What is the worst job interview question?
What have you regretted the most in your entire life?
That's deep.
What's the most unfair about job hunt in Japan?
There are tests that check your academic knowledge but the truth is....
Hey guys and girls on Ask Japanese.
Finding full time employment in Japan is not easy.
Especially for Japanese people who are looking to join a company for the rest of
their lives. This time we are gonna go and find out about about the pitfalls and struggles
that Japanese people go through when trying to find full-time employment in Japan.
Let's go and Ask Japanese.
You were talking about your student days, are you still a student?
I still am. - Me too.
Do you go to the same school? - We do.
So you are both at university? - We are.
I am studying English.
You will graduate next year. - I will.
You are wearing suits, I assume you are job hunting for work next year? - Yes.
Job hunting. What is tough right now at university compared to that?
What's hard about job hunting in Japan is...
Are the worries if I will be able to get full time employment. I was so worried about my future.
It WERE worried about it?
I have calmed a down a little, but when I started job hunting I was extremely under pressure.
So starting was the scariest thing? - Yeah.
Did you go to another job interview today too? - Yes I did.
You said you calmed down now, how have you done that?
Some companies have already contacted me, and I am going to less interviews than at the start.
So the more you do it, the better?
Well that depends on the person.
I have never done the official Japanese full-time employment hunt...
for a life-long company thing. What is tricky and what is hard?
The self-analysis report. I don't know myself that much, there were things I didn't want to say either
It made me think, I should have researched things a little bit better.
What question is the most difficult one?
What is the thing that you have regretted the most in your life?
That's pretty deep.
How did you answer that question?
I didn't pass the entrance exam to the high-school that I wanted to go to.
But I made friends at the other school, and learned what I wanted to know.
I might have failed that test, but things went well at the other place I went to.
That's what I said.
That's a clever answer, I think.
Are you job hunting too? - My real work has been decided already so I don't have to anymore.
What was the hardest?
I had quite a number of interviews for this one job. I had about 5 and 6 stages.
What was hard, during these interviews I had to be clear about what I wanted to do and stay on.
Mentally that was quite challenging too.
So you had 6 job interviews for the same job? - Yes.
The interviewers would change, going up the hierarchy of the company.
Any worker there had to see what kind of person I am, and see if they want to work with me.
They all had to approve of me,
That's a lot of pressure.
"Next time, someone even more important than I will see you." - Like that.
Did the type of interview, the questions or the interviewees around you change?
First interview was different from the second and such? Going up the ladder.
What I had to do every time was completely different.
First, there were about 50-60 applicants in a big group
We all had to introduce ourselves, and they would judge us on our posture and appearance.
The second interview was 3 against 1. 3 applicants and one company worker.
The third interview there would be 30 applicants and we had a task.
We had to talk about what we develop in the company and present it to the group.
The 4 and 5th interview was personal questions about me.
One to one interviews.
And then number six? - Interview number six....
I spoke with the executive board and I got my response on the same day.
How many weeks did that process take?
One month and a half up to two months.
I also had a recruiting agent give advice to me at the time.
I also spoke with other company workers,
and I was told be be prepared for up to 10 interviews at that company.
So 10 times turned to 6, for one month and a half you were trying to get in. - Yes.
And that is the company that picked you? - Yes they choose me.
Congratulations!
You spend so much time to get work. Sounds really tough, Japanese job hunt.
What's the scariest, is coming that far and then being rejected. But I thought
"Just go do it." and with that mindset I got to where I am.
That sounds like one of those TV superstar auditions.
It's not that big but I was just as nervous!
Sounds like "This week we are down to 30 applicants! Who will win this battle?"
It's like that. The watched if I improved myself during these interviews....
And how strong I am mentally. They all watched that. It was a lot of pressure.
Were there applicants you got along with that didn't make it?
I could see people disappearing that I had met there....
I only met them once though. I hope to become friends with my future colleagues instead.
Were there any setbracks lalala
(Give her a moment)
I will do this again. Were there any setbracksetbrack.... I can't say it...
Were there any setbacks during these interviews?
When I had my final interview with the executive board ...
I told you I got my response then, right?
The response wasn't them accepting me. They said they put me on the waiting list instead.
They did like my character, and agreed that I would give the company the right results...
They said though, that they don't know if I will fit onto their company.
They gave me another day to have a second final try.
And that's when I went all in.
It was a real tough barrier I ran against.
It was the most painful experience...
This company must have questioned my credibility...
But I tried again, gave it all I have and got in.
Right at the end, the final interview! I would be so nervous! - I was.
It was my last chance. I thought about it all again during the night...
I created a new speech of approach in which I revised everything again.
Was there anything unfair or absurd asked of you during these interviews?
The were really strict and stiff.
Instead of a conversation, it is a formal job interview.
I found that pretty tough.
Writing the entry sheet application was tough too...
It's one of the many hard things that wait for us.
And yes I had to hand write applications too.
Hand write? When do you have to do that? WhY?
Generally the job applications can be made using a computer but...
But there are jobs that only allow hand written applications by letter.
If you write the wrong Chinese symbol you're in trouble from the start!
It takes a lot of time too. I found that really hard.
In order to formally join a company, you have to overcome many hardships.
I think so. I didn't like writing the job applications either.
We also have to take online academic tests for them to show our knowledge...
But the even tested us on Math and things we will never use in that company as well.
They won't need us to know about this in the job, but they dropped people
only looking at the test score. I thought that was not fair.
That sucks! Is there are rule on what to wear during Japanese job hunts?
I generally don't tie my hair up....
But we have to tie our hair up, or we won't look formal enough.
And our makeup is not allowed to be too strong either.
There is a fixed style of how girls are supposed to wear their makeup.
I had to pay attention to all of that too.
Did you have to dye your hair black?
I had to dye it black yes.
What was your color before?
I had brown hair before...
I had to dye it many times in order to get it to look black.
So you dyed it again and again - I had to.
Did you have to dye it darker too? - I had to go 2-3 times to the hair dressers...
And tried to get it as close to black as possible.
If you dye it too black, you can never get it back to lighter colors.
I got a super dark coloring.
We did it several times to make it look darker.
You have to have black hair at job interviews?
Generally black hair gives a better impression at job interviews.
So you had to do it.
I had to. Everyone else does it. I would stand out weird if I didn't.
That's why I had to dye it black and formal looking.
You are both wearing skirts right now. Do women wear skirts or trousers at interviews?
Around me most girls wore skirts. Some wore trousers.
Please try your best hunting! Those were our questions, thank you!
So you need to know Math and Geometry in the entrance test, even though
you might not work in that field at all. There're quite a lot of things that get very meticulously tested
when you want to join a company. It's almost like joining maybe a university
and having entrance exams. In the same way there are entrance exams for certain jobs here
in Japan. As you could hear lots of job interviews get you further up the ranks
testing you against other candidates, interviews with other candidates sitting next to you
there is a lot of rivalry in there as well and
The girl mentioned there were people she saw and then she
couldn't see them again cause they didn't pass certain rounds.
So it's quite strict, quite hard.
One of the reasons for that being is that in Japan,
Life-long employment is still a dream or still a thing that many people aspire to.
Meaning you select carefully the company you want to work with and
they carefully select you as well. That's why it is quite tough because the idea is that you
actually join that company and you stay with them for the rest of your life.
They become a new family and they pick their new family members carefully.
Generally switching jobs is frowned upon in Japan, still even in this time and day.
If you switch jobs too many times, you might also not become a "Seishain"
Which is a proper employee to a company. With all the security it brings.
Paying pension, insurance, certain things like that.
That's mainly one of the reasons why it is quite hard to find full time employment here in Japan.
Obviously the same tests does not apply if you just want to job at a convenience store
and similar things like that.
How is it with you? How hard is it to find a job in your country right now?
What are the steps people have to go though?
Let us know in the comments down below. Looking forward to finding out. I hope you found this helpful
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I hope I catch you soon for more stuff and we have related videos if you want to keep watching! Bye