(2015-12-04, 12:41 am)Gaikoukan23 Wrote: Long one lurker here. First post.
Quick background for reference - I've been working for a major Japanese tech company for the last 4 years. I started in the HR department working on globalization initiatives and then transitioned into recruiting (non-Japanese MBA's mostly) and then labor. I jumped out of HR two years ago and have been working in new business development since then. I have N1 but my spoken Japanese is absolutely terrible and not anywhere near good enough for customer facing roles.
Couple things I think you should think about.
First, you are stuck in the what I like to call zone of purgatory between 新卒 and 中途. You missed the main hiring opportunities for new graduates but don't have enough experience for mid-career hires. However, most companies take in a certain amount of 第二新卒 every cycle. These are people who joined other companies but things didn't work out for whatever reason so they enter an incoming class of another company. It's kind of a hard reset for people. This is an option for you and based on your background, my company would absolutely love to interview you and maybe give you a new grad job. The negative side here is that this will be a bid step down in your responsibilities and pay as well.
The next thing to think about is whether or not your Japanese is good enough for a customer facing role. You mentioned that you failed N1 twice. I don't mean to be harsh here but you are basically illiterate in the eyes of a Japanese employee. N1 is Japanese middle school reading level and if you are not 100% comfortable with reading and responding to...let's say 50...advanced Japanese emails + phone calls every day, I would try to focus on work that is NOT customer facing.
You're welcome to privately tell me more about the company you work for, I'd be curious to hear. Not sure if you're offering though.
I'm hoping to get an opportunity where mediocre Japanese is acceptable, and then attend night or weekend school for Japanese while just immersing myself. After that I want to grow into a role that fits. It doesn't have to be customer facing. The one thing I do know is that I hope to live/work in Osaka, and in comparison to what is in Tokyo there are less opportunities. Nonetheless if I get in Japan I'm happy wherever.