Sony Throws Away Japan Recruitment Rulebook

Attention young Japanese job seekers: Sony Corp. wants to get to know you.

Bloomberg News
University students attend a job fair in Tokyo.

The Japanese electronics giant is shaking things up in the way it will hire the incoming class of fresh entry-level suits, stepping out from the rigid recruitment system used by the country’s most elite companies for generations.

Gone are the indistinguishable black suits requisite for interviews. Gone is the formulaic interview involving a table, a chair either side and rote answers. Gone is the hiring taboo on applicants who spent the year after college studying abroad instead of jumping into the job market.

The changes, announced in late December, are the company’s attempts to distinguish the individuals from the masses. Encouraging job seekers to break out of the standard outfit may not seem like the beginning of a HR revolution elsewhere. But it’s a strong buck against tradition in Japan, where an ill-fitting dark suit and newly pruned hair is a giveaway that a dressed-up youngster is on a recruitment call.

“We want to find the individual quirks of each applicant,” said Sony spokeswoman Satsuki Shinnaka. “We want them to come at us with opinions and thoughts indicative of their individuality instead of an answer they read in a book that says ‘Sony will consider you to be a good match (with the company) if you answer like so.’”

Interview formats are getting a makeover when the recruitment process for the class of 2013 starts in April. The questions themselves won’t necessarily change, according to Ms. Shinnaka. But workshops, proposal planning and discussion groups will replace the rounds of one-on-one Q&As to facilitate real conversation and see the wheels turn.

“We want them to be themselves. Feel that it’s ok to talk to us using simple words unconstrained by formalities,” said Ms. Shinnaka. The relaxed wardrobe standard is part of setting that comfort level.

The unexpected is not the norm when it comes to Japan Inc.’s hiring practices for young college graduates, known as “shushoku katsudo” in Japanese. Thanks to the well-oiled hiring process, the soon-to-be-grads know exactly what to do, from what to wear to how to answer a question. The schedule is fixed and starts early – usually in the student’s junior year lest they wish to be at a distinct disadvantage.

To even be considered, prospective candidates’ long journey invariably begins online with a basic application and routine exam. Sony receives an annual average 10,000 entries at this first stage.

About a year and three interview rounds later the group is winnowed down to a few hundred. Ms. Shinnaka said the company hired about 250 entry-level workers for 2012, half the size of the class that joined in 2009.

Sony is also extending employment opportunities to people who have been out of college for as long as three years. The fixed system typically locks those who wouldn’t enter the company as newly minted graduates out, a worrisome situation if some failed to find a job while in school or chose to take time off to study abroad or tried to build their own start-up.

For Sony, which has somewhat lost its sheen as an innovative powerhouse in recent years, thinking outside the box on recruitment could yet be the start of a new way of doing business.

Corrections & Amplifications: About 250 workers make up the incoming class of hires starting in April. A previous version of this article incorrectly stated Sony planned to hire 250 workers for 2013.

http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2012/01/07/sony-throws-away-japan-recruitment-rulebook/