Redundant: the Find Me a Career Thread!

[randombs]

Hey all.

Looking for some advice/banter from anyone who's working or worked in recruitment.

At a job fair in Tokyo last month I was asked to attend an interview for an IT recruiting position. I've never done recruiting but I'm intrigued by it(seems I've had the best experiences doing things I wouldn't normally consider doing).

My assessment is at the end of this month and I'd like to prepare for it. Here's what they said it'll involve:

1) Individual sales presentation
2) Selling a candidate
3) Making a business development call
4) Making a headhunting call

I've been looking around online and I got a vague idea. I've signed up for Glassdoor which seems like a good source of info but still waiting on their activation email to read the juicy stuff.

I don't have any previous sales experience but I like people. I want to get out of ALTing and actually start my life here. From what I understand, the commission should be decent and I have no qualms about putting extra hours in. I want to do it for at least 1-2 years and position myself better within the IT world. Right now my IT support background is fine but all the support jobs I have come across need business-level Japanese.

I'm looking into other work and realised this weekend that I should probably look into teaching workas a back-up. I've been ignoring teaching because I want to do real work but my contract ends in mid-February and I'm getting anxious.

[charlesr]

No idea about the interview, but keep a sneaky database of all the people/resources and then when you leave, set up as self employed.

[QualityChimp]

At the end of the day, Recruitment is a sales job.

You may have to do a LOT of cold calling (business development) at the start, ringing around companies and getting information from them about how much work is available.

The next stage is filling people into the roles and you have to "sell the candidate" to the potential employer.

If you finally get to do IT recruitment, there's a lot more of finding people for the role, rather than roles for the people (lots of people want warehouse work, for example).

Sometimes, the people for the role aren't actively looking for a new job and you'll have to make a headhunting call.

I imagine working with professionals looking for new jobs and filling specialist positions is more rewarding than the constant cold-calling of non-skilled recruitment. The bonuses are probably higher and you're dealing with better people (generally speaking), but if you're scared of making phonecalls or don't like the idea of hitting targets (which constantly change), you might not like it.

[charlesr]

Conversely, if you are scared of making phonecalls, you should probably do this job. After 2 months of phonecalls where you get rejected 9 times out of 10, you'll be tough as nails and count off the "NO"s as you go, because the more "NO"s you get means you are closer (statistically) to getting a "YES". And then you'll no longer be afraid of making a phonecall ever again.

[QualityChimp]

If you are scared of crocodiles, you should probably do this job. After 2 months of crocodiles where you get bitten 9 times out of 10, you'll be tough as nails and count off the "BITES" as you go, because the more "BITES" you get means you are closer (statistically) to getting a "KISS". And then you'll no longer be afraid of crocodiles ever again.

I've applied Charles' logic to that Crocodile Wrangler job that was also mentioned at the Tokyo Job Fair.

[randombs]

@QC:

The interview was funny. I mentioned I'm honest and the lady said I may need to lie about my job to gain access to potential candidates. I changed my tune and pointed out that I'd told my company I was leaving early to go to the post office

As for cold calling, yes, they mentioned that too. Dealing with rejection and what not. I'm Mr. No myself so I'll be fine with that. Also, my 2.5 year stint in IT support was thankless(no recognition when things are going well, cussed bad when they're not) so I'm used to creating my own motivation.

@Charles: I like that philosophy. I'll definitely keep it in mind.

From what I've gathered, I can make good money if I keep at it. People talk of burnout after a few years but I'm in a quandary and most IT jobs I'm coming across pay around the same as I'm getting for ALT work.

Gonna hit the job sites like gaijin pot tonight and shoot some stuff. I'll follow FSW's advice and apply for positions above my level, too, which I never do.

Hanging around with other ALTs is so depressing. They either complain about the pay and lack of promotion without proactively wanting a change or they convince themselves that ALTing is all they're good for here. I've wanted to slap a few who claimed it's great because they have all this free time to pants around on Mt. Fuji/learn Japanese. I almost started falling into that trap myself!

[randombs]

I passed their assessment and interview. He asked for references so my old IT manager is on the case. Tokyo dream gets closer

Charles: I used your no/yes line and the interviewer loved it!

[charlesr]

Smart! Glad I could help.

[QualityChimp]

That Crocodile Wrangler job is one step closer!

[kryss]

Now that's a proper euphemism. At least there's a section in Tokyo immigration centre for "entertainers" like that.

[randombs]

That Crocodile Wrangler job is one step closer!

That's not a knife etc etc!

[teddymeow]

Bumpage!

So, with everything that happened last year, I feel the time is right to start looking for something "bigger". I have really enjoyed my time at the 'Bucks after the train wreck that was my job before that but I really don't know what to do.

I'm 33 with a couple of A levels (Media Studies, Computing...barely, General Studies) and have absolutely no clue what I should be doing with my life.

I think I want out of retail. I think the mundanity of a Mon-Fri 9-5 office job might actually go some way of quieting the crazy loopiness of my mind as it will provide structure and rigidity rather than the random shift work of retail.

Can anybody suggest what I could consider doing? I look at job websites and just glaze over with the amount of options.

[Asura]

Hanging around with other ALTs is so depressing. They either complain about the pay and lack of promotion without proactively wanting a change or they convince themselves that ALTing is all they're good for here. I've wanted to slap a few who claimed it's great because they have all this free time to pants around on Mt. Fuji/learn Japanese. I almost started falling into that trap myself!

In fairness, I was like that - but I always saw being an ALT as a temporary thing, that was only going to last 2 years, and not really contribute to my future career all that much.

[Brad]

Bumpage!

So, with everything that happened last year, I feel the time is right to start looking for something "bigger". I have really enjoyed my time at the 'Bucks after the train wreck that was my job before that but I really don't know what to do.

I'm 33 with a couple of A levels (Media Studies, Computing...barely, General Studies) and have absolutely no clue what I should be doing with my life.

I think I want out of retail. I think the mundanity of a Mon-Fri 9-5 office job might actually go some way of quieting the crazy loopiness of my mind as it will provide structure and rigidity rather than the random shift work of retail.

Can anybody suggest what I could consider doing? I look at job websites and just glaze over with the amount of options.

Country needs engineers (all types) desperately. Please become an engineer. Thankyou.

[wakka]

Working in an office doesn't have to be mundane. It depends on what you do.