Day 183 of writing every day.
Applying for jobs means submitting a resume, which is a summary of your life, in a sense. You’re not being asked about your personal life and relationships with people, but rather your work experience, skills, and hobbies to tell others your qualifications, on top of the highest level of education you have received. It’s just a screening system that recruiters and human resources hope will weed out all applicants they think won’t be qualified or are overqualified for the position they’re trying to fill.
Resumes are far from perfect and ideal candidates might not even be given the chance for consideration with a face to face interview because they didn’t fit the stereotypical description of what an ideal candidate is for a position, barring the requirement of professional licenses and certifications.
The resume and work history description are two separate documents in Japan’s job hunting process. To sum up what a resume in Japan is, it’s basically your personal info. They want a professional ID photo, your name, contact info, and address first. That’s all on the upper half of page one. The format is standardized and you can readily find them at hundred yen stores or files that are free to download with a quick internet search.
In the bottom half and up to the upper half of page two, you list your education history from middle school and your graduation date to the last level of education received whether you graduated or dropped out. Then you follow it with the dates you joined and left for all jobs you ever held up to the present. Hopefully you didn’t have too many jobs because the typical reaction to people with such histories is that they’re going to leave sooner or later and won’t be a good long term investment.
I was told it’s preferable to keep it all on the first page without spilling over to the additional space on the second page. It gives the document a cleaner look. Lastly, if you have any certification or licences you could put it on the additional space on the second page and still have it look nicely laid out. To the bottom there’s a small section for you to write a couple sentences about yourself and some hobbies, your marital status, how much time you’d be willing to commute to a job, and a line asking about your preferences where my advisor told me that you should never say anything besides that you leave everything up to the company’s discretion.
Well, I have to go over my resume and work history so I know what to say when asked about it and be able to answer promptly without having to dig through my brain as I try to recall the details and terminology used to describe my duties and responsibilities. I got three job interviews this week and I hope they turn out positive.
Thanks for reading!
One Chance Works 