Job Hunting
Shushoku Katsudo or Hell On Earth: How I Got Me A Job
I got me a job! Yey!!! More than two months of hectic job hunting has left me dead broke (broke financially, but not in spirit!), and even now I'm wondering why I decided to try to beat the Japanese in their own shushoku katsudo or job hunting game, otherwise known as hell on earth. And also wondering why--while most of my foreign student undergraduate peers are aiming for graduate school in Japan--I decided to join the workforce. I mean, I could have always chosen the well-worn path of going for a master's degree immediately after graduation. But no, and definitely no regrets, no retreat, no surrender! I'm going to work. I got into the company I like, and am gonna become a tax-paying citizen soon (tsk tsk), and will finally have me a decent meishi (business card)! This is an essay about the astonishing, mad, mad way the Japanese job hunt. I've been there, seen it all, and managed to survive. Brace yourself for a somewhat shocking article!