August 2006 - Nikkei Career Magazine

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2. August 2006 - Nikkei Career Magazine

C.C. Consulting Co., Ltd.
President and CEO
Mr. Richard Bysouth
Founder of the bilingual recruitment website ‘CareerCross’. From England.
”I want people to take the initiative and openly embrace challenges”

‘Language skills’ were long considered the entry ticket to foreign-capitalized companies. This entrance has widened considerably. Richard Bysouth, who operates the bilingual recruitment website ‘CareerCross’, analyzes the situation: “For top managers English skills are essential, but in staff-level positions, where openings have increased in recent years, the work is carried out almost entirely in Japanese. For these jobs the English language hurdle is being lowered.”

“In foreign-capitalized companies, employees have to take the initiative and move things forward by themselves. For example if there is work you would like to do, but you don’t have the skills for it, then you can enroll in a school, and acquire these skills on your own initiative. Another example is job interviews. Many Japanese think that the interview is to answer questions from the hiring manager, but in foreign-capitalized companies, the interview is also perceived as an opportunity for the candidate to pro-actively ask questions and get to know the company.” (Mr. Bysouth)