Self-analysis, one of the “must-do” for Japanese students before applying for a job

In Japan, during any activity of job applying, the importance of self-analysis would usually be mentioned all the time. Self-analysis is an indispensable process for Japanese students to prepare for applying jobs, and it’s also the basis of answering questions during the interview, filling the application form. This time, we are going to introduce the importance as well as the practical ways of self-analysis for those who want to work for Japanese companies. In Japan, during any activity of job applying, the importance of self-analysis would usually be mentioned all the time. Self-analysis is an indispensable process for Japanese students to prepare for applying jobs, and it’s also the basis of answering questions during the interview, filling the application form. This time, we are going to introduce the importance as well as the practical ways of self-analysis for those who want to work for Japanese companies.

What is self-analysis?

Self-analysis it to assess one’s value, advantages, disadvantages and features according one’s interests. When doing that, everyone has his own way, like writing it down on a piece of paper, summing it up with a chart, just to reevaluate yourself from every aspect.

Why should we do self-analysis?

By doing self-analysis, one could go through his or her past experiences, and sum up his or her values, advantages and disadvantages verbally. This means a great deal when it comes to filling the application forms and making self-introduction during the interview, for it can express oneself briefly. Besides, with the experience of thorough self-analysis, one can be more detailed and more persuasive during the self-introduction in both face-to-face interview and in written form.

Practical ways of self-analysis

There are various ways of self-analysis, these are some common ones.

1. Write down your past experiences

List your past experience in the order of time. You can divide it into few parts like, childhood, junior high, senior high, and college. Try to remember your experience and write down the most unforgettable things and thoughts. This would help you see yourself, your personality, ambitions and changes etc.

2. Make an emotion chart

The so-called emotion chart is a curve graph whose X-axis is time and Y-axis emotion. This is a tool which allow you to have an overview about your experiences from childhood to now, and how your psychology state changed with them. Knowing what happened at what time, and how these things effected your emotion would help you understand your values and priorities a lot. The graph below is an example, it will look better if put down in paper.

3. Ask family and friends for help.

What you think about yourself is usually different from what people around you think. Therefore, learning about yourself through the others’ eyes, and knowing the differences from every perspective would help the interview. Through others’ analysis about you, you may find a new self from time to time.

4. Picture yourself in the future, and deduce backwards till now.

When it comes to self-analysis, knowing the past and seeing the future are of equal importance. Picturing your future is based on your values and experiences now. For instance, when picturing yourself in ten years from now, you should consider in order to be like this, what skills and experience you need to possess, what phrases you need to go through, and what vision you need to have. These can make your job intention and self-introduction more persuasive.

To sum up, widen and deepen the way you see yourself so you could answering questions more confidently, and raise the percent of pass from yourself.

Read more about Japanese recruitment information, see Japanese-Jobs.com ( https://jp.japanese-jobs.com/en).