LinkedIn for Career Development
Most Tokyoites are not thrilled with job-searching platform
For more than three decades, my resume has constantly been updated to signal my intention to work for somewhere else. Somewhere is the work place in Tokyo to enhance my career as business consultant and college lecturer. The best place I thought would have been on the job-searching platform like LinkedIn. It is bilingual available both in Japanese language and English here in Tokyo. I signed up in 2008. Since then, a few invitations for job interviews came to me during the last decade. Some recruiters contacted me with the interesting opportunities in Tokyo.
On December 20th 2022, the Economist published a story of LinkedIn, social network service for job-seekers. The story goes like this. SNS and career development typically don’t mix. But in 2016, Microsoft bought LinkedIn for $26bn. Since then the platform has grown its memberships. The newspaper explains some ways to make the most of LinkedIn and ends its story with a conclusion that job-seekers spend too much time on job-searching platform for little gain and for no success because of its nature of social network service.
As for the job market in Tokyo, few job-seeking Tokyoites change jobs in the market. SNS for career development is not so impressive one most people thought. Three reasons unfold to substantiate my theory. First, this job-search platform is primarily for computer engineers at the start, not so much for finance and business consultants. Bankers and business consultants look for a job with personal face-to-face network, not on SNS. The opportunities are limited. Contrary to that, engineers and scientists are somewhat used to technology platform like LinkedIn so a lot of them post their profiles and get connected with other tech specialists on the platform. Wantedly, their local rival in Tokyo has done a similar service for years, focusing on job-hopping engineers.
The second reason resides in the bad timing with Covid-19, which has confined workers into home for more than three years. Firms in Tokyo shifted their spending to hold on for a while and stopped investing in human capitals. The listed companies retained their earnings for the future, exceeding Y600trn or $4.5trn, more than a year worth of GDP. They don’t recruit new talents for new posts. They put it on hold.
The third and probably the most convincing reason lie in the distinctive working situation in Tokyo. Most employees aged above 45 tend to stay in the current employers and the average age of listed firms in Tokyo is 49-years old. Young people don’t change jobs and the new job doesn’t lead to a rise in compensation. The companies hold their spending on skill development and individuals stay where they are at this point of time.
LinkedIn is a job-searching platform but for most business professionals in Tokyo, it is a self-branding app to get connected to people with similar backgrounds. But given the situation in job market, most people are not thrilled with opportunities on the platform.