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Voices of our Alumni 5: Give it a shot!

School: Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies (GSAPS)

Gender: Female

Country: Finland

Graduated in March 2015/ Started Work in April 2015

Job Offers: Sportswear Maker

Reasons for working in Japan

There are two main reasons why I wanted to work in Japan: to improve my Japanese language abilities, and to gain working experience that will help me in my future career. First, I have been studying the Japanese language for several years but I feel that in order to become fluent in Japanese, I need to be immersed in a completely Japanese-language environment. Working in a Japanese company with Japanese coworkers will help me achieve this goal. Second, the competition for jobs in Europe is very hard at the moment, so I think that getting working experience in Japan will be an asset for me in the future if I decide to return to Europe.

Number of industries and companies approached

I mainly looked at apparel industry, but also sent applications to food industry, IT industry and one NPO. In the end, I sent entry sheets to around ten companies.

Starting and ending period(s) to job-hunting in Japan

I started my job hunting in December 2013, when we organised a career event in our graduate school. February and March were the busiest months in job hunting for me as most of the entry sheets were due at that time. I got a job offer in the very beginning of May 2014, and that is when I ended my job hunting.

Ways/ Methods of job-hunting

(E.g. ways of searching companies, visiting alumni, test preparations, etc.)

First, I registered on several job-hunting websites that offered plenty of information on companies. I also visited several job-hunting fairs and went to information sessions of companies that seemed interesting. Especially events targeted at international students were very helpful. As for the written tests, I borrowed some books on SPI from a friend and studied them. The Waseda University Career Center was very helpful in checking my drafts for entry sheets, and also my Japanese friends helped out a lot by checking my grammar. I practiced for interviews by preparing answers to questions that they usually ask and making sure I knew the basic facts of the companies I interviewed for.

Challenges (difficulties) faced during job-hunting

The most difficult thing for me was the fact that everything was done in Japanese. Especially the written tests were very challenging as I always ran out of time since my reading and writing are not as fast as a native speaker’s. Being interviewed in Japanese also added an extra panic factor to the whole experience, but at the same time gave me confidence in my language abilities.

Studying of Japanese language, useful (necessary) in job-hunting?

I guess it is possible to find a job in Japan where you do not really have to use Japanese, but in my case, Japanese language ability was an absolute must. Knowing Japanese will greatly enhance one’s options in the job market.

Messages to international students who plan to job-hunt in Japan

I would encourage everyone who might be interested in working in Japan to try job hunting. Not only will you gain an interesting cultural experience with all the peculiarities of the Japanese job-hunting system, and with a bit of luck end up with a job, but you can also learn a lot as you get to experience situations you would not come across as a student. Seeing many of my peers struggling with job hunting and getting lost in the process, I would give you one piece of advice: first think what it is you really want to do, and try to keep the idea clear in your head all the time. It is easy to get confused when there are thousands and thousands of companies and students around you are applying to hundreds of them. But if you have a strong idea of your own interests, you can save a lot of time by not applying to not-so-interesting companies, and it will also be easier to persuade interviewers to give you an offer. Good luck, you can do it!

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【Contact Information】
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 e-mail : career#list.waseda.jp
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