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Shushoku Katsudo or Hell On Earth: How I Got Me A Job 27 June 2001
I GOT ME A FULL-TIME JOB!!! Yes, friends and family, I'm going to start working full time next year! That's the important news? you're asking. What's the big deal about your getting a job? you're asking. Well, the big deal is that I got my job via shushoku katsudo, which is Japanese for "hell on earth".
Email to Carol, 27 May 2001. "For the past month I've been going back and forth from Nagoya to Tokyo to Osaka. Every single day there's either a recruitment seminar or an interview or a written exam or a group discussion exam or some such thing. I am so dog tired each time I get back home. I'm running out of money (the bullet train fare costs a dozen arms and legs, but I have to ride it because it's simply the fastest--the following day there's always another thing up on my schedule, so there's just no choice but to ride the bullet train. Taking the bus is too tiring--6 hours to Tokyo, 3 hours to Osaka--that I end up spending tens of thousands of yen on bullet train seats: with my student discount it's 19,000 yen for a round-trip ticket to Tokyo, 11,000 yen for Osaka, plus the food along the way, and the youth hostel fee when having to stay for more than one day, multiply that by my going to Tokyo 7 times in the past two months, and to Osaka 9 times, and you get....augh!!!! I don't want to know!!! Sigh!!! I hope that in the end, it will all be worth it. And I'm running out of energy, too. I just might end up working for a non-Jap firm's Japan headquarters instead of a Japanese company like I had planned. Oh well. We'll just have to wait and see. I'll keep plugging until the end of June, and when there's absolutely nothing left in sight, then I will make a 180 degree turn-around and go for them non-Japanese companies. At least for these firms, they don't give them godawful written exams, and they interview only once or twice instead of the 4-tier interviews that the Jap companies require!
This will be all for now. Today I just came back from Osaka for an interview with X company. First I had to take this X company's English exam last week, which I passed, so then they took me in for preliminary interview today, and I think I passed that as well. Next in line is the group discussion exam, which I know I will pass. But after that will be the written exams next week, which I doubt I will pass (X company is notorious for being very techy and thus Math oriented). So that will be a total of three round trips to Osaka (33,000 yen), which will end up with a rejection email! Augh!!!! I hate all this wasteful traveling!
Okay, gotta go. So much to do. Tomorrow is another interview with Y company, but in group discussion format which I absolutely loathe! I really detest this meaningless interview format! But then the Japs, who are an ant colony, put so much emphasis on group work instead of individual talents that they MUST include a group discussion interview to supposedly "judge" how well you are suited to work for their ant colony..."
So there I was, middle of Spring, whinning to my friends about how much money I was spending doing shushoku katsudo. While looking out the window of the bullet train, I was asking myself, Is this all worth it? Why am I competing with the Japanese? Why don't I just go for a company that gives 'special treatment' to foreigners by not putting them under the same hellish rigmarole that the Japanese have to go through? What am I trying to prove?
Now before I confuse you, the employment process for fresh Japanese grads (mostly people with zero work experience) in Japan is all or most of the following (not necessarily in order):
Rirekisho, or Japanese resume. It is store-bought, and has to be hand-written. The red mark beside the photo is one's inkan or personal seal. I left some fields blank and would fill them up depending on the company.
1. Submission of rirekisho or resume (with or without an essay, depends on company).
2. Preliminary interview for those who passed the resume review (some companies skip this and just let everyone take the exam and judge according to exam scores).
3. Hikkishiken or written exam (Language + Math + English. Tech-related companies put more emphasis on the math, other companies give half-and-half for math and language). After three days or so, those who pass will have an
4. Ichijimensetsu or first interview (group or individual). Mostly it's the HR guys who conduct this. If you make it, after three days to a week is
5. Nijimensetsu or second interview (group or individual, depends on whether the first one was group or not). Usually you are interviewed by a group of middle management guys. After three days to a week is
6. Sanjimensetsu or third interview (individual). This time you're facing upper management. If you survive, after three days to a week is
7. Saishu mensetsu or final interview. You're now face to face with the top honchos. Three days to a week later, they contact you and, if you're blessed, they give you the
8. Naitei no oshirase or notification of acceptance.
So it's a long process that takes months. Applying to one company, from their written exam up to the final interview (if you make it that far, that is), takes a whole month of going back and forth to the company building taking exams and the multi-tier interviews. It's especially tough for those who don't live in the major cities, as they have to travel, find a place to stay, etc. So there you are, in the required dark suit and light blouse and black low-heeled pumps, scurrying back and forth from one city to another, from one company recruitment seminar to another, taking one exam after another, waiting for the results as you go through each of the above 7 steps (if you manage to go that far, that is).
In my email I confessed to a friend, "Unfortunately, while I do have the confidence during the interviews, I'm a total failure with the horrible exams. And the Japs in general are good at math (even the humanities/liberal arts students), so I fail even more miserably compared to them."
In the end, however--and definitely thanks be to God--I found the perfect company, one that didn't seem to mind my being lousy at Math.
