Day 142 of writing every day.
If there’s something you have to do irregularly but could have a big impact on your life, it’s writing resumes. Unless you’re super well connected and people just give you jobs—or you’re your own business owner—you’re going to need to apply and send in a resume to get an interview and then maybe get hired. It feels almost as draining as filing taxes, which is annual, but resumes require a bit of creativity that taxes don’t require unless you’re writing off expenses.
In Japan, the resume writing process has improved in recent years with the acceptance of typed and printed out resumes or even just sending something electronically. People were still saying to handwrite your resume when I first started job hunting after quitting being an English tape recorder a.k.a. Assistant Language Teacher (ALT). But, they still ask for a photo to go with your resume, which is a pain.
The demand for pictures for use with resumes is still so rampant that professional photo booths (not the weird purikura machines that people take distorted pictures with friends in) are easily found in busy locations such as train stations. If you needed a photo taken for a passport or visa application in the states, it seemed like you needed to find a photographer and studio that could take it with the right background, then print and cut it to the right size for you. At least that was the case for me over ten years ago.
I imagine technology has made things more convenient that maybe large stores might have photo printing services along with ID-use photography services now in the states. With student IDs and driver’s licenses, the pictures were taken on the spot.
Anyways the photos here you use with resumes want you to have a suit and necktie if male and your face with minimal make-up and hair nicely done if female. If you’re just a student, maybe they’ll be okay with you in your school uniform or something not as formal as a suit. While the electronic submission of resumes has been a step forward, the constant need for photos keeps in place an unnecessary step in the hiring process.
Not knowing what an applicant looks like shouldn’t matter; you’ll be meeting in person anyways or from the other side of a Zoom screen if the person seems to have the experience and skills you need. There’s not going to be a person swap kind of fraud as you’d know what the person looks like after interviewing. Someone different isn’t going to show up to the workplace.
Well that’s all I have to say today.
Thanks for reading!
One Chance Works 