I had difficulty choosing to post here or in the off-topic forum, so feel free to move it if need be. My thread is composed of two questions, one of which I've asked in the past but am looking for new information regarding. Will include a TLDR at the bottom since I write horribly.

The first is unrelated to Japan. I'm a recent graduate in Business Administration which is a very general degree in business. This question is more geared towards those who are knowledgeable in the professional field which is what kind of job should I look for? The problem I've been facing thus far is that not many jobs are intended for a broad major, but rather a specific one. Therefore it makes it difficult for me to go to a job searching website, put in a specialization, and hit go. I have an interview next week with a shipping company for an Inside Sales position (which will become an Outside Sales one). I've been having doubts if sales is even my thing and, more importantly, if I truly want to travel so often. That's more or less why I decided to make this thread. I'm looking for some advice quickly before being stuck in a commitment.

The second question is one related to Japan, and one I've posted about before: if I want to live and work in Japan, but am not doing so currently, how can I effectively job search? I'm aware of some sites such as Daijob, but it only produces 2 pages of results for entry-level. It seems very daunting. I'm not against working in America, but I'd like to give Japan a shot. Some additional info is that I've passed N2 which might help.

TLDR: Two questions: (1) What kind of job suits a business admin major? (2) Best way to search for jobs in Japan despite not living in Japan.

First thing you need to know is that Japanese companies do not hire specialists (except for engineering positions). Your degree in business administration has the exact same value as a degree in Mongolian basket weaving. Companies hiring at the entry level are looking for very broad competencies and expect you to gain your business skills over the long term through years and years of OJT.

If you want to get a job in Japan I think your best bet is to apply for entry level positions at global orientated firms. You can find many of them at places like the Boston Career Forum. Your Japanese will not be good enough for most companies but there are a handful that don't require Japanese and see N2 level Japanese as a big bonus.

And of course there is always English teaching.

TheVinster Wrote:The second question is one related to Japan, and one I've posted about before: if I want to live and work in Japan, but am not doing so currently, how can I effectively job search? I'm aware of some sites such as Daijob, but it only produces 2 pages of results for entry-level. It seems very daunting. I'm not against working in America, but I'd like to give Japan a shot. Some additional info is that I've passed N2 which might help.

I think your best bet is to get a few years of experience in the states and then try Japan. It's probably not what you want to hear, but that's basically the reality of it. I think you'll be far better off for it in the long run too because even entry jobs don't do a lot for your salary.

Besides daijob, the other places to look for jobs are on international corp sites. Amazon, Google, Apple, Cisco, Microsoft, Xerox, etc etc. If a company has a presence in Japan then they'll have offices there too. These companies may or may not post jobs onto daijob though is the thing so you may have to visit their company website and check out the "careers" section. I recommend also looking at the regional Japanese sites. Some companies will post some international job offers on their English side but they'll sometimes exclude Asian countries from the posts due to language issues.

The catch in all of this though is that most of these job postings (99%?) are not entry level; they are experienced postings that may range from mid level up to executive.

As kitakitsune mentioned, the Boston Career Forum is a place to look, but I'm going to put out a warning that many of the companies at the forum are not looking for Americans. The main function of the BCF is to provide a way for Japanese graduates that have been studying in the states, to interview for jobs in Japan which they missed out on due to not being there for the usual hiring process. I've known a few people (Americans) that had traveled back to the states from Japan to interview there, they were doing their 4 year in Japan. Their impression was that most companies weren't really interested in them although they did take their resume and gave them the usual responses. Some companies were willing to interview them but the kind of positions they wanted them for weren't of interest. Of one these people, I know that he was finance or business. Its worth checking out, maybe to get a feel for the way things are done, but I'd be neutral in your expectations.

Thanks guys. Yeah that's what I expected which is why I've been applying at companies that have some sort of presence in Japan, or an international focus. I knew it'd be hard which is why I didn't get my hopes up too much. I'll just make sure I have a job and can go from there.

You might have some luck if you're at all interested in recruiting. I went to an international job fair here in Japan, and it was pretty much all sales positions/recruiters. Roger Waters was there, for example.

The recruiting positions are no better than teacher positions.

vix86 Wrote:As kitakitsune mentioned, the Boston Career Forum is a place to look, but I'm going to put out a warning that many of the companies at the forum are not looking for Americans. The main function of the BCF is to provide a way for Japanese graduates that have been studying in the states, to interview for jobs in Japan which they missed out on due to not being there for the usual hiring process. I've known a few people (Americans) that had traveled back to the states from Japan to interview there, they were doing their 4 year in Japan. Their impression was that most companies weren't really interested in them although they did take their resume and gave them the usual responses. Some companies were willing to interview them but the kind of positions they wanted them for weren't of interest. Of one these people, I know that he was finance or business. Its worth checking out, maybe to get a feel for the way things are done, but I'd be neutral in your expectations.

It's not that they don't want westerners, they're just not really actively looking for them because there are very few westerners at graduate level who are near-fluent in Japanese and would fit in with Japanese business culture. It wouldn't be worth their time.

If you're in Japan, there's not really any reason to go to the BCF...

Regardless of the reasons, it doesn't change what I said about keeping your expectations neutral.

I think the only person I've heard of and know had success with BCF was Katz at AJATT. I think he said he went and worked at Sony for awhile?

There are about a dozen companies that go to the BCF and are not particularly looking for "Japanese" people. You just have to do your research and find out which ones they are and target them.

For example
http://global.rakuten.com/corp/careers/

Just out of interest, has anybody here had experience doing in-house translating/localization work?