The recruitment process started with an application that was rejected without any detailed feedback. Later, I was contacted by a recruiter from the company for an informal conversation, which initially seemed positive.
Around the same time, I connected with a member of the Talent Acquisition leadership team on LinkedIn after seeing a post about the importance of providing constructive feedback to candidates. We exchanged a few professional views on recruitment and candidate experience, and I expressed my interest in opportunities within the company.
Shortly afterwards, the recruiter who had originally contacted me and proposed the informal discussion informed me that they would no longer proceed with it. No direct feedback was provided.
Several weeks later, an external recruitment agency recruiter who was discussing the same opportunity with me reached out to the company on my behalf to better understand the reason for the rejection. According to the information they received, the concern was related to Japanese reading and writing capabilities, specifically kanji proficiency.
I respect that every company has the right to define its own requirements and hiring criteria. However, I found it somewhat ironic that one of my interactions with the Talent Acquisition leadership team had centered around the importance of providing constructive feedback to candidates, yet in this case I did not receive any direct feedback from the company. I would also have appreciated the opportunity to discuss my Japanese skills directly during an interview before a conclusion was reached. Since no interview took place, it was difficult to understand how my language abilities could be assessed, and the reason for the rejection was ultimately communicated indirectly through an external recruiter several weeks later
For context, I have lived in Japan for 19 years, hold JLPT N1 certification, conduct professional conversations in Japanese on a daily basis, and have worked in domestic environments where I was the only foreigner and international environments. While I fully understand that a company may require native-level Japanese proficiency for a specific role, a more transparent and direct feedback process would have made for a better candidate experience.
The company operates in an exciting industry, and I found the recruitment process to be surprisingly junior and poorly coordinated. My feedback is primarily related to communication and candidate experience rather than the people themselves.