Anyway, I bring this up because I had the opportunity to go to a career fair at Sophia where 13 different employers showcased their company and set up information booths so that students could ask questions and discuss their prospects for a certain company - but I guess this may be a bit different as the fair was target towards foreign students wanting to work for Japanese companies.
The first thing that struck me upon entering the room that indeed, almost all the students were in suits and ties. Of course, I felt horribly out of placed with my jeans and hoodie. I think I would have felt much worse if I hadn't decided to take off my beanie in the elevator coming up "just in case". The other reality that sunk in was in fact that, the presentations and information sessions - though for a foreign student audience - would be conducted in Japanese. But I felt kind of rude getting up and leaving, so I stuck it out and was pleasantly surprised at the amount that I kind of semi-understood.
I ended up chatting with the Kao company (FMCG company dealing with soaps and personal hygiene products), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, and Hanwa (a trading company). Of course in a one-to-one situation they were more sympathetic to inability to be any good at Japanese and I got some really useful information about working for them as a foreigner. It seems kind of interesting and indeed a possibility. While some companies are looking for fluent Japanese speakers, some are happy to take on board those with only conversational/business level Japanese - something definitely achievable by the time I graduate.
Other companies you might know that showed included: Kaneka Corp. (FMCG), Kyocera Corp. (Electronics), Kobelco (Engineering), Sharp (Electronics), Ricoh (Photocopiers!).
The same event is running tomorrow with 13 different employers - but this time some big names, like Sony, Mitsubishi UFJ Bank etc.
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