Waiting a feedback

I've been just waiting a feedback from the company which I went to take the exam/video conference on Wednesday March 17th. I've not been able to sleep well, because it takes quite a long time to make their decision whether hiring me or not.

When I had the phone interview with their Asia-Pacific HR specialist and took the vocational aptitude test on the internet, I got the feedback from them next day. But this time, I think their decision making takes pretty a long time. I've been thinking that they've been considering various conditions for hiring a person seriously, because they are Japanese.

Due to this situation, I can't take any other actions for getting a new position. Further, there is no chance to make some money to live. If only they would advise my agent or me about when they will make their decision, I could work during I have been waiting their feedback as a part time staff in some companies.

ummm...

What should I do?
How long should I wait for?

I hope they will come to the end as soon as possible.

Days of seeking a new position

As I wrote before, I retired from the life insurance company by the end of February.

And now, I'm seeking a new position.

I have already applied more than 20 companies and completely been rejected from them. However, there is a hope for only one company. I got a private offer from a recruiting agent for this company at the beginning of March. And I passed the 1st resume screening stage and the phone interview with HR specialist of Asia-Pacific region on March 9th. Then I passed the vocational aptitude test next day. And today, I went to the 2nd interview, which was a video conference, with an area director of this company.

This company is the famous and leading company in the real estate outsourcing/ rental & virtual offices industry around the world. Most of readers may be know the name of this company.

The position is General Manager of their Fukuoka Business Centre.

To tell the truth, I didn't know not only this industry but also the name of company until I had heard this position from my agent. However, as I kept searching about this company, I gradually found that this company was the fantastic one, and that the position as General Manager was a great opportunity for me because its responsibility was relatively focused on B to B sales.

Although most of my business experiences were built in the pharmaceutical industry, I believed that my sales, marketing, and communication skills were transferable to those business model. Then I decided to apply to this company.

The 2nd interview was not an easy one, but I believe that I will get a good news from them soon.

Last Day

Well, it was the last day to go to the office.

As you know, I really had been wondering whether I should stay or leave the office; I should say that I should stay or leave the major life insurance company. And finally, at the end of January, I decided to leave, and claim my boss to quit my job by the end of February.

As soon as I claimed my decision to my boss, I was taken my laptop PC, all materials for consulting, and my daily jobs away. So I have spent one month with full vacation without salary.

Why I decided to quit the job? It was because I thought and felt that I would get into debt if I would continue the job.
Some successes say that the patience and the steady working will be the key of success in the life insurance industry. Yes it is true. But they never have mentioned about their expenses or overworks. It is because most of successes are American people, but not Japanese people.

Some may know that Japanese business customs are significantly different from American and European countries. In Japan, we have to spend many expenses to attract customers, and they do need it. On the other hand, most of these expenses never lead us to the success.

I spent really a tons of expenses for customers and candidates, but the results were same as the examples above.

I know that the life insurance industry is a very important economical fundamental. Face to face business model is a very good way of selling insurance products.
But on the other hand, I also know that the life insurance industry which depends on the internet. There are many websites where customers can compare similar products and its prices. And most of younger generations prefer internet business model in Japan. The reason is clear. They don't need to understand the essential of provided products. They do need to reduce their costs for insurance products.

In these circumstances, we don't need to provide face to face business model at all.
Because the final decision is in the customer's hand.

Well, this article looks like a marketing analysis.

I change the topic.
Although I have strong sales, marketing, and communication skills, I can't get next position at the moment.
This is due to the significant economical depressions in Japan.
The job less rates rise every month, and there are tons of job seekers around the country.
However, the government do nothing.
They are talking about their own funds in the congress.
I think that they should think about not their life but their fellow citizens.

I am a job seeker now.
This will be a really hard way to overcome, but I will do my best and surely get a great job.

Thank you for reading.
If you have comments, please post your thoughts.
I look forward to hearing various voices.

I can't believe...

It was a first day to go to the office after the new year holiday today.

I got up 6 am and arrived at the office around 7:30 am.

I said "Happy New Year and Good Morning." to my manager and started my desk work.

There was a morning assembly from 8:50 to 9:10.

After the assembly, a man came up to my desk.

He was a mentoring support director of Kyushu region where I belonged to.

Then he said, "How was your holiday? Did you enjoy it?"

I answered and asked "Sure. By the way, why you are here today?"

He said, "How many contracts will you make this month? You must make less than 15 contracts, and build less than 300,000 yen conversion result. Otherwise you will be fired."

I couldn't say anything.

Further, he asked me "How many rushes will you do? Please answer it now!"

I answered achievable but vague targets to his question.

It is true that my result of last 4 months was not so good, but I have made good relationships with unknown and likelihood customers, and they will be my new customers this month. It is also true that he is the one of my mentoring support director, but he never experienced sales at all.

Why he knows the way to build good results in this industry?

Why he knows the way to rush into unknown enterprises or individual likelihood customers?

Does he really know my daily works? (I have not taken any offs since last September including Saturday and Sunday.)

I can't believe not only him but also ALICO itself.

Re-opened this blog

Hi everyone!

Long time, no see.

I hope that you all have been doing well.

In the sudden, I decided to re-open this blog.

The reason is clear.

Since I became a member of ALICO Japan as a consultant in Fukuoka, I perfectly lost chances to use English in my daily life. It will be a big help for me to write something in English to keep my language level.

I've been busy with my job, so the frequency of my writing this blog will not be so often.

However, I hope that some of my readers will enjoy it.

Have great days!

I closed this blog and opened another one

Thank you for reading this blog.

I decided to close this blog due to the changes of circumstances surrounded me.

And I opened a new blog site. Though, this blog will be written only in Japanese.

If there will be some request to re-start this blog, I will consider it.

Anyway, thank you for visiting my blog and thank you for your helps.

The new blog site is below.

http://katsunonikki.blog85.fc2.com/

Please visit this new site and please enjoy.

Thank you for all. See you.

このブログを読んで頂き、ありがとうございます。

突然ですが、私の周りの環境が変わったため、このブログを閉じることにしました。

そして、新しいブログサイトを立ち上げました。（残念ながら、日本語のみで書かれています。）

もし、再開のご要望があれば、考慮させて頂きます。

とにかく、このブログに訪問して頂いたことと皆様からのお力添えに感謝致しいます。

新しいブログは下記の通りです。

http://katsunonikki.blog85.fc2.com/

是非、ご訪問頂き、楽しんでいってください。

皆様本当にありがとうございました。またどこかでお目にかかりましょう。

Moving

The day for the moving is coming.

I'll move to Fukuoka, my hometown, on next Sunday, May 24.

I've packed up almost 90% of my household goods. I'll pack up my PC and its accessories at tomorrow morning, and will pack up electric appliances at tomorrow afternoon, and will pack up sanitary goods at tomorrow night. The moving operations will start at 8 am and will end up around 11 am. Then I'll clean up vacant room and will hand out room key to the real estate agent around 2 pm. After that, I'll move to the Haneda Airport, and will arrive at my home around 8 pm.

I have been in Tokyo for about 4 years.

Among these years, I changed work place 4 times; one was pharmaceutical company and others were healthcare advertising agencies. There were so many hard situations but I could enjoy my life in Tokyo. I could make so many friends, drinking companions, and business clients.

I'll change my career to the life insurance industry as a sales person. This will be a tough challenge for me, but I believe that I could brash up my business skills through my life in Tokyo. So I don't have any worries.

Um... Fukuoka...

My sweet town.

I'll do my best for the new life.

引っ越し日が近付いてきました。

今度の日曜日、5月24日に、地元福岡へ引っ越しします。

9割方の家財道具の梱包が終わりました。明日の朝パソコンと周辺機器の梱包を、午後には電気機器の梱包を、そして夜には衛生用品の梱包をする予定です。引っ越し作業は、8時スタートで11時頃に終わる予定です。その後、空っぽになった部屋を掃除して、午後2時頃、不動産屋さんに鍵を返却します。その後、羽田空港に移動して、実家には夜の8時頃に到着の予定です。

東京での生活は約4年。

この間、3回の転職で、4つの職場を経験しました。製薬会社に始まり、医薬系の広告代理店に終わりました。困難も沢山ありましたが、東京での生活を楽しめたと思っています。沢山の友達、飲み友達、そして仕事上のお客様との出会いがありましたから。

今度は、生命保険業界の営業マンへとキャリアを変えます。大変なチャレンジですが、東京での生活を通じて、スキルアップした自分になったと信じています。なので、不安はありません。

あ〜...　福岡ですよ...

懐かしい街です。

新しい人生、精一杯頑張ります。

Back to my hometown

I'll go back to Fukuoka, my hometown, next Sunday. I should say that I'll move to Fukuoka.

Since I got an official offer from an international life insurance company as a life plan adviser, a sales person, I have been thinking whether I should stay in Tokyo for seeking new job or I should make a decision to work in the life insurance industry and go back to hometown, Fukuoka. Finally, I decided to go back to Fukuoka.

I think that I will be able to be active in this industry in Tokyo because I had built a lot of good relationships between ex-colleagues, ex-clients, and friends. However, if I will stay and will be active in Tokyo, I realized that I would lost a chance to go back to my hometown and I would not be able to leave Tokyo forever. That also meant for me that I would lost a chance to live with my lovely parents forever. I want to take care of my parents when they will need some helps. Because they are my parents.

Otherwise, I will be able to enjoy a job as a sales person of life insurance in Fukuoka because my clients will be the same whether in Tokyo or Fukuoka.

So I decided to move to my hometown, Fukuoka.

I know, it is the hardest sales job in all industries to work in life insurance industry, but I have no worry about that.

It's maybe because I believe that I am a good sales person, and I believe that there is nothing impossible if I work hard and think client.

Anyway, I'll do my best.

今度の日曜日に地元、福岡に帰ります。と言うか、福岡に引っ越すと言った方が正しいです。

外資系生保から営業としての内定をもらってから、考え続けてきました。東京に残って仕事を探し求めるべきか、生保業界で働くと決断を下して福岡に戻るべきかと。で、結局、福岡に戻ることに決めました。

東京に残って生保業界で活躍することもできると思います。そこには素晴らしい以前の同僚や、お客様や、友人達がいるからです。ただ、東京に残って頑張ったとしたらと考えた時、あることに気付きました。地元福岡に帰ることができなくなって、東京から離れられなくなるのではないかと言うことに気付いたんです。そのことは、僕が両親との人生（生活）を送る機会を失うことにもなるのではないかと言うことにも繋がるものでした。僕は、両親が何かの助けが必要になった時には面倒を見てあげたいと思っています。それは、当然ながら、両親は僕にとって大好きでかけがえのない存在だからです。

一方で、僕は福岡でも生保業界の営業の仕事を楽しめると思いました。だって、お客様は東京でも福岡でも同じなんですから。

それで、地元である福岡に戻ることに決めました。

生保の営業が一番ハードな仕事であることは十分知っています。でも不安はありません。

それは恐らく、自分自身の営業力に自信があることと、一生懸命に働き、お客様のことを考えれば不可能はないと信じているからです。

とにかく頑張ります。

Rejected

I was rejected by the international life insurance company at the 2nd examination.

I don't know the detail reason of this rejection, but I think that I had lack some skills for their needs.

By the way, I had been in Fukuoka from May 7 to 10 in order to participate in a job introducing program of the brother company of which I was rejected. This company is the most famous life insurance company in the US. In order to take their examination, I had to participate in their company introducing program. And if I would be able to a member of them, I wanted to work in Fukuoka, so I went back to Fukuoka.

The result for this program was bad. I was rejected.

However, the examiner, a director of agency, introduced me to the director of Fukuoka agency of the brother company which rejected me, and I met him. We talked about one and a half hour on my profile and their company profile.

And what a surprise! The director said okay to hire me as a sales person.

I don't get an official offer from them yet, but he said that if I was rejected from them for the position of manager of the branch office, he officially made an application of hiring me.

So I will leave Tokyo as soon as possible, and will go back to Fukuoka.

My new life will start again in Fukuoka, my home town.

外資系生保の二次選考の結果は不合格でした。

不合格の詳細な理由はわかりませんが、会社側が求めているものに対して僕の能力が足りなかったのだと思っています。

さて、5月7日から10日まで、この外資系生保の兄弟会社（同じグループ企業）の会社紹介プログラムに参加する為、福岡に戻っていました。この生保会社はアメリカで最も有名な生保会社です。この会社では、面接試験を受ける為に必ずこの紹介プログラムを受けなければならないというハードルがあるので、もし採用されて働くのであれば福岡で働きたいと思って、福岡に戻ってプログラムを受けました。

このプログラムを受けた結果、不合格でした。

しか〜し！試験官（支社長）が、僕のことを再度兄弟会社の福岡支社の部長さんに紹介してくださり、面談の機会を得ることができました。約1時間半、僕の略歴と会社の紹介等々のお話しをしてきました。

で、なんと！部長さんが営業として雇っても良いと言ってくださいました。

まだ正式な内定は受けていませんが、もし僕がこの会社の営業管理職の二次選考で不合格になったら、部長さんから正式に営業としての採用申請をすると言ってくださいましたので、多分大丈夫だと思います。

と言うことで、できるだけ早く東京を離れて、地元福岡に戻る予定です。

僕の新しい人生が地元福岡でまた始まります。

I finished 2nd exam

I finished the 2nd examination for the position of the manager of the branch office of the international life insurance company today.

The 2nd exam was a face to face interview with 2 examiners.
They had prepared tons of questions for me, and the interview progressed by the order of their questionnaire sheets. It took about an hour.

There were some difficult questions for me, but I thought that I had could answer/reply reasonable answers for at least half of questions. Most of the question were based on my past sales style and ideas for increasing revenue.

As usual, the result will be reported by two ways.
If I passed the exam, I will get a phone call from the company.
If I did not passed it, I will get an email or postal letter from the company.

I don't know how they felt my answers, feelings, and passion, but I did all of my best.
So maybe God knows.

今日、外資系生保の支部長候補（営業管理職）の二次選考が終了しました。

試験は、面接官２名との対面式の面接試験でした。
面接官たちは山のような質問を準備しており、試験は、その準備されていた質問事項に沿って進行されました。試験時間は約１時間でした。

難しい質問もありましたが、少なくとも半分の質問に対しては真っ当な回答ができたように思いました。
質問内容の殆どは、僕の過去の営業スタイルや売上拡大の為の工夫などでした。

例によりまして、結果は２つの方法で報告されます。
もし合格していれば、僕は電話連絡を受けることになります。
もし不合格であれば、僕はメールか郵送の手紙を受け取ることになります。

面接官たちが僕の回答や、感情、そして熱意をどのように受け取ったかはわかりませんが、最善は尽くしました。
神のみぞ知るです。