Hi Ines,

This is Yumiko*. I’m your fan and I check your blog regularly! Today, I’m writing to you to get some help on how to motivate myself for job hunting.

I know that you probably receive emails from many people around the world. On top of that, you are busy with things that you have to do as a mom and a business woman. I would appreciate if you could give me some advise with even 1 or 2 sentences!

I’m currently studying Marketing and Advertising at a college in the U.S. My last year in college will start next week. After I graduate, I’m thinking about coming back to Japan and get a job.

On October 17th and 18th, there will be a job fair in Boston where many Japanese companies and some foreign companies get together to seek Japanese-English bilingual students. I will be attending this career event to hopefully get a job and now I’m in a process of applying to the companies online in advance.

I should be working extremely hard to find what I want to do with my life and find the companies that match with my desire. However, I cannot motivate myself for this job hunting process. I guess that’s because I still don’t know what I want to do. I don’t even know where to start to find what I want to do with my life. I feel like I’m in the deep deep hole and I feel very lost right now. But at the same time, I feel very rushed because many of my friends in Japan have already started working after they had graduated university.

Do you have any advices on how to motivate myself in the process of job hunting?

Best regards,

–
Yumiko Saito

* (Name has been changed for confidentiality reason)

My dear….. Sorry it took me so long to respond.

You MUST be motivated when looking for your next job. Stay upbeat, and be positive that you will soon find the job that you want. While you are job hunting, as always, take good care of yourself: eat properly, get the right amount of sleep, and dress well. So you will feel good and positive, it is all connected.

Prepare a powerful cover-letter and put all your energy into it.

-Use a powerful first sentence – one that highlights your top skills and experience that you would be bringing to the job.

-90% of hiring managers agreed that “specifics” are what sell the job applicant.

-Use powerful, short sentences detailing evidence of your past achievements (if any), skills, experience, and the successful results that you have brought to your past employer.

-Address each specific qualification of yours, and state your experience and skills that show that you can do the job.

-Use the Arial font, size 12 point for your resume and cover letter. You don’t want to use to small of a font. Use a font that produces print that is easy to read.

-Many hiring managers view the cover letter as an excellent, honest communication tool. One that shows the hiring personnel that the person writing it can write. Make sure that you use excellent spelling, grammar, and writing skills in your cover letter and your resume. Proofread your cover letter and resume. If possible, have someone else proofread both for you. Many hiring personnel have said that it was the well written cover letter that caught their attention, and caused them to hire the applicant who wrote it.

You know, I have been interviewing people for job inside my company, and also received thousand of resumes from the applicants each year, of the miss Universe Japan competition since the past 13 years.Actually, as a matter of fact, I just went through new resumes sent to us for 2011 MUJ yesterday and what caught my eyes was always the neat presentation and the nice handwriting, then the photo.

-Be sure to include your contact information in your cover letter. Your cover letter should include your name, your address, and your telephone number, and personal email address (if you have one). This makes it easier for the hiring manager to contact you. Also, your cover letter may become separated from your resume, and if your contact information was not on it, you would not be able to be contacted by the hiring manager.

How should you dress? Dressing conservatively is always the safest route, but you should also try and do a little investigating of your prospective employer so that what you wear to the interview makes you look as though you fit in with the organization. If you overdress (which is rare but can happen) or underdress (the more likely scenario), the potential employer may feel that you don’t care enough about the job. and have put zero efforts for the interview.

Gambate kudasai!!!

And remember a job today is an experience. It is over the time when you were to stay all your career in one field or withing one company. Now you can change jobs in order to finally found your work passion in life.

Big hug XO