RITSUMEIKAN JDP

NEWS & EVENT

NEWS2020-07-27

Sakura Scholars joined alumni career talk

JDP Professional Workshop Song&Koume
Sakura Scholars interacted with alumni of the IR College about how to prepare for career and life after graduation during the “Professional Workshop” courses held on July 3 and 10.

These courses are designed to help students identify their career interests and examine various options to be pursued after graduation.

We welcomed back two RU alumni: Daniel Song, ’19, The Business Development Unit, SoftBank and Koume Ono, ’18, Consultant, Robert Walters Japan to speak about their path to their current careers at virtual discussion.

Students who participated in the guest talks were treated to great conversation and career advice from the two alumni.

Daniel shared valuable experiences and tips for finding work in Japan by foreign students. He talked through the process of job hunting, including recruitment timeline and steps, job searching resources and required Japanese language level. As a key for finding the right job, he stressed the importance of being strategic and examining yourself objectively.

Koume noted that opening themselves to opportunities the university offers helps you in the future and recommended joining as many extracurricular activities as possible. As a HR consultant, she introduced dos and don’t’s that would help students successfully apply for a job, and encouraged them not to give up their first career. 

Here are the comments from the participating Sakura Scholars: Brencis Kim, third-year RU Home Student and Miu Sasaki, first-year RU Home Student.

What is your overall impression on the two guest talks?

Brencis: The two guest talks helped me a lot in understanding the professional work. I have done an internship with the Peace Corps in America but really didn't have a deep understanding of the professional world. However, the workshops helped me learn more about the professional world and professional jobs in Japan. The workshop helped me open my mind towards Japanese companies in the future as well.

Miu: Since I just entered the College and had no specific vision for the future, when I first joined this workshop, I was not thinking about job hunting or my future job seriously. But from these workshops, I learned a lot of things and they changed my mind. First and the most important thing I learned is, it is nothing better than preparing earlier. I am a freshman but still, I have a lot of things that I can prepare for job hunting and in these workshops I got a lot of advices on how to spend my four years at the University. I really enjoyed both Ms. Koume and Mr. Song ‘s workshops and they inspired me a lot. Thank you so much.

What lessons or insights you learnt from their experiences?

Brencis: I learned that procrastinating is not a very good choice when it comes to job hunting. You have to go out and apply and do your research because nobody is going to force you to do it since there aren't yet homework or some sort. I also learned that you have to be confident in yourself because you have to express yourself to the company.

Miu: “Start preparing early, enjoy your college years.” These seem like the opposite meaning but these are the lessons I learned from this workshop. When job hunting starts, it is hard to have time to overcome your weakness and improve your specialty. So, we should start moving fast. Enjoying college life does not mean just having fun. We should challenge a lot of things and participate in many groups, volunteers, gatherings, and activities. We can learn a lot of things we didn’t expected from them first.

Which field of career do you want to work for? What is your future dream?

Brencis: I am interested in the international sporting business (management, marketing) or I want to become a diplomat. However, I am open to any opportunities that is going to be available for me in the future. I am planning to work and attend Grad school at the same time if that is possible!

Miu: I am thinking to go to the field of hospitality. Like hotel concierge, or a little bit different from this field, secretary. In my high school year, I once became a stage crew and I worked hard for the members who I was charged in. I told them what to do on what time, figured what kind of condition they were in and brought stuff they needed in such situation, did almost everything for them to stand on the stage. I had to know what they wanted by their mood so I trained myself a lot. From this experience, I became interested in the field of hospitality.

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