Job hunt and young generation

The state of emergency was declared at many authorities in Japan from early .July to the end of September 2021. The number of Covid-19 positive case was high, and it persisted nearly 2 month and half.

During this period, I was looking for a job. I briefly worked at a call centre in Tokyo, but I left there due to my lack of high-quality voice, as well as professional speech needed at call centre.

Job market was quite fast during the spring of 2021. To be on safe side, I looked for permanent job, or temporary to permanent job, since I will be turning 50 years old soon, and I needed a stable position.

While browsing on job agent’s websites and platforms, I came across many temporary position open for young people newly graduated from schools and colleges. It reminded me of recent concern for the job market for young generation in Japan. As far as media reports said, many young college or university graduates in Japan were reportedly struggling to find permanent job. Many can’t get contract with a company, and they ended up taking temporary or short-term contract work.

There must be many reason behind this. Japanese college or university graduates has to go through a unique job hunting period. Companies start recruiting university students before they graduate. The recruit normally begin as early as early spring each year. University or college students will go and meet HRs at companies' presentation, hand out their CV, and wait to see if they will be called for their first interview. The students will spend end of their third year and beginning of their fourth year sending out their CV, meeting HR, and going to interviews. If the students could not find jobs while they are at university, they will go through another year looking for a job, but apparently those graduated without job contract will be disadvantaged. Many need to fight for a job vacancy with job seekers with much job experiences. Instead of going for a stable position, many would have to take up temporary work.

Another problem is work efficiency required at jobs. Apparently many companies are gradually losing ability to educate newly graduated young people from the scratch. Companies are requesting to have at least basic IT skills and basic Microsoft software skills, as well as working experience. No matter how talented, students are given less priority as they have no work experience. What a discrepancy when those young people should be taught jobs once they started working !

Other thing I noticed while working at few companies in the past, was the mismatch of young people’s interest and job market. Taking travel industry for example. Many young people interested in abroad are more interested in welcoming visitor from abroad in Japan. This type of industry is called “inbound tourism”, which is still immature in Japan. There are many small companies specialized in this field, and younger people are flocking to win the position at inbound tourist companies. Not many are interested in tourism for Japanese people visiting abroad, as there is no direct contact and working opportunity with people from abroad. If young people are fluent user of second or third languages, they prefer working at companies which have more possibility of working with people of various nationalities, and meeting clients from all over the world. Thus, travel companies working on tours for Japanese people travelling abroad – known as “outbound travel” - are going through hard time getting young talents. There are serious demands for younger generation, as the industry is holding too many matured staffs. Companies are willing to give younger people opportunity to work, but the outbound travel industry dose not look attractive to younger generation

Some young people in Japan, compared to older generation, are quick to make decision when leaving the company. Once they find that there are no career path for them, they are quick to make decision and move on. This happened frequently at an outbound travel company which I worked. Some young staffs are quite ambitious, willing to be promoted to managerial or supervising job after working one or two years at the company because they believe they are capable of. Some are promoted to supervisor’s position with two years’ experience, but many are not thinking about long-term career at the company. Once they are sure that they won’t be promoted to managerial level, they are gone.

Many would take up working holiday program and go to Australia, Canada or New Zealand. There used to be career path for such ambitious people, to work at brunch offices abroad. However, such opportunities became almost to the nil. The company stopped recruiting younger generation between the offices. I am not sure of the reason, possibly because of high hurdle for obtaining working visa, and possibly because the job role require previous job experience. 

However, younger generation have wider choice of career when they have at least two or three years of working experience. No wonder they change jobs quickly, to design their careers with various companies. Many ambitious people do not stay where they are not satisfied.

With Corona situation, some industries, such as travel and hospitality industries, simply cannot hire newly graduate people as they had to lay off many staffs already. I was alarmed for a moment when so many of temporary positions are calling for young and newly graduates, but I think I was wrong. 

Younger people have full of possibilities. Although they might have to take up unstable position in the beginning, there might be a chance to choose their career path in the future. Whether to try for supervising or managerial position, or become specialists in a certain fields which open up opportunities to work for various companies, or chose stable position at a company. Or ambitious and talented people can start their own establishment.

However the unstable the current job market seems to be, and however the position dose not appeal to younger generation, I hope they will keep trying and gain experience as much as they can. After corona, goodness knows how the industrial structures will change, and there might be some interesting new opportunities might rise up. 

Some young generation call themselves as “lost generation”. But I believe they are not lost at all. Some industries are definitely calling for younger generation, although they might not match the taste of younger generation. I hope young people will keep their confidence, and believe that they are full of possibilities to gain working experience and move on to next level. And I hope companies will become more flexible to younger generation with various job histories. 

Compared to some generations who spent their youth during booming economy, the younger generation these days has to go through tougher time. It is time that younger people are given job opportunities. There was a time back in mid-1990’s when economic bubbles burst and job market became very slow, notoriously called “Ice age job market”. Young people back then were called “lost generation”. I was among them, but luckily a flexible company gave me a chance. I hope companies, which were not influenced by COVID-19, will look back on 30 years ago and think about hiring more young people.