#13 Max - Working for a Japanese Company in America

In this episode of the KoreKara Podcast, we are joined by Max, who has been working for a Japanese Company in America. If you're interested in working for a Japanese company, but are unsure how to land such an opportunity, this episode will be especially valuable. Max talks about how regardless of your Japanese level, you can find a position at a Japanese company. Just not through the conventional job hunting methods everyone is used to.

About Max:  

Max grew up in a small town in America where it was unheard of to travel to another country. However, he always wanted to at least experience or learn something different about another culture, regardless if it was traveling or not. He found his golden opportunity once he got into college where there was a requirement to take a foreign language course. He did some research into his school and found out that they have a partnership program with a university near Tokyo, Japan. Thus, he decided that he was going to learn Japanese.   

After initially struggling with the language classes, Max took extra time to study and catch up to the curve. This experience led him to start to liking the language and become more interested in it. Making friends with a lot of the Japanese transfer students at his school helped as well. Sooner or later, the more Max interacted with the Japanese language, the more he wanted to take the opportunity to actually visit Japan through a study abroad. After never traveling to a foreign country before, Max made the decision to study abroad in Japan.  

Touching down in Japan was a completely different experience for Max. After spending all his life surrounded by American culture, he was immediately faced with an entirely different society with contrasting values. But, instead of giving in to the culture shock, he embraced the differences and learned new things about Japan and of himself. He met many great people, including his host family who treated him like their own son. After having an amazing experience living in Japan, Max knew that he wanted to incorporate Japan in his life moving forward.  

Once he came back to America, he realized the real difficulties in making Japan a part of his future. For people in his position with a beginner to intermediate level in Japanese, he found himself in a tough spot. Looking at others in similar positions, he saw that there are not many options with many people teaching through JET or just making Japan a part of their past. But after going through the job hunting process and understanding where Japanese companies actually hire from, he realized he was going about it all wrong. After putting it all together, Max got interview after interview from Japanese companies, and had his pick as to where he wanted to start his working journey