Work in Japan Advice Board

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3. Personal branding

To ensure you make the most of your interviews and get hired for the job, it is important to understand your character. What are your abilities, strengths, and weaknesses? Deepening your knowledge of yourself and personal branding will enable you to better sell yourself to perspective employers. This process can also help you clearly define your future goals, ambitions and desired career path. Clarify your work style and desired corporate culture through self-analysis, and determine your priorities.

(1) Be able to express yourself in words

The ability to sell yourself to employers is a vital part of the job search process. In addition to your skills and achievements, it is also important to be able to express yourself in your own words and show what makes you unique. What makes you stand out in the crowd? Many people find themselves having difficulty in promoting themselves during their job search, such as failing to express themselves accurately or failing to communicate their individuality.

Look back on past experiences and write down what is important for me and what am I working towards in your own words in order to develop a better understanding of yourself so that you can clearly articulate yourself.

Use self-analysis sheets!

You can download a sheet that allows you to reflect on your career by writing down your experiences. Let's use this opportunity to express what you feel in your work and life, such as "I feel motivated when trying something new", "I like to work hard" and "I like doing presentations".

(2) Understanding your career goals

Self-analysis can be easily performed by setting yourself into one of the "orientation" types as shown below. Of course, some people do not fit into any of these types and some might fit more than one.
It is always helpful to ask people in your workplace or friends around you about your characteristics.

Target-Oriented
Personality traits
  • Feels satisfaction when achieving targets
  • Targets can be set on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
  • Able to set targets on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis
  • Able to set task priorities based on their goals
  • Strong commitment to achieving goals can make it difficult to compromise or give consideration to others.
Job Matches
  • New sales staff
  • New corporate sales staff
  • Sales managers
  • Human Resources (Hiring)
Customer-Oriented
Personality traits
  • Gives top priority to clients.
  • Can develop business and act based on the other party's point of view
  • Specializes in communication and relationships
  • Less interested in figures and money.
Job Matches
  • Customer support
  • Clerical sales work
  • General affairs
  • Secretary
  • Medical Care and Welfare
Lead-Oriented
Personality traits
  • Able to create a vision by thinking about undecided matters on their own
  • Develops new rules while acting based on own judgment, and incorporates them into the business
  • Can move people with their driving force and new ideas
  • Tends to seek freedom with little or no constraint
Job Matches
  • Service planning
  • Director
  • Producer
  • Creator
Autonomous
Personality traits
  • Can take the initiative and take action
  • Can organize the team by clarifying the goals
  • Tries out several approaches and strategies to achieve defined goals
Job Matches
  • Managers
  • Human resources

How was the result of personal branding? How did people around you evaluate you? Did you learn something new about yourself? People who want to change jobs often get stuck when they think they are alone. In such cases, it is useful to consult with friends and acquaintances and obtain various opinions.