How did you study Japanese?

I learned Japanese in my home country of Taiwan and passed the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (N 2) with an almost perfect score, but it was after I came to Japan that my skills improved significantly. I stayed in Japan for a year on a working holiday visa and then returned home. I came back to Japan a second time to go to university. I stayed in a university dormitory designed for international exchange, which allowed me to communicate with Japanese people on a daily basis. Most of the dorm residents were Japanese, and there were only a few international students, including me. I quickly became friends with all the dorm residents. Living under the same roof, eating meals with Japanese friends every day, and having conversations with them naturally improved my language skills. I think I was able to acquire a "natural way of speaking" because I learned Japanese in an international dormitory environment.

How did you decide to work for a Japanese company?

When I was attending university in Japan, I didn't have a clear goal for the future, so I never thought about getting a job at a Japanese company. The only thing I liked was light novels, and I wrote them in my native Taiwanese and Japanese. I had this vague idea of becoming a writer of light novels someday. However, as my Japanese friends began job hunting one after another, I also started thinking about finding a job. I could have aimed to become a light novel writer, but joining a company as a new graduate is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. On the other hand, you can try to become a light novel writer at any time. I didn't want to miss this chance, so I decided to get a job at a Japanese company.

Tell us about the focus of your job hunting and the sectors and job types you considered.

I left my university's international dormitory after a limited term of two years and moved into a dormitory for international students run by a local government. My experience as dorm manager made me realize that I wanted to be a bridge between people, and I made that the focus of my job hunting. I liked games and anime in general, not just light novels, so I looked for jobs in a wide range of industries related to those. And because my parents work in real estate, I also considered the real estate sector. In addition to a specific sector, I also prioritized "benefits and work-life balance." This is because I want to have both a fulfilling private life and a fulfilling job, rather than just working hard at my job.

Did you focus your efforts on anything in particular while job hunting?

In order to find a company that matched my desires, I began to thoroughly gather information. First, I asked my Japanese friends for an overview of the job-hunting process. They told me about job information sites such as Mynavi. To gather information about companies, I searched "company rankings by sector" on the Internet and when I found companies that interested me, I would get information directly from their sites.

In this way, at the beginning of my job hunting, I would jump to the recruitment site of a company I was interested in based on the company rankings and then apply, but the drawback was that it was time-consuming. In the second half of my job hunting process I started to use Mynavi, which allowed me to proceed in a more efficient way.

Give us some specific information on how you went about job hunting, including　ES, written tests and job interviews.

I think the biggest hurdle in job hunting for international students is the "job interview." I also couldn’t get good results at first, so I focused on preparing for job interviews. I had a Japanese friend who received an unofficial job offer from a company known for its strict job interviews, so I wrote down the expected questions and answers in a notebook and we went over them together. I also had my notes corrected at the university's career center and did several simulated job interviews.

Some people write down the answers to potential questions as bullet points, but I wrote them down in full sentences. I thought about potential questions for each company and prepared my answers, and in case I was asked more in-depth questions, I broke down the questions into smaller ones and prepared answers for each one, practicing them out loud many times. Of course, I also did this in the presence of my friends.

The most useful advice I received from my friends was that my self-introduction was too long. I had been trying to be thorough, but it seemed to have had the opposite effect. I narrowed down what I wanted to say to one or two things and tried to communicate them succinctly, and the results of my job interviews improved dramatically. I ended up receiving unofficial job offers from multiple companies.

What was the most difficult part of looking for a job?

No matter how carefully you prepare for a job interview, you may still be asked unexpected questions. In order to answer unexpected questions smoothly without panicking, it is important to analyze yourself thoroughly and dig deep into specific episodes. For example, in my case, I was the president of the international student association and planned and managed special events to learn about Japanese culture. When I talked about this episode in a job interview, I was asked in-depth questions about it, such as "Why did you decide to hold the event?", "How did you make it happen?", and "What kind of personal growth did you achieve through the event?" Therefore, when you piece together your answers to expected questions, you need to think about the intention behind your answer. It is a time-consuming and difficult task, but I think it is an important preparation.

What is the best part about working for a Japanese company?

I think that a good working environment and comprehensive employee benefits are unique to Japanese companies. The company I work for provides a lot of benefits, including subsidies for moving, so even when I was assigned to a distant location, there was almost no financial burden.

I still remember during my job hunting an HR person telling me that working there was fun. I was shocked that people who work for Japanese companies could so openly say that they enjoyed their work. Now that I work for a Japanese company, I feel that those words were not wrong. I enjoy every day working with the staff I work with, helping them work with enthusiasm and grow, and I feel rewarded every time I hear my staff say “thank you”.

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

If you think from a company's point of view, you will realize that job hunting is not easy for us international students. To begin with, there are still many companies that have no experience of hiring foreigners. So, what should you do to succeed in finding employment at a Japanese company? I think it is important to thoroughly think through why they should hire you, a foreigner, instead of a Japanese person and base your appeal to the company on that. It is important to think of a reason that will make the company think, "he doesn't know Japanese culture as well as Japanese people, and he's not particularly good at Japanese, but I still want to hire this student." You may encounter some difficulties being an international student, but I hope you will realize that your efforts can yield many positive results.