I submitted my resume (for another industry) with Robert Walters so they could add me to their database. It was a very industry-specific resume. I got an email back, asking whether I could not be tempted to work for them instead. I responded I would be interested to learn more and the next day I had a phone interview. This interview tried to ascertain whether you are business minded (read: bring in the money) rather than customer minded. A rather weird question for me personally was the reason why I wanted to work for Robert Walters. They seemed to have forgotten it was them who asked me. Nonetheless, I had done my research and given a satisfactory answer. As a result, I was invited for a meet and greet with managers during a networking reception at their office near Shibuya.
The networking reception was attended by various young professionals, mainly from Taiwan, Korea and Japan. There were also a few Westerners and even students, but not many. Dress code was business smart, but everybody was 100% suited up. After all, you don't take chances in Tokyo.
First we got a brief outline of Robert Walters and recruitment. The two presenting managers were very enthusiastic and clear in their explanations. The goal is obviously to fire you with enthusiasm so you want to work there.
Afterwards there was the opportunity to network with everybody present. More managers walked in. I managed to speak with every manager and most of the other candidates. Most candidates came from IT firms outside of Japan or had some recruitment experience in Tokyo. A lot of candidates came across as passive or intimidated by the managers and just observed as more talkative profiles made connections. However, the managers made sure they talk to everybody.
During the conversation, the managers try to ask you some questions about your profile. Clearly, you have to be memorable for when they discuss among themselves as to who stood out. One manager disappointed me, though. He clearly had read my resume and joked my resume was rather odd, considering I was applying for a recruitment job. Obviously, he wasn't informed that I was picked out of their own database and asked by his company to come in. I did bring a new and adapted resume tailored to the recruitment sector, but was told it wasn't necessary to submit. So why ridicule me for it?
The next day I sent a thank you email, but did not get any replies. Only when I inquired about my application, I got the nonsense message that I was a good candidate, but that they were in the extraordinary situation of being able to select from a lot of good candidates this time round and that some hard choices had to be made.
Did follow-up, but I never heard from them again. Also don't know if I have been entered in their regular database. I've also met some people in Tokyo's expat scene who were hired there straight out of college and with no relevant study experience. My own experience and skills are very relevant for this job, so the real reasons for not selecting me are very unclear to me. I expected to at least get into one of the following 1-on-1 interview stages. Reflecting back on the resume issue, I have the feeling there was either bad internal communication on how I ended up being interested or maybe I was merely invited so that HR could reach a target number of seats filled. Or there was indeed a divine influx of brilliant profiles or I must have somehow made a very bad presentation. My impression is that it was a mix of all of these and I will never know. Overall, I have the feeling this is a very good company to work for where hard work is correctly rewarded. But just be honest with your candidates, Robert Walters. We can take it and we just may be your future clients.