What Recruiters are Good For

Once every now and again I look around the Japan-focused chat boards to get a feel for what people are looking for work and how they find it. Over the last few months, I've noticed more and more postings from people who are dissatisfied with recruiting companies - and labeling one company or another as "useless". But before giving up on recruiters, let's take a step back and look at what you should be using a recruiter for...

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Seishain

Occasionally I get questions from people already working in a Japanese company who are struggling to determine if they are being discriminated against. Here is one such case...

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Marketing and PR Opportunities

I don't often talk about the job opportunities for marketing and PR positions. In fact there are a ton of jobs out there - however, you don't hear about them much in the foreign media because of the fact that for such positions companies mostly hire from an "inner circle" of marketing professionals. To get into this inner circle, you need to have experience, be in the right industry that the hirer is active in, and...

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Finding Jobs Outside Tokyo

If you're outside Tokyo, hearing of all the job opportunities available for foreigners here in the capital must be a bit frustrating. Today we have a question from a reader in Shizuoka lamenting the lack of choice in other prefectures...

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Sexual Harassment in Interviews

In polite Japan, people don't talk much about the underside of a paternal working society, where young women in particular are expected to suffer in silence from sexual harassment from their seniors. A pat on the bottom from the boss, awkward questions about one's love life from the bucho, and persistent requests for a date from older male colleagues are all part of the workplace obstacle course. In most foreign companies, things are a bit easier because of Western...

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Resume Structuring

Applying for a job with a multinational company starts with your resume. In this current economic climate, a well-written resume will usually get you to the first interview at least, so it's important that you spend time on it. If you're bilingual, you should always submit both an English and a Japanese resume. This way, you've lowered the point of resistance if the business manager is a foreigner but the HR Manager is a Japanese...

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Closing That Job Offer

So, you've been to three interviews with the same company. You've met everyone from the Business and HR Managers, to the CEO for Japan. You're totally confident that you're the chosen one, and your recruiter is telling you that you should get ready for some good news on Monday. Then, on Friday night, the final call comes through on your cell phone, "We're sorry, but you didn't get the job..." One of the biggest problems I have as a recruiting consultant is...

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Work in the Medical Field

Occasionally I get enquiries about work in the medical field, so I went to talk to Guy Harris D.O, the CEO of Digital Medical Communications (DMC). Guy's company develops telemedicine and e-care platforms and services. Guy himself, has been in Japan 16 years, starting off in the rewriting and editing field for pharmaceutical companies, then branching out into telemedicine in...

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A Small Town Called Tokyo

The greater "Keihin" area describes the landmass from where the buildings of Kanagawa merge into Tokyo, that spreads out over 4 surrounding cities to the North and East. The Keihin area is one of the developed world's largest metropolises, with over 30 million people living within 2 hours train ride of Ginza, Shibuya, or Shinjuku. So, as a foreigner, you might be forgiven for thinking that Tokyo is an easy place to...

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Notes for Nigel

As promised, I will continue to open up my casebook of job enquiries, so that readers can have a reference to some real-world situations. Today's case is "Nigel" who is a Lotus software developer looking to come and work in Japan for the first time. Nigel is a US citizen who has been interested in Japan since he was a teenager. He studied Japanese in college for several years and even did a semester of study in Japan, though feels that his languages skills have become pretty rusty. Nigel has been a Lotus...

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