This article was automatically translated from Japanese using AI. The Japanese version is the authoritative version.
Introduction
Job hunting is the first big wall you have to climb on the way into working life.
Unlike the schoolwork you have done up to now, it has no single right answer, and it requires you to find the best possible answer within a relationship between people — something most of us have never tried before.
Because of that, I have heard friends say all sorts of things: that they don’t know what the right answer is, that they don’t know who they really are, that the whole thing is just a game of credentials or luck.
And yet, haven’t you had the strange experience of seeing someone from the same school, in much the same situation as you, somehow collect one job offer after another?
As I said above, in job hunting “people choose people.” If you can convince the person evaluating you and make them want to work with you, you can be chosen even without anything in your academic record or background that makes you stand out from others.
So this time I would like to write a series of blog posts, titled “Job Hunting That Earns You Points,” about going after the job you want proactively.
Let me be upfront: I am currently enrolled in a doctoral program, so I have never actually done a job search myself.
That said, when it comes to things like application essays and interview preparation, there is a great deal of overlap with life as a researcher.
And since friends and junior students often come to me for advice about job hunting, I think I am in a position to look objectively at the pitfalls that many people tend to fall into.
Given that background, this series may differ in many ways from the usual job-hunting guide.
You don’t need to take on board everything I say, but I hope it will be of some help in your job search.
Why “Job Hunting That Earns You Points”?
How do you imagine companies make their choices during the hiring process?
You might picture each company having its own set of criteria and conducting interviews according to those items.
What struck me most while giving job-hunting advice is that, with that kind of image in mind, many people unconsciously assume that they are being scored by subtraction.
In other words: everyone starts with 100 points when they first apply, then “the interview answers were so-so, minus 1 point,” “the university isn’t prestigious, minus 5 points,” and in the end the people with the highest scores get hired. Something like that.
Now flip it around. Suppose you are organizing some event and you have to pick one collaborator from five applicants. How would you choose?
In that case, even if you have your own evaluation criteria, what you would weigh most heavily is the person themselves: whether you work well together, whether they have the ability, whether they might cause trouble. Your focus goes to their character.
It’s not that subtraction plays no role at all, but rather everyone starts at zero points when they apply, and then “they have well-formed ideas of their own, plus 1 point,” “they’re good at planning, plus 5 points,” with the highest scorer being chosen in the end. In other words, the decision is made by addition, isn’t it?
Because of this gap in how the choosing side and the chosen side implicitly think about selection, it very often happens that the chosen side fails to properly meet what the choosing side actually wants.
Common examples: assembling an application essay like a jigsaw puzzle out of several essays that got other people hired in the past, or saying only safe, inoffensive things in an interview that anyone might say.
If you understand what kind of person the company wants and present yourself appropriately, you can get yourself properly evaluated for who you are.
Throughout this series, approaching your job search as a points-earning exercise will be the central idea.
Who Gets Chosen?
Next, let’s think about the people who get chosen.
What kind of person does a company choose?
Here are a few examples that come to mind.
・People from prestigious universities
・People who led a student club
・People with unusual experiences
・People who have won awards in sports or research
・People with strong communication skills
And so on.
In my personal view, to be chosen, the two most important elements are:
・Having a defining characteristic that leaves an impression
・Being someone people want to work with
I believe these two elements matter most.
Evaluators have to assess a huge number of applicants, so if you haven’t left an impression, you simply won’t come to mind when the decisions are made.
And even if you do come to mind, you won’t be hired unless they want to work with you.
In job hunting, people are always told to do thorough self-analysis and company research.
Those two exercises exist precisely to satisfy these two elements.
Self-analysis → Having a defining characteristic that leaves an impression
Company research → Being someone people want to work with
If you don’t know what self-analysis and company research are supposed to involve, keeping the goal in mind will naturally clarify where you should be looking.
Closing
I plan to keep publishing posts like this one on this blog as part of the “Job Hunting That Earns You Points” series.
Eventually, I would like to turn it into a book.
If the opportunity arises, I would be glad to expand the content and contribute a properly formatted version.