Working on applying for graduate school? TIU alumni have incredibly useful advice for you, so read on to find out how they successfully went through the application process!
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The New Year holiday has barely passed, but the E-Track Alumni Association already has major events in store for us.
The TIU E-Track Alumni Association, or TIU EAA, is the official alumni association of the Tokyo International University. Founded in March 2019, TIU EAA has been organizing webinars and meet-ups with highly experienced professionals, as well as TIU alumni. They cover a wide range of topics such as social entrepreneurship, job-hunting, development studies, consulting, and so on.
This time, the association has organized yet another helpful webinar on “How to Apply for Graduate School?” on the 10th of January through Zoom.
Speakers of the webinar include Bastian Harth, Wichita Teeratanabodee (Whitney), Voravich Chaturavichanan (Jimmy), Nguyen Quynh Anh (Annie), and Dinh Thi Minh Chau (Charlotte) who all graduated from TIU. They all have gone through the process of applying for graduate schools and were successfully admitted to some of the most prestigious and high-ranked institutions.
The webinar started off by discussing the document preparation process. As emphasized by Bastian, it is highly recommended that students start early – as various documents require assistance from others, including transcripts, letters of recommendation, test scores, resumes, and the like.
He added that while these documents can be easily obtained, the tricky part sometimes lies in the long wait, due to the offices’ high demand.
Bastian then advised seeking out experienced senior students and professors for guidance on essential documents. Their experience is especially beneficial when it comes to documents like your statement of purpose.
The speakers took to their own personal experiences to answer various questions that concern students.
They explained what they may look for in programs, regarding cost, job placement, and location; their application process; how relevant their undergraduate studies were to their master’s; or useful tips to get desired results.
The speakers also advised students to consider reasons to NOT go into graduate schools, particularly as few jobs actually require it or possible low return-on-investment, so that ultimately students can make the best decisions for their own future.
Answers for students’ concerns, helpful advice, and tips were shared during the webinar so in case you missed it, go to this link below for a rerun!
Job hunting is the inevitable process that many graduates dread, maybe even you. But hold on, TIU EAA in collaboration with one of the top recruitment companies, is here for the rescue.
In January, TIU E-Track Alumni Association (TIU EAA) organized a webinar for students who wish to continue their studies in graduate school. On February 5th, another helpful webinar was held. The theme is to discuss the overall picture of the job market, as well as the scouting process of recruitment agencies in Japan.
If you are looking for a job opportunity right after graduation, this article is packed with useful information for you!
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Moderated by Bastian Harth, chairperson of TIU EAA, the webinar also welcomed speakers from a professional recruitment company in Japan:
Mr. Benjamin Cordier・Managing Director
Mr. Simon Elsom・Director of HR and Office Administration Professionals, and
Ms. Sarah Onishi・Manager of Talent Acquisition and Development
The role of recruitment consultants in the industry
Starting off by sharing the company’s background in the field, Cordier emphasized the role of recruitment consultants in connecting job seekers and companies. Not only do companies benefit from the partnership, but also job seekers can develop their career and personal growth by finding the most suitable opportunities.
The Japanese job market
Elsom pointed out that while Japan is a promising market for foreign candidates, there are key unique factors in applicants’ appeal that companies may actively look for:
1. Strong academic background:
Many Japanese companies look into applicants’ GPA, thesis, courses which the student took, and overall academic achievements.
2. Japanese proficiency:
It is generally helpful to have N1 in JLPT, however, many companies are increasingly giving regards to BJT (Business Japanese Proficiency Test) scores.
3. Cultural knowledge:
It would be highly beneficial for the candidate to have the ability to work across cultures, and to help to build strong relationships with international counterparts.
Cordier emphasized that because of the shrinking work population, the economy will inevitably expand visa allowance to the foreign workforce, especially highly-skilled labor over the next decade.
The real key to winning opportunities in Japan
Although the more lenient visa allowance brings many opportunities, job seekers should also be aware of the competitive nature of the landscape with high-in-demand positions, and work on making their resumes stand out. This is highlighted by Elsom, who added: “Statistics show that it is usually a 10-second screening.”
The webinar sparked great discussions among the audience of 80 registrants, including speakers and TIU students. We believe that many graduates or future graduates can benefit from these professional insights, as being prepared is the best strategy to rise above in the job hunting race.
Missed the webinar? Watch the rerun below to find out more valuable insights:
I am Saki, a 3rd Year Major in Business Economics. I have been interning at the Campus Globalization (CG) Team for 3 semesters, and I am currently a Middle Staff. Outside campus, I have had three internships, and I can say that being a part of the CG team has definitely helped me increase my chances of landing those positions.
Photo from CG Team Fall 2019; I am one of the tiny interns, second from the left.
Before being a CG intern, I had not heard much about the team. In fact, I only knew CG during the Info Session for the Recruitment Period. I was (and still am) interested in creating videos, a frequent SNS user, and have somewhat the required language abilities, so I thought that this could be my opportunity to be more active and involved in the university’s extracurricular activities.
What is Campus Globalization?
Now, you may be wondering what Campus Globalization is. Tokyo International University offers Student Leadership Internships (SLI) to students to experience on-campus paid internships, and one of the teams is Campus Globalization. We are a small team of 9 bilingual talents, and our goal is to connect all students in TIU by making the community more inclusive and bilingual. We are able to do these through our tasks which can be categorized into 5: Workshop Planning, SNS Management, Video Project, Translation Project, and Student-led Project.
1. Workshop Planning
Every semester we hold 3 workshops for language exchange. Organizers choose any topic that is of relevance to the TIU community, and participants will discuss the chosen topic using both Japanese and English. This workshop enables bilingual students to meet fellow students who can speak both languages and at the same time, converse about pressing issues in more depth.
Posters from all the workshops I facilitated; most recent from the right
I can still remember the first workshop I led. I was nervous as I am quite introverted, especially before. I was also a bit insecure with my language abilities, but I realize that the workshop itself helped me boost my confidence and that making mistakes in grammar is completely fine as long as I am able to convey what I intend to convey. Of course, learning the right grammar is important but there will naturally be times that one would forget these, and that is okay. After holding a number of workshops, I got less nervous and I was also able to moderate other events well. Thanks to CG I got such opportunities.
2. SNS Management
We are also in charge of managing the tiu_sli account on Instagram. Not only do we coordinate with other teams for content, but also translate their captions into either Japanese or English so everyone can get a grasp and be updated with the events in TIU.
This task is obviously great for those who want to pursue marketing as their jobs. It also helped me when I applied to an international advertising company in Tokyo, and fortunately, got accepted. As I also use social media very frequently, I enjoy doing these tasks.
3. Video Project
We also do a number of video projects. We have collaborated with other SLI teams for SLI Recruitment Video, Welcome Message Video, and many others. We also contributed to creating a video for the Career Center with the Takadanobaba Office, and to editing videos assigned by the E-Track Academic Affairs Office. We used CG-exclusive equipment to film most of our videos, but as for our recent projects, since we have to move online, most were done at home, but heavily focused on editing. It is also another great practice to get used to different video-editing software, as well as meeting with professionals who can share their skills face-to-face.
Video Collaboration with Takadanobaba Office
4. Translation Project
As for this project, this is rather the simplest among the tasks mentioned. We are assigned by different offices in TIU to translate documents. This is also good practice for those who want to hone their translation skills while getting paid.
5. Student-led Project
This is still quite recent. With our advisors, we are encouraged to think of new ideas to help the TIU community to be more globalized. This website where you are reading this article is actually one of our projects. Especially if you are proactive and have new ideas, you can definitely pursue them as a CG intern.
My experiences
From these tasks, I have gained a lot of experience and skills that I can add to my resume. On top of that, I get to apply these skills in multiple organizations that I am part of. Working with my talented teammates also makes the experience more fun and more interesting. It is not always that one gets to meet highly talented, creative, and skillful people like my teammates so I am grateful to work with them, especially on challenging projects. There would be instances that we get too many projects, but with the help of my fellow interns and helpful advisors, we are still able to manage and make our projects as best as we can.
Lastly…
The iconic CG logo
Many people still ask who CG is, and I, with the rest of the team, tried to explain it a number of times, and so I have made a conclusion about our team.
We definitely are not as publicly visible as the other SLI teams. I actually call our team “the backroom boys (and girls).”
This, therefore, is a good place for students who are not interested in frequent face-to-face interactions but still desire to learn and build highly technical and social-communicative skills, as I do. I believe it is quite a unique internship as we have multiple things we are in charge of. It gets challenging from time to time, but I can definitely say that being a CG intern is a fulfilling experience, and I would recommend qualified TIU students to try this too.
Times Of TIU 