This was a one-hour, interactive presentation delivered on November 20th, 2014 at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Tokyo, Japan. You can find full slides below.
Even 6 years after the Great Recession and the Wall Street Bank Implosions began, a large majority of job seekers are still finding the job search and career transition process to be extremely rough if not a brutal and harrowing experience.
Among job seekers, arguably no group is more negatively affected by this brutal reality than 40+ year old job seekers.
Many 40+ year old job seekers are shocked to find this is the reality not only in the broader US economy but even in vaunted Silicon Valley which is the supposed Mecca of open-mindedness and where a meritocracy has ruled for decades.
And yet, for how bad it is in the US and even Silicon Valley, 40+ year old job seekers soon come to find that it's often much, much worse in Japan. Terrible. Impossibly frustrating. Depressing. These are words that come to mind when seeking employment in Japan as a 40+ year old candidate.
But how can this be the case in Japan, when Japan still has an economy which is the 3rd largest economy in the world and which is moving to further internationalize its businesses as rapidly as possible in the face of both falling domestic demand and a severe shortage of experienced workers.
The bottom line is this: Older, deeply experienced job seekers quickly run into 5 seemingly insurmountable brick walls:
1. Local HR demonstrates an implicit bias (if not overt bias) against hiring 40+ year olds. Candidates are blown out, never even getting an interview.
2. Mid-career hires in Japan are rare, even among Japanese natives. You may sit for interviews but job offers never come. And they never will.
3. Most companies default to the position that they will never benefit by hiring someone over 40. Over 40 and you are seen as having zero value. Zip. Nada. Zilch.
4. Younger candidates are always favoured and more often hired over older, more experienced candidates. Control, cost and culture. Younger is always seen as better.
5. Japanese companies often don't know what to do with foreign talent, especially if it's over 40. How do we deploy a 40+ year old foreign employee? Risk + Unknown = Don't hire.
During this highly interactive presentation, you'll learn exactly how to determine your next and best career move in Japan as our speaker first explores and explains why these 5 brick walls exist and the purposes they are considered to serve.
Next, our speaker will show you how to exactly how to either explode each wall or better yet, how to simply but powerfully persuade the gatekeeper to eagerly open the front door by providing realistic, very contrarian, yet immediately actionable and proven solutions.
Be sure to bring and ask your hardest or most fantastical difficult questions.
Objectives & Key Takeaways
Five Critical Questions
Being Good At Doing A Job Isn't Enough
Five Broad Areas Of Career Competency
Drill Down: Five Broad Areas Of Career Competency
Differences In Japan – Over 40?
Exactly What To Do: Resumes, Interviews, Find or Create Positions
Hiring Authorities’/ Future Peers’ Fears
Over 40 Japan Job Search In Action
Five Critical Questions
How do you quickly land a killer job under 40?
What changes when you hit (or approach) 40?
Why does it change?
Are there any other issues when you hit 40 in Japan?
What specific, concrete actions can be taken < 40, > 40 and in Japan?