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Cultural Differences in Working in Different Countries and Foreign Companies

Tom Jones
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Update 3/12/19 - Working in France Presentation

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Thank you for coming.

I can offer 50 minutes of practicing and feedback on interviews, help to arrange calls.

  1. You can record Practice Interviews in English
  2. Practice talking through your resume
  3. Call Employers/Recruiters to ask for advice
  4. Hold a conference calls with mentors or advisors
  5. Help Prepare multiple versions of a resume - 5/10/15
  6. Help Prepare a cover letter

Thanks everyone for coming!!!

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Sorry, Satoshi was chopped off in this pic. Thanks for coming.

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Attendees

 

  • Yoko

  • Hiro

  •  

    Kazuki

  • Eunice

  • Justin

  •  

    Mari

  • Saki
  • Satoshi
  • Toshi
  • Natsu
  • Quinn 
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  • Kazue

      
  •  

  • Member 1

  • Member 2

 

Topics

Introductions - Contact other attendees if you have any questions

Yoko

A Japanese freelance graphic artist looking for a job with a foreign-affiliated firm to get some more experience on her resume. Long-term plan might be interested to work in the US.

Hiro (came at 4pm)

A Japanese brand manager, recently got her MBA, interested in working overseas. Works in the fashion industry as a brand manager, for a small Japanese company, does everything and has contacted companies in Canada about working.

Eunice

From Taiwan, studies in the US, and came to Japan for graduate studies. Interested in working in an english-speaking countries. In architectural engineering field as a project manager, working in a Japanese company. Topics talked about were the perception of working in Japanese companies, asked about applying to European companies. Thanks for participating Eunice.

Justin 

Just off the plane from San Francisco, looking to make contact with programmers looking for work with his company in Silicon Valley, www.collavate.com.

Justin shared his experience getting to work in the US as a founder of a company, working during the US timezone (Japan is 13 hours ahead of the US East coast, and 9 hours ahead of London), and looking for programmers who don’t have a visa for the US.  Thank you Justin for your experiences and sharing hiring in the Valley.

Quinn

Born in Vietnam, an accountant by profession, working in a Japanese company, interested in working in Europe. Has had two interviews over the phone and waiting to hear back.

Kazue

Worked in Finance, and has experience searching for a job in France and the UK. Interested in working in Europe again, in admi, translation or applicable job where experience can help. Thanks for sharing the experience of searching for a job in France, and studying, working part-time in the UK. Particularly interesting about the experience working part-time through a Japanese temp staffing agency in London like Pasona, to work at a Japanese company. Thanks!

Saki

Has experience working in Thailand and Sweden, and has recently returned to Japan. Interested to work in a job involving Sweden and Japan, talked about the experience of looking for a job for two months in Sweden. Thank you very much for sharing!

Member 2

Thanks to Member 2, who was an American software programmer from Hawaii working in Japan for a foreign company, and interested in working in Europe, who helped explain the employment culture in the United States, and was very helpful with his feedback. I’m sorry I didn’t catch his name, but wanted to say thank you!!!

 

Other Topics

  • Where do you want to work?
    • People wanted to work in the US, UK, EU or any English-speaking country
  • Who wants to work in?
    • The US and EU were the top places to work of people who raised their hands
  • Working in the US, being able to be hired and fired more easily
    • Different culture than Europe and Japan, with more short-term focus on jobs rather than long-term stability or regulation.
  • Cultural differences in working in a foreign culture or even a foreign company
    • Long hours in a Japanese company, and possible overworking without much increase in productivity. More flexible systems in foreign companies, but with an international job, emails and calls can come in at all hours depending on where the other person is. Really valuable experience to work in a Japanese firm to understand Japanese expectations and standards for work.
  • Japanese working practices
    • If you have Japanese customers, or work with Japanese colleagues, you should understand and work in line with them. The benefits are better communication and also to get understanding of your own work-style.
  • Benefits of working and understanding Japanese customer’s expectations
    • They have high standards
    • They don’t like mistakes so will ask for investigations into what went wrong and how to prevent re-occurrence
    • They favor teamwork and collaboration even when reviewing errors and problems.
  • Having a Linkedin profile
    • The benefits are being able to connect with overseas people and start communications. Recruiters can also find you, along with hiring companies. It ca be a useful tool to investigate potential hiring companies, to find the human resources person or to find a hiring manager.
  • Getting a response from overseas companies when applying via a website
    • There might be no response and just silence. It can be good to look for a niche, like language skills to try to increase the chances of a contact based on your skills even if you are overseas.
  • Tips on trying to look for jobs that sponsor
    • Include the visa type in the search word or phrase to see if job specs include it, example “sponsorship”, “H1B”.
  • Finding the motivation for companies to sponsor your visa
    • What is your rare value over a native member of that country, or someone who doesn’t need a visa. Try to answer that question, or understand how they sponsor or if they do.
  • Working illegally on 3 month tourist visas
    • There are small companies that hire programmers or others to visit the US and work on a “business trip” as contractors. This is one way to do it, but one would need to pass immigration either on a tourist visa, or explain it was a short business trip.
  • Understanding the visa system of the country you want to work in
    • United States
      • https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/employment/temporary.html



 





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