In this highly globalized economy, job recruitment is no longer focused only on skills and competence. Many companies often need employees who are familiar with foreign business culture and possess fluency in more than one language.
For nearly 30 years, DISCO International has matched tens of thousands of bilingual job seekers from around the world with more than 200 Japanese companies through its annual Boston Career Forum, which was first held in 1987. Since that inaugural job fair, the event is also now held in New York, Los Angeles, London, Sydney and Tokyo.
“Today, we see bilingual students from all over the U.S. and even Europe coming to the Boston Career Forum to meet potential employers,” said DISCO Executive Vice President Koji Akimoto.
To meet the exacting standards of Japanese companies, DISCO requires students to demonstrate a strong command of the Japanese language and be enrolled in a university outside Japan. Unlike other job fairs, companies participating in the Boston Career Forum accept applications online and set up interviews long before the event.
“This makes the whole process more efficient. Candidates come very prepared. We also have interview rooms at the venue. For both parties, it is much more of an immersive experience,” explained Akimoto, who joined the company in 1994.
Despite the growing popularity of its other recruitment events, the Boston Career Forum remains the flagship event for DISCO International outside Japan.
As business expands around the globe, Akimoto plans to apply DISCO’s acquired competence and widen the coverage beyond Japanese companies and Japanese-speaking job seekers.
“We also introduced the Asian Bilingual Career Forum in 2011, which aims to match speakers of other languages with the right companies,” said Akimoto.
- Originally prepared by Global Media for The Japan Times Special Report on the East Coast 2014 (Credit: Elizabeth Arcega)
