Asriel,

Apply to all the jobs online BEFORE going to the Boston Career Forum.
Even the day before is OK if that's all you can manage.

Many companies will only talk to applicants that were pre-screened before
the Boston Career Forum. I went to the Boston Career Forum once, so I know.

Some companies might be lenient, but you'll have to fill out an application
form (in Japanese) by hand (yikes).........

Some of the applications include essays. Have a Japanese friend
look over and correct it for you.

Good luck.

Aaahaha
Well, then I think I'm pretty much screwed for everything -- most things I want to do have already passed the deadlines.

If possible, ignore the deadlines and try to send the application anyway.
Some companies can be sloppy with their bookkeeping behind the scenes.

Anyway, good luck.
Let us know how the Career Forum went for you.

Oh wow!

So I sent out some things to some places with my crappy, no-work-experience resume, and I landed an interview with Square Enix. That's pretty exciting. Since 45% of people who attend go home with nothing, I'm not expecting to get hired or anything, but it's at least encouraging that they're even at some level considering me.

The interview is a little nerve wracking though. Keigo? Got nothin, unless I'm writing... Vocab? Unless I have time to think of the best words...I got nothing "business level."

While I feel I have more or less business level reading ability, my general speaking and listening skills aren't really fluid enough to interview in Japanese properly yet. So I don't think I'll be interviewing anywhere else, at least this year.

I'm hoping it'll be an advantage if I'm focused and put all my effort into this one chance, whereas other candidates will be interviewing here and there at multiple places, with their focus spread out.

Anyone else here right now? I've got two interviews lined up, but I just don't know if I can keep up a Japanese state if mind any longer today.

Also, what are so e cool things to do in the city? Since the forum ends at about 6ish, there's definitely some time to do stuff afterwards

I'm here, Asriel, though I think I've had enough of the fair for one year. Maybe we passed each other earlier. Good luck with your interviews!

UBS decided to cancel my interview the night before on accounts of them changing their minds. Lovely of them, really.

So I'm just gonna chill in my hotel suite which is way too big for just me, I should have picked up chicks from the fair to take back or something. On the upside I did make a new friend at Heathrow who had the same destination as me.

dizmox Wrote:UBS decided to cancel my interview the night before on accounts of them changing their minds. Lovely of them, really.

Investment bankers... can't be trusted.

Seriously though, ouch, and can you hassle them for any kind of reimbursement?

Yeah, I sent a complaint demanding due compensation, not sure what much I can do if they say no though. D: Getting kind of sick of these big corporations and their application processes tbh, so maybe small firms are the way to go.

From my Japanese friend I heard that the Japanese companies don't care so much about your work experience, while gaishikei do. The amount of experience other internship applicants seem to have is depressing.

Told you not to go

Since you're there go chat with recruiters

dizmox Wrote:Getting kind of sick of these big corporations and their application processes tbh

I feel your pain. I applied for the civil service and I had to pass two online tests, an online questionnaire and a timed 90 minute exam in Edinburgh over a period of three months before I could even submit my CV and references and hope for an interview. Ludicrous bureaucracy. And what's worse is you have to pretend to be emotionally invested in each of the dozen places you apply for. "Oh I just love your approach to business... what do your initials stand for again?"

Dang, I'm sorry that it turned out so poorly for you. That's definitely not a cool thing to hear the day before...

I had 2 interviews today, another one tomorrow, and the dreaded/hopeful interview with square enix on Sunday morning.

Womacks Wrote:Told you not to go

Eh, I'm not too bothered about having gone, not like I could have predicted they'd go back on their word - in normal circumstances I would have gotten a proper interview.

harhol Wrote:And what's worse is you have to pretend to be emotionally invested in each of the dozen places you apply for.

Only a dozen?

Asriel Wrote:Dang, I'm sorry that it turned out so poorly for you. That's definitely not a cool thing to hear the day before...

I had 2 interviews today, another one tomorrow, and the dreaded/hopeful interview with square enix on Sunday morning.

Don't worry about me^^ What were the interviews like?

Apparantly when my friend cracked open a bottle of soda (letting out a hissing sound) in the middle of a square enix seminar, the whole audience stopped and looked round at him in shock. Talk about uptight.

They were kinda meh... I think they were ok, but probably not "wow we've gotta hire this guy" material. Kind of just asked me about normal interview stuff, can-you-do-this-job questions and stuff.

Sandisk gave me computer engineering problems the likes of which I haven't seen in over 2 years, but I seemed to have gotten them right.

I'm not expecting to get hired by anyone here anyway, so all in all, it's all good.

Ok, so the weekend is finally over! I'm waiting in the airport gate waiting for my plane to arrive, so I figured I'd give a little rundown of what happened.

Day 1:
I went around to all the companies that I was interested in, or thought might actually accept me. This led to an interview with SanDisk and Barclays. Why Barclays wanted me I have no clue, but they seemed to think I as ok... Not expecting a call back.

Day 2:
Went around to companies that I was interested in, but didn't think I stood a chance: need an MBA, native speakers, dual citizenship, etc...
Had an interview with JGC. They liked me, and hooked me up with an interview on day 3. Not a whole lot happened on day 2 except getting turned down a lot and hanging out with people who I studied with when I was abroad--an awesome coincidence that we were both there.

Day 3:
Had an interview with JGC scheduled at 10:30, but they didn't finish the previous interview until 10:50, and I had my Square Enix interview at 11:15, so that interview was cut way too short, and I don't think they liked that too much. Meh...
The Square Enix interview was a lot of fun. Wacky professor type dude who asked me very American company type interview questions. Even discussed with him an idea (which I came up with on the spot) about wanting to make an AI that basically learns how to match the skill level of the player so it doesn't get boring, and how it could be applied to make language learning games. He said I should be getting an email and I'll have to write a research plan to send in, which is super daunting because I came up with the idea off the top of my head, but he seemed to like me, and it was an awesome interview.

One thing is that I got legitimate compliments on my Japanese. Not just "お上手ですね" and the like. The square guy said that people who come in who are that good are really quite rare. Of course, the job is about researching and computers, but it was an encouraging thing to hear. Apparently words like 貴社 and 貢献 are cool words to use... Idk, lol

Hijacking this thread to be about my Square-Enix adventures.

Just got done with Skype Interview #2. Quite possibly a horrible failure!!

Last time was a considerable amount of English (60%?), we discussed a lot of things, and got into some specifics of how we could do this and that --> so I was preparing a lot of that stuff.

This time, the interviewer spoke 100% Japanese, but I had to use about 25% English to explain some concepts that I don't know in Japanese.

Except we went right back to the beginning --> way broader ideas like 'why do you want to work here?' and 'what kind of research do you want to do?'
And I feel like I was either misunderstood, or came across as contradicting myself when I didn't mean to...

*sigh*I guess I'll just sit around and wait for the rejection letter then...

>: That's too bad, maybe it'll turn out better than you expect though. Once I was talking to a Japanese employee at a career event and he kept condescendingly probing why I want to live in Japan and asking if I like anime, kind of felt like he was looking down on me.

Currently I have an opportunity to do PhD study (mathematics) in Japan but given the choice between "safe" job offers back home, getting experience and finding a senior role in Japan later and doing further study in Japan which may lead me who knows where, the latter runs counter to my risk averse personality.

Tough luck Asriel. We all believed in you (at least, I did), but as diz says, sometimes, interviewers are pretty harsh, so maybe there's a slim hope you've passed.
Anyway, let's hope the future will be brighter, life ain't over yet.

Don't want to hijack the thread, hopefully this is still somewhat on topic. Does anyone know of any good resources for interviewing in Japanese? Not just just business Japanese, more like specific things that are said in interviews that may be different or writing cover letters, that type of stuff. Having a little trouble finding that kind of stuff.

There are a billion books in Japanese bookstores that cover interviewing skills. Just do a search in amazon Japan for 「面接」and you will get a ton of hits.

You'll also want to cover keigo.