Tokyo Job Fair

[ujiyamada]

This past weekend, Leizel and I went to a job fair in Tokyo for JET program participants. Neither of us had been to a job fair and it was pretty stressful overall. We signed up for the job fair back in May to hopefully provide us both with a "real" job (read: not teaching at an "English conversation" school) in the case that our transfer didn't go through. However, just two days before the fair, we received word that our transfer would indeed go through so the pressure was off for the job search. It was still good to go though. We both got some great experience, got an idea of what's out there for post-JET, and we'll have some tips to keep in mind for next year's job fair including:

• Bring résumé in both English and Japanese.
• Bring meishi (business cards), it's Japan after all.
• Put photo on résumé (so that people will remember you when they look through the huge stack of résumés a week later).
• Wear better shoes.

The job fair lasted approximately four hours, the first hour of which was intro presentations and the remaining time was "sell yourself" time on the part of both the companies and the job-seekers. I spent some time walking around to the different company booths and shooting the shit in both English and Japanese. During this process, two exciting things took place:

1. After waiting in a long line, mostly comprised of other fanboys, I got to talk with the head of translation/localization at Square-Enix...makers of the Final Fantasy games, for those of you who don't know the name already. He's from Osaka and likes Ise because he likes the Shrine. Hopefully he'll remember me as the guy from Ise. We also talked about typhoons, Osaka dialect, and food...as well as the creative talent necessary to translate adventure games. I was told translators at Square-Enix have all passed Level 1 of the JLPT, but that to procure the job you have to pass their own special test, actual JLPT level isn't that important. Excellent.
2. I spoke with an engineering company interested in computer science grads who speak Japanese. While the guy was explaining the company to me he said "we have a single plant in the USA. You've probably never heard of it, but it's in a city called Dayton". "Actually, I'm from Dayton!" Then the two other guys who'd just been quietly sitting there broke out some really good English and started talking with me about Dayton where they'd both been numerous times. The one guy even knew Marion's. Hopefully they'll remember me next year, as the guy from Dayton. The company was called Aida Engineering and their plant is apparently about five miles east of the I-70/I-75 intersection (I don't meet many Japanese people who are familiar the 70/75 intersection).

Too bad I had to tell them all "actually, I'm staying on the JET program for another year, but I'd love to work for your company next year!" Of course the lack of pressure to find a job by September made it easier for me to talk with people at the booths, but most people lost interest in me after I told them I wasn't in immediate need of a job.

Leizel was in the same position, now that we know we're staying. She found some good info, especially from Temple University Japan, regarding both teaching and further education.

After the job fair was over there was a "reception" at the office of one of the main sponsors, the Pasona group. This posh reception was held at a posh downtown Tokyo office building and featured lots of posh-ness all around. Servers in suits walked around with drinks on plates for people to take freely. It was like being in a movie...a bad one...in a scene full of young, trendy, yuppy urbanites, living that glorified lifestyle. Definitely not my thing. I love big cities; I love the urban phenomenon, especially as seen in Japan; but I don't subscribe to the trendy, young, hip, ultra-cool aspect...and I never will. The message of the reception: "Please work for our company because we are cool, and coolness is the most important thing to young people searching for a job." Don't get me wrong, the people were nice and the speaker was great, but holding a posh party doesn't tell me anything about what it's actually like to work at your company...other than that you employ people who like trendy corporate parties.

Anyways, like any other trip to Tokyo (this was our first in 5 months), it wasn't complete without a trip to both Friday's and Cinnabon. We also walked across the Rainbow Bridge on Sunday before heading home, it was a surprisingly peaceful "hike" through the world's largest metropolis.