The road ahead upon graduation - from the perspective of 2 Tohoku University students
Studying abroad requires much deliberation and preparation. Then, how about working abroad? According to “Tohoku University International Student Survey 2020” by Tohoku University’s Global Learning Center (GLC), international students have various sources of anxiety about pursuing a career in Japan, such as their Japanese abilities, the hectic pace of job hunting, and relationships at the workplace.
Regarding careers in Japan, two respondents shared their opinions in a written interview - Mr. Sng Wei Jie, who graduated from Tohoku University majoring in engineering, and Mr. Evan Lim, who is a senior majoring in natural science at Tohoku University.
Aspirations are subject to the uncertainties
In the survey by GLC, more than one-fourth of the respondents hoped to work in Japan. However, master’s and doctorate students generally preferred to get a job upon graduation (30% as seen from the graph), while more than half of undergraduate students aspire to proceed to graduate schools.
However, how students land on their career decisions varies. “It took some time to think before job hunting”, Wei Jie said. He had not thought of job hunting until he realized that he did not have much interest in academia. He reflected on his decision saying, “I felt like I’ve wasted a lot of time, but I think I needed it, and I don’t regret it”. Meanwhile, Evan is working on job hunting despite wanting to pursue further studies. This is because he feels some kind of pressure from his peers back home, who have already started working. He told us that he plans to start work if he could land an offer from his first-choice company regardless of its specialization, otherwise he would go onto graduate school and look for a job related to his major.
The sooner the better
From his own experience, Wei Jie said “If you don’t know what you really want to do after graduation, then I suggest you start thinking about it early and plan for it”. As for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), Evan felt he should have taken it earlier because he took classes in Japanese at university and thought he did not need to take the JLPT, but a lot of Japanese companies required it in the end.
So how to prepare for job hunting early? We also asked them about what was helpful. Wei Jie mentioned about a book on how to find something you really want to do, which helped him to understand himself better and find out the kind of job that he is actually keen in doing. On the other hand, Evan utilized information from Ryukatsu, a headhunting company specializing in recruiting STEM major international students.