Hi!
So I am participating in a job fair from JETRO this week looking at company presentations and whatnot. To my understanding the purpose really is recruiting foreigners. It was more so on a whim since I am not really looking for white collar jobs. But who knows, maybe I will find a dream job. It is good listening practice for my Japanese so it can’t hurt.
I actually found some tempting positions that made me press the apply button, but they always care about when you graduated.
I know that there is this thing in Japan with hiring new graduated in bulk, but I thought it is only for Japanese nationals or at least for graduates of Japanese institutions. This is what I found out with some online searches.
Now we have this job fair where it is directly assumed most of the time that prospective employees have just graduated and are looking for entry positions.
What is up with this idea? Are you not able to join a company if you graduated 1 or 2 years ago? Is like over if you quit or if you are fired?
I didn’t think about joining the Japanese corporate world until now, I still don’t really since most salaries seem abysmally low. But I really want to understand how it works. Especially since this fair is foreigner friendly, so it seems this whole process is not only for nationals.
I also see almost no requirements. Sales positions that ask for nothing? Sure a bachelors for immigration, but that’s it? No specific sales studies? Same for other positions. Like you can graduate arts and do sales or IT? (ok IT usually has some requirements but you get the idea)
I am really confused. Could someone shed some light on this? It seems weird. I did apply to some that I liked even if they don’t align with my goals since making it big in a nice company could always be in the books so, while being picky, I did give some a shot. But I do not 100% understand what I am doing.
Thanks.
Edit: I did see some posts here on this, but only some vague things about the age preference.
2 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
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**I am really confused about this fresh graduate recruiting and preference thing.**
Hi!
So I am participating in a job fair from JETRO this week looking at company presentations and whatnot. To my understanding the purpose really is recruiting foreigners. It was more so on a whim since I am not really looking for white collar jobs. But who knows, maybe I will find a dream job. It is good listening practice for my Japanese so it can’t hurt.
I actually found some tempting positions that made me press the apply button, but they always care about when you graduated.
I know that there is this thing in Japan with hiring new graduated in bulk, but I thought it is only for Japanese nationals or at least for graduates of Japanese institutions. This is what I found out with some online searches.
Now we have this job fair where it is directly assumed most of the time that prospective employees have just graduated and are looking for entry positions.
What is up with this idea? Are you not able to join a company if you graduated 1 or 2 years ago? Is like over if you quit or if you are fired?
I didn’t think about joining the Japanese corporate world until now, I still don’t really since most salaries seem abysmally low. But I really want to understand how it works. Especially since this fair is foreigner friendly, so it seems this whole process is not only for nationals.
I also see almost no requirements. Sales positions that ask for nothing? Sure a bachelors for immigration, but that’s it? No specific sales studies? Same for other positions. Like you can graduate arts and do sales or IT? (ok IT usually has some requirements but you get the idea)
I am really confused. Could someone shed some light on this? It seems weird. I did apply to some that I liked even if they don’t align with my goals since making it big in a nice company could always be in the books so, while being picky, I did give some a shot. But I do not 100% understand what I am doing.
Thanks.
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So obviously you are aware that Japan has a new grad hire season/system or have now discovered how employees in Japan do not necessarily have backgrounds for their specific positions (the jack-of-all trades rotation system). All of those you can read about separately on some wikipedia or something.
As someone who has recruited hundreds of domestic and overseas new grads (I’m actually sitting in on an interview this Friday as an outside consultant), I have a few questions completely separate from the above:
What do you mean by “they always care about when you graduated?” Isn’t it normal for any job application to ask your date of graduation? You have it at the top of your CV, right? What exactly are these job listings doing that are giving you the impression your graduation date is such a big deal? They ask for your graduation date, and then what?
Similarly, the “it is directly assumed most of the time that propsective employees have just graduated.” A job listing usually has in its description the type of experience expected/required/preferred or simply lists the rank of the position (entry level/staff, experienced hire/senior, etc.). Is that what you mean?
Basically, your post makes it sound like the words “ONLY APPLY IF YOU GRADUATED TODAY (PERHAPS YESTERDAY)” or “DO NOT APPLY IF YOU GRADUATED FROM SCHOOL MORE THAN A YEAR AGO” are written. And I don’t know, maybe they are? I guess I’m just not getting what’s strange about jobs targeting specific pools of candidates. There are very specific recruiting processes and channels for different stages of recruitment. Targeting new grads is a very different thing than targeting mid-career hires or experienced management. Based off your few sentences, you yourself are essentially a new grad with little to no experience? You’re in the right spot then.