On the job hunt, on various platforms (bizreach, nextinjapan, gittap, tempstaff, wantedly, etc.) I ended up with about 15 interviews in one month. Only one of the interviewers spoke English during the interview. Scroll down for some excerpts.
My background for reference: Over a decade in Japan, PR, did my N3 about 7 years ago (and some intensive official business Japanese courses with certifications years later). My Japanese is far from perfect, but it’s at least good enough to do interviews. I did 5 years in a management position. Corona killed that job, so I’ve been an ALT since making that sweet 3m a year.
I’m trying to make a shift to a more technical SWE/Developer position (hopefully remote, as I live 2 hours from Tokyo), in the past three years I have done loads of self-study, certifications, an open-source internship, other open-source contributions, an internship with a local development firm which turned to freelance and personal projects including my own launch of a now-in-use product. Probably 1000s of hours, well-documented on my 履歴書, portfolio, etc. Not the point of this post, but you’re welcome to dm me. Lots of work to make a big change!
Anyway, the point of this post is simply to share with you some of the stuff that recruiters (and a few direct company interviewers) said to me during interviews.
> “Wow, your Japanese is great… much better than many N1 people that I have interviewed. Do you have your N1? … Only your N3? You should get your N2. Without your N2, I can not introduce any jobs to you. No company will hire you without your N2.”
> “Your Japanese is perfectly fine for the workplace, we can definitely find a job for you. Plus, a lot of software companies in Japan use and need English in their office, so that’s a big plus.”
> “You understand that in Japan, companies only use Japanese, right? There is no English in any companies in Japan. Do you feel okay with using only Japanese all the time in the office? What about email? Can you type in Japanese?”
> “It’s not age-discrimination, but Japanese culture. But you are too old for companies to train you. You need experience in an engineering company before an engineering company will hire you.”
> “You are 中途採用 (mid-career recruitment). Do you know what that means? It means a company won’t hire you and teach you any skills. It means you must bring skills to a company. Do you understand that you need to bring new skills to a company?” *Note that this is while looking over my 履歴書*
> “You have so much experience and many skills, and you’re clearly working really hard to change your career. This reflects very well, and I have high confidence that we can help you find the right job.”
> “The local software company you’re freelancing with? I know them, and I went there 10 years ago! Another company you could look into is XYZ inc.” I had literally met the manager in the onsen the week before, weird coincidences.
> “Why would you look for another job? English teachers in public schools make lots of money.”
> “How much is your salary?” … *big shock noise, then sorry face when they realized I wasn’t joking. Then he just looked sad.*
> “The salary for teaching English keeps going down over the years? *Sasuga Nihon*.”
> “You only want 4 million a year? You could make way more than that?”
> “You only want 4 million a year? What about 3.5, or lower?”
> “Remote? No company in Japan is doing remote, maybe a little during corona. Can you move to Tokyo?”
> “Remote? Lots of companies have fully remote about a certain training period. No worries”
> “You have PR and dependants. Is your wife Japanese? Is your child Japanese?” *And more kinda inappropriate questions*
That’s about all I can remember for now. This is not a reflection on my job hunt as a whole, just some stuff recruiters said to me. Now don’t get me started on some of the follow-up replies. “You’re looking for a +4m remote job related to programming? Here are five jobs, all around 1100円 an hour, front desk hotel in Tokyo or maybe some anime goods shipping company.”
by mc3301