Everything you ever wanted to know about the post-college Japanese job hunt
Getting a job in Japan can to be really difficult if you don’t know how the process works. You can find out here how university students in Japan go about finding a job, and have a clearer understanding of Japanese culture.
When do students start looking for a job?
Job hunting is called shukatsu (就活) in Japanese. In my experience, Japanese students start shukatsu when they’re a junior because many large foreign companies such as consultant agencies and IT companies, and banks start looking for candidates who are in their junior year from summer to fall. As a result, some people finish shukatsu when they’re junior year.
So does that mean it’s too late to start looking for a job senior year? Well, actually not at all! There’s still plenty of time to look for a job! For Japanese companies, they usually start looking for candidates during the spring and summer, so those who wanna work at Japanese companies don’t need to rush! It’s never too late to start doing shukatsu.
There’s also Career Forums in popular cities all over the world including Boston, Los Angeles, London, and Tokyo for English and Japanese bilingual people who are eager to work in Japan or in another global environment. The requirement of participating in this forum is either you have experience of studying, working, and living abroad or have a proof of your language proficiency such as JLPT, TOEIC, TOEFL, and IELTS.
Where do students find the information about opportunities?
Do you want to know how Japanese students find a job? I’d love to share with you guys my experience and where I looked for a job when I was doing shukatsu. A lot of students register on a shukatsu website such as Mynavi (マイナビ) or Rikunabi (リクナビ) before starting shukatsu because there is information about many companies on them. You can do everything you need to look for a job through these websites. For instance, reserving a seat at a job fair, applying for a workshop (Called a short internship in Japanese), and submitting resumes and applications. The workshops that companies hold are kind of Japanese style. The model is that the company makes a pitch to candidates as to why they should apply to their company. They can be anywhere from 1-5 days long.
What I personally used for shukatsu
In my experience, I used different shukatsu sites called Gaishi Shukatsu (外資就活) and One Career (ワンキャリア) to look for a job at a foreign company. How they work is almost the same as Mynavi and Rikunabi, however, there is more information about foreign companies on Gaishi Shukatsu and One Career. So if you want to work at a foriegn company in Japan, you should definitely consider registering with them.
I also used Unistyle to write entry sheets for companies. Entry sheets abbreviated as ES in Japan are short essays about “What is the biggest achievement in your life”, “Why are you interested in the company”, “How did you get over when you encountered some difficulties” and so on which the company requires you to write. They are usually between 150 to 500 words depending on the company. Therefore, using Unistyle (ユニスタイル) is really helpful because there’s so many sample essays written by students who actually got into the company. So it’s better to check the site and get inspired by some of the successful essays before starting to write your own ES. I’m pretty sure you can save a lot of time writing your ES by using it!
Here are the shukatsu sites that I used! I highly recommend you to check them out!
The job hunting process for students
1) Collect info about companies you’re interested in
- Online recruiting events
- Register for recruiting events (on Mynavi, Rikunabi)
- Recruitment Workshop
2) Register and fill out the application on the company’s site
- You can do this through the sites I listed above
- Done through a shukatsu site or directly to the company
3) Submitting Entry Sheets (ES) / Essay prompt
- Most likely submitted online ( ES topics vary depending on a company)
4) Taking a test online or at testing center
- Synthetic Personality Inventory (SPI): This is the most common test. Subjects are Japanese, mathematics, and personal check and each subject is 30 minutes ish long.
- ENG: the format of this test is the same as Japanese test in SPI but in English. Many companies combine SPI and ENG together.
＊Some companies require candidates to take a separate test at their company.
5) Interview
- Group discussion
- Group interview
- Case study
- Normal individual interview
＊Usually 3-4 times to get hired (vary depending on a company), and some companies provide internship after interview, and they decide post-internship whether they want you as a full-time employee
6) Hired
- Sign contract
This whole process can take about 2-3 months and it can be a long and tough time but it’s nice that the process is quite straightforward. Lucky for job hunters Japan currently has a labor shortage so there are lots of opportunities available.
Thank you so much for reading this post! If you don’t know how to write a Japanese resume, Yuki offers a Japanese resume writing service on Fiverr. You can click here to contact with him. Please also check this post about what not to do when you write a Japanese resume. Yuki shares what mistakes to avoid when writing a Japanese resume based on his 4 years of freelance experience building professional Japanese-style resumes.
I hope your job hunt is going well!