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CareerForum: Personal opinions.
From Fiona:
Hi all! My Name is Fiona and I'm from Indiana
University School of Business (as you might have guess, yeah I know
Harvey =). I just attended the Boston Career Forum 2002 and here's my
opinion: If you know deep in your heart that you can't do an interview
or sell yourself in Japanese, then probably you can't survive the
Career Forum. A lot of companies stated that they required Native
level of Japanese, and they mean it!
I'm from Indonesia and there's another problem if you're not a US
or Japanese citizen. Most of the companies are looking for
position based in Japan or US, and you have to have the working
permit.
If you are truly confident that you can do the interview in Japanese,
then go! It's a good opportunity.
And as for me, after going into the Career Fair, maybe I don't really
want to work in Japan now... Probably later in the future! ^_^
From Chika:
My name is Chika, and I'm a Japanese student at Indiana University Kelley School of Business (same school Harvey graduated from). I recently attended the Boston Career Forum 2002. The first thing I want to tell you is that you should prepare a Japanese resume if you are Japanese and plan to apply to Japanese companies. I heard that a Japanese resume is optional, but actually most companies from Japan required that I hand one in. In my case, my mom sent me some Japanese resume forms prior to the Career Forum.
I had interviews with about 10 companies. Talking to them was really interesting; I mean that I learned a lot of things one cannot find in pamphlets: their corporate cultures and the new projects they face etc... Also, I came to realize that I will never be able to work in any Japanese company. I discovered many disparities between in their values and mine. I don't say every Japanese company is so, but interviews left me feeling that most of them have a centralized, "formal" structure, a seniority system, and a male dominated culture. On the other hand, U.S. based companies were more friendly, and I enjoyed talking to them; our conversations were not like a formal interview.
Fortunately, I was invited to a dinner reception by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu one day and by Master Foods (Mars, Inc.) the next. This saved me a lot of money, and I enjoyed eating good food at their expense :). Seriously though, it was a really good opportunity to expand connections. I tried to make myself interesting by telling them relevant recent news, matters concerning my course work and group projects, and of course, some jokes. This strategy may have helped, because Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting offered me a job the very next day. That response was unusually quick and really surprised me. I have not yet heard from Mars, Inc., and I'm waiting for their response, because their culture seemed especially congenial to me.
From Eric:
I am an American who studied Japanese all throughout college,
studied
abroad at Nanzan University, and am currently working as
a Coordinator of
International Relations for the JET program. The following
is my evaluation
of the Boston Career Forum.
The Career Forum is a big get together for tons of companies
and job
applicants. There are many international companies. It seems
that the focus
is on technology and financial services. Almost every applicant
is Japanese
who went to college in the U.S.. I felt that companies were
looking for that
kind of applicant, because in general, Americans can't speak
good enough
Japanese to really make it in a Japanese company off the
bat. My advice is
to study Japanese and some science hard and then you should
get at least some nibbles at the job fair.
Good Luck, Eric Kosinski
From Harvey:
I am an American who has studied Japanese since high school, and spent one year in
Japan studying at a university. I recently attended the 2001 Boston Career Forum.
This year the Career Forum was hit hard by the recent incidents in New York, as well
as the faltering economy. Last year there were 120+ companies present, while this year
there were only about 44 companies who attended the event.
I am a Business major, Computer Information Systems. I
was looking for an IT job, preferably networking. I was
disappointed to see that a few of the companies were only
looking for MBA students. A couple of the companies I interviewed
with were also wary of the fact that most foreigners who
work in Japan do not stick around for a very long time,
just about two or three years. In one case, the fact that
I was a foreigner and would most likely not be in Japan for
a 'long-term' amount of time cost me a job offer.
I did keep plugging however, and got lucky with one company. The interview for this company, GE,
was actually conducted in English, even though the job is for a Tokyo Japan. Like many companies,
they plan to call me later for a final, over the phone interview. I was lucky since I am an IT major
and most of the companies were looking for people in that field, but I heard of a Folklore major getting
a job with a marketing company during this event. The moral of the story is, no matter what your major,
if you play your cards right, you can find something.
Most of the companies who attended this year (2001) were banks,
IT companies, or other large corporations. The overall event
was well put together, but the competition was stiff due
to the low amount of companies, and the high numbers of
students present. There were a surprising number of other
non-Japanese present as well for some reason.
Go get 'em,
Harvey harveybeasley@linuxmail.org
From Steve:
I participated in the Tokyo Winter Career Forum 2001, and although I did not get any finalized job offers from the fair, I did get one final interview invitation from a Japanese company which I am still hanging on. Overall, I thought it was a valuable experience.
There were 55 companies participated in this year's Tokyo Winter Forum, and they came from many different industries, such as manufacturing-Matsushita Electrics, Finance-Nomuro Security, Consulting-Deloitte Consulting, IT-NEC Communication System, and the list goes on.
I thought the competition was pretty tough due to the large number of job seekers presented, who were mostly American University graduated Japanese. I recall seeing around 10-15 non-Asian job seekers, and with the additional 5 or less non-Japanese Asian job seekers.
The Tokyo Winter Career Forum was my first and only bilingual job fair experience. In sum, I genuinely think it is the best and fastest way to get a high paying job in Japan, however, to do well in this fair, you need to be proficient in your Japanese. Speaking from a non-IT professionals' standpoint, I think most companies at least expect the foreign job seekers to be able to handle the screening interview in complete Japanese (a mere preparation of self-introduction in Japanese is not enough, although with rare exception, I remember seeing 2 Caucasian Interviewers who were conducting their interview in English). It's also a good idea to research the companies that you intend to visit, because you will sure be asked "why did you chose our company?, which business dept. are you interested in engaging in and why?"
Good luck!
Steve
From Harvey:
The San Francisco Technical Career Forum (2002) was the third bilingual career forum I have attended. This forum was smaller than the usual forum in Boston, and was focused on those students interested in purely technical careers.
Most of the companies present were looking for students with IT, Computer Science, or engineering backgrounds. A few of the companies were looking for people with Finance backgrounds, or people from other disciplines. I did not see any companies present this time that were willing to hire people with Japanese language ability lower than conversational level. All of the companies, save a few (Corning, Mizuho, etc) were looking for employees to work in their Tokyo offices.
Other than the focus change in this event from the Boston Forum I had previously attended, the other noticeable difference was the length of the event. The San Francisco Technical Forum is only held for two days, a Friday and Saturday. As in the case of the Boston Forum, the companies start to leave during the middle of the day on Saturday, so it is important to use your time on Friday efficiently.
While the Boston Career Forum is traditionally held in a large room in the World Trade Center in Boston, the San Francisco Forum was held in the Marriott Hotel in San Francisco. The area where the Forum was held was cramped, so many of the second and third interviews for various companies were held in vacant hotel rooms.
This Forum is ideal for those bilingual English-Japanese speakers who have just graduated from University with technical degrees and hope to find work in Japan.
Harvey harveybeasley@linuxmail.org
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