunting, I changed the company of my first choice a few times, my aspiration towards the current company became the highest in April

What were the difficulties in your job hunting activities?

I didn’t understand any of the processes and didn’t know where I should start from since I was not used to Japanese job hunting. While I spent summer break in China in my third year, I decided to work in Japan after consulting with my parents. When I returned to Japan, my friends around me seemed to be a bit anxious. Most international students were still relaxed, but Japanese students started preparation for job hunting; therefore, I felt the need to hurry. I visited the career center in September since my Japanese friends told me to go there. I was worried about the interview contents and writing structure of entry sheets since my Japanese would be checked, but I was able to overcome this by getting support from the career center which I visited repeatedly.

Since science and technology students had to write many reports, it was hard for us to participate in hunting activities at the same time. I planned to save a whole day to take the required courses and adjusted my schedule by exchanging information with my friends who were in the same situation. I set the time frame as follows: preparation period between September and February, busiest actual action period up to April and final action period after May.

What kind of trouble did you have in written tests, entry sheets and interviews?
How did you succeed?

I established a good relationship with the teachers in the career center and got their sincere support for the entry sheet writing and mock interviews. You should not hesitate to get their support and get to know what your weak points are since they are specialists in job hunting. At the beginning of the selection process, your ES is one of the thousands, and is read briefly; however, it would be thoroughly read in the final stage if yours is one of the few chosen. Therefore, you need to write it up by taking enough time to differentiate it from the others’. Students who have applied to many companies tend to write it applying little effort, but this is a point which you should not neglect.

Regarding interviews, I got used to them as I became more experienced. For the first 5 companies, I one-sidedly presented the answers prepared beforehand, and I was not poised for listening to the other party. By the sixth company, I realized that an interview should be a communication, and I think I grew capable of having a proper conversation. It is very important to prepare answers for hypothetical questions; so, I brushed up on it many times. However, there are still things you don’t know until the actual interview takes place. In order to respond flexibly, you must get used to it through a lot of experience.

Why did you want to work for the company?
What appealing points do you think led the company
to give you an unofficial job offer?

The biggest reason is that it is the top-ranked company in the industry. I was interested in how the Japanese top company was establishing the system. I had an image that Chinese companies had strength in net-related technologies, and Japanese ones had its strength in IT management. Since I wanted to work at an upper-stream position in which I could see clients’ business, I found the reason in working for a Japanese company.

I believe that there are two points for a company to decide to hire a potential applicant. One is whether the applicant is suited for the company or not. The other one is the applicant’s degree of aspiration toward the company. From the prospective of students, it is important for us to emphasize those two points. I wanted to be an engineer, and the company requires an engineer to understand the needs of a client through communication, and to design a system based on their needs. I think the reason why I got an unofficial job offer is that they judged that I had enough communication skill during the interview. When I answered questions, I tried to talk logically since I thought it should be important to explain things logically to a client

Please tell me the benefits and difficulties working for a Japanese company.

In the culture of Japanese companies, they don’t think of their employees as immediate assets but tend to train them with a long term view. Therefore, their training system is quite extensive, which I believe its great point. The difficulties are the language and their culture. I am not saying this because I am non-Japanese. The language which I mean are the technical terms used in a particular industry, and the culture which I mean is the corporate culture. Even my Japanese colleagues who entered the company at the same time were saying that they didn’t understand it at all. Also, how to conduct business is different depending on the company. You must to get used to the language and the culture. In the first year, I answered the phone-calls at the desk every day.

At first, I couldn’t catch the names of the companies and people, but I grew accustomed to it. So, you don’t have to be in a hurry. In case you think you are not suited for the occupation/company, you can always change your career.

Please give a message to international students
who are trying to get a job in Japan.

Here is some advice. First, you should take actions at an early stage. Although I had missed it, you are able to have work experience in the Japanese corporate culture at the actual site if you participate in a long term summer internship. Secondly, you should be aware that an interview is an occasion for communication. I understand you could get nervous, but how you converse with the other party can affect your passing the interview. Thirdly, is to think of the acronym “KPT”; Keep doing good things, Problems to be solved, Try something new. There is always a failure, but it is important to learn something from that in retrospect. Finally, I feel strongly now is that I should have studied harder. Only in school days, you have enough time to study specialized subjects which will be useful in your future. Being an adult, you have only 30 minutes or so per day; so, if you want to get any qualification, you should get it when you are a student.