FirstPoint Japan's Publisher and the Founder of Career OverDrive! and SiliconEdge, James Santagata, will be presenting at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan on April 17th, 2014.

Presentation Topic: 
Sick & Tired of Resume-Collecting Recruiters? Fire Your Recruiter & Take Control of Your Job Search & Your Life! 

(FYI: This is not a gratuitous beat down on recruiters, it's a hard-edged, constructive conversation to give job seekers the unadulterated truth along with immediately actionable, life changing information and know-how - all recruiters are more than welcome).

Last week, FirstPoint Japan's Publisher, James Santagata, participated in the 2014 After JET Conference's Career Panel which was held at the Pacifico Yokohama (Yokohama, Japan) on February 21st.  Follow the links for full details and pictures.

By James Santagata
Principal Consultant, Career OverDrive!

Dear James,

How can I gain employment in Japan, specifically in Tokyo? I have a Bachelor's degree, 30 grad hours earned and a TESOL certificate (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages). I am not a native English speaker and I am over the age of 35. I tried in 2012 to find a job while I was in Tokyo for 9 months and lost a lot of money that way.
What are the chances of teaching German there?

Kind Regards,

- TN

Skills Inventory:
1. Bachelor's Degree
2. Graduate School: 30 hours earned
3. TESOL Certification
4. Languages: 
     (a) German: Native speaker
     (b) English: Native Level Fluency
     (c) Japanese: Advanced Beginner

Asia Biz Blog (Howard Lim) interviews SiliconEdge's James Santagata on the critical importance of communication, talent acquisition and i18n / L10N software development for success in Japan and Asia.

Full article: 
http://asianbizblog.com/video-interview-3-tokyo-career-success-coach-james-santagata/

If you've been attention lately you may have noticed that we've been in the process of completely rebooting FirstPoint Japan.

We expect the full reboot to be completed by October 1st.

Now, many have asked, "Why are you rebooting FirstPoint Japan and in what direction are you taking it?"

The answer is this: FirstPoint Japan is being taken back to its original direction which was and is to serve as the first and only English-language portal that helps you Accelerate Your Japanese Business With Expert Advice™. 

Ultimately, FirstPoint Japan™ is to be the place Where Japanese Business Begins™.

Specifically this means several things:
1. We will focus only on business related themes. Very rarely will consumer themes (e.g., what's the "hottest bar" or "best night spot") or "hey, isn't Japan weird?" themes be discussed unless such information is very relevant and would be of interest to our readers whereby they could better understand the Japan marketplace or cultural expectations.

2. The core readership for FirstPoint Japan is primarily Gaishikei (foreign firms) either entering the Japanese market, building out existing operations, accelerating growth, maintaining themselves in a sustaining phase or rebooting.

3. An additional target readership is (primarily) Japanese-language bilinguals (i.e., people of any nationality or ethnicity who are bilingual with one of their business level languages being Japanese) who are working for or would like to work for a gaishikei firm in Japan.

4. Given that Japanese firms are moving overseas and investing again in such operations again, another target readership is foreign individuals (non-Japanese or overseas Japanese) who are interested in working for a Japanese firm in a local market. For instance, such as a local person working for or interested in working for a Japanese firm like Honda in Vietnam.

5. The hottest topics previously as well as now include market entry and company build-outs. This centers much attention on issues such as hiring and the use of third party agency recruiters. Previously we maintained a large reviews database of "good eggs", "neutrals" and "bad eggs" recruiting agencies.

However, since the industry is so opaque and "rough and tumble" (to put it mildly) we found ourselves spending an inordinate amount of time maintaining reviews that, for the most part, were just "bad egg" recruiting firms which was just a waste of everyone's time.

We are now reversing the model. 

This means that now everything is considered and deemed suspect unless it is on FirstPoint Japan. We will be talking to, reviewing and placing on our site recruiting firms and other vendors with whom there is some level of trust, ethics and professionalism.


By the same token, any vendor that isn't on this site you can approach at your own risk since we'll consider them "radioactive". 


The list will start out small, it may even remain small, but rest assured we do the best we can to vet the lists and collect feedback on the firms listed.

6. The vendor directory will include recruiting firms, training and coaching firms, paralegals and lawyers (incorporation paperwork, IP issues, visa issues and so on), accountants and CPA's, HR consultants, translators, interpreters and so on.

We have a lot planned so we hope that you'll check back in frequently or if you'd like get the FirstPoint Japan Newsletter delivered straight to your inbox click on the button below.

Sincerely yours,

Publisher
FirstPoint Japan