All STEM majors! This is your day. Companies particularly seeking candidates with STEM backgrounds will be participating in this Live Session Day. Check out the special content just for STEM majors/backgrounds also!
The Basic: Self-Introduction Tips and Tricks for STEM Majors
An experienced recruiter will explain how to create compelling self-introductions on three themes.
The Practice: Self-Introduction Tips and Tricks for STEM Majors
Learn how to hone and deepen your self-introduction.
Writing Lesson for STEM Majors: How to Create A Resume That Actually Passes
Learn how to write an appealing self-introduction and attracting episodes of your college life.
Industries You Would Never Expect to Hire STEM Majors (But Actually Do)
Learn your unknown possibilities in various industries and how to get hired by your dream company.
After graduating from university, Mr. Shoji Sakurai worked for an automobile company, gained experience in recruitment and training, and then became independent.
He is currently an HR consultant providing training in project management, presentations, coaching, communications, manners, and planning recruitment strategies for businesses and government agencies. He also teaches business research and career design as a part-time lecturer at university.
In addition, he has developed the YES programme of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and also has worked on managing the motivation of citizens in the merger of cities, towns and villages.
SPI Test Prep: Mistakes That STEM Majors Tend to Make
Learn what the SPI test is and how to improve your score!
Mr. Yuta Shiina worked for Japan's largest manufacturer of daily necessities after graduating from university. He received the General Sales Manager Award in his fifth year since he started to work for the company. He also won the President's Award at the company's world competition in the same year.
In addition to his usual work, he became a member of the recruitment project shortly after joining the company and worked with the Human Resources department.
He is currently an independent HR consultant, providing career-related lectures and recruitment support to universities and businesses.
[The Real Talk of Recruiters] Selection Process for International STEM Students
Recruiters from various industries such as IT, trading, and finance will have an honest discussion from each company's point of view about the selection process for overseas students and those who have studied abroad, focusing on resumes and interviews.
A career consultant will answer questions about how to create a resume or entry sheet. You can learn not only by asking questions, but also by listening to other people's questions and answers.
Practice your interviewing skills with a mock interview. Interview each another and evaluate the presentations.
Top companies selected by tech majors
CFN members who are enrolled in overseas universities (graduating or scheduled to graduate between September 2020 and August 2022) were surveyed on the ranking of companies they would like to work for and their employment awareness from August 12, 2020 to October 21, 2020.
The top science-related companies were Amazon (1st), Google (2nd), McKinsey & Company (3rd), P&G (4th), and Goldman Sachs (5th).
Amazon ranked first, preventing Google from ranking first for the fourth year in a row, and companies from a wide range of industries were ranked in the top 10, with SONY, ranked 10th, making the top 10 after ranking 23rd last year.Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
P&G
Goldman Sachs
Deloitte Tohmatsu Group
PwC (Price water houseCoopers)
Bain & Company
ITOCHU Corporation
Sony
A STEM major student’s job search outside of the field.
When it comes to careers, over half of STEM major students seek to find a company that relates to their field of study. However, there is quite a lot of students who seek careers outside of their fields. In fact, STEM major students have an opportunity to pursue a career in a variety of industries and positions.
As you start your job search and think about your future, keep these points in mind if considering a career outside of your field of study.
2 out of 5 students find a job outside of their field of study.
Student's field of study relation to type of position Source: [DISCO "Career+ 2019 Student monitoring survey] (August 2018)
How does a STEM major student's field of study relate to their job?
From DISCO's "Career+ 2019 Student monitoring survey," out of the STEM major students who were graduating in 2019, 58.3% found a position in their field of study. 28.2% found a technical position, but outside of their field of study, and 13.5% found a non-technical position. That's 40% of the students found a position outside of their field. The data shows there is quite a few students who do find a position other than within their field of study.
Knowing your strengths as a STEM major student, opportunities outside of your field will -------
What kinds of industries/positions are available for STEM major students who want to pursue a career outside of their field?
A STEM major student's strength is not only their expertise in their field. Skills such as logical thinking, mathematics, data analysis, and more that you gained through your research, which may seem basic, are skills that will be useful in non-research positions.
For example, mathematics and data analysis are skills needed in the financial industry to conduct market research and analysis for financial product development. By utilizing your logical thinking, you have the possibility of becoming a management consultant who creates optimal strategic plans and creates proposal of business/management reconstructing.
What happens if you are seeking a research position other than your field? There are advantages for companies to hire students whose field of research differs. Having a different perspective leads to development of new technology. For example, to be able to use your knowledge about quantum mechanics, you most likely will pursue a career in the field of applied physics. But nanoscience and nanotechnology are used for new product development in cosmetics. Using your basic knowledge in physics may open up the opportunity in product development within the cosmetic industry.
Skills you have gained through your research does not always have to be used in a research setting, but by changing your perspective can open up more opportunities.
For example, sales engineers are a key in the manufacturing, development/real estate, trading industries and more. They need to have the expertise knowledge of that industry and be able to propose and explain what services and products would be best for their clients. This is a position that STEM majors students can show off their skills. In the media industry, if you field of study was chemical/engineering/medical related, you might have a career as a reporter or journalist covering those specific areas.
In the education field, becoming a professor or a teacher in your expertise is always an option, but your electrical engineering or IT background may be used to create new e-learning programs or new devices for document development.
These are just examples, but by keeping an open mind when looking at all the different industries, there are many positions/industries that STEM major students can thrive using their skills as their strengths. By thinking your future is only in the field of your study is just limiting yourself. Keep all possibilities open when you are conducting your industry/company research.
If you are pursuing a career outside of your field of study, a thorough industry/company research and marketing your potential is key.
When conducting job search, begin by visualizing your career plan. The first step will be to think carefully about whether you will continue on in your field or challenge yourself to pursue an industry that you have an interest or can utilize your skills, but outside of your field.
If you decide to challenge yourself outside of your field, being able to relay why you pursued a career outside of your field of study and how can you utilize the skills and knowledge that you have gained in the industry/position that you are interested in, will be crucial. In order to do that, you must have a thorough understanding of the industries/positions and visualizing what kinds of positions are in that company of choice and how you fit into the picture. The key is not to think that your field of expertise will be a disadvantage. As long as you know what your strengths are and logically explain how they will be fully utilized in the position, you're set.
While continuing to conduct experiments and preparing for your thesis, may leave you little time to research about companies outside of your field. Try by first participating in info sessions, job fairs, talking to alumni, or any other way to gather information. Don't forget to use the resources available through your Career Canter as well.
Why companies want to hire tech majors
Strategic Consulting (Non-Japanese affiliated)
In our company's hiring criteria, Must have is logical thinking. In recent years, science students are more likely to be able to use the tools of logical thinking, and many of our employees have science backgrounds, so we are actively hiring science students.
Specialized Mechanical Trading Company
You may have an image of a trading company as a humanities department, but our client is a manufacturer, so you can't be a salesperson unless you have a technical perspective. I listen to the needs of our clients' engineers, discover the issues and propose solutions with our products.
I want you to realize that you can do business with the world, even if you have a science background.
Consultants (Non-Japanese affiliated)
Consultants work through a process of organizing and analyzing issues, exploring the essential problems, and coming up with solutions when solving a client's problems. In this process, science graduates often use the logical explanation skills they have acquired through experiments and research. A basic quality required for consulting work is the ability to think, a skill that allows one to come up with solutions to problems. Many science students are active in this industry, as they have the ability to read a wide range of literature, as well as the curiosity and willingness to work hard.
Japanese Finance
Collaboration with IT is essential for planning financial products using big data and new plans based on a vast amount of data such as customer transaction history. In addition, because the Corporate Sales Department requires a variety of analysis of client companies, there are many people with science backgrounds who make use of their strength in numbers to play an active role. Knowledge of statistics and experience in data collection and analysis in research are often highly valued.
Japanese-affiliated Finance
In order to provide high quality beauty and wellness solutions, such as the use of AI and digital technologies and advanced market analysis through big data analysis, we actively recruit people with science backgrounds such as statistics.
Japanese-affiliated Advertising
The style of science graduates overcoming unanswered questions in their research is very similar to the style of creating new innovations. And in a society where online is the norm, collecting, analyzing, and using data is very important, which is exactly what science graduates do repeatedly in their daily research.