Career Counseling & Services (CC&S)
Reach Your Professional Goal
IUJ, a professional school, puts your career first.
The career counselor helps with one-on-one counseling, worksheets, guide books, and online assessment evaluations.
When students arrive on campus for their first fall term, they are greeted with a series of Career Workshops even before classes begin. Career planning sessions, resume building workshops, one-on-one introductory interviews then Mock Interviews with the career counselor and your peers fill up the initial weeks. By mid October, each student registered with Career Services* is armed with a solid resume for the IUJ Resume Books – hard copy and online versions.
Career Services
Career Counseling and Services (CC&S) at IUJ is aimed at supporting each individual student in his or her internship and job hunt. Our small campus size ensures individual attention, coaching, and introductions customized to help students prepare for and reach their professional goals.
Career Planning – Most IUJ students come to campus with clear career objectives. They are using their 1 or 2 years on campus to gain needed skills or fine-tune those they have to launch their professional lives beyond what they could obtain without the IUJ MBA or E-business degree. CC&S is designed to support those goals.
Those that come without a clear picture of how they want their careers to develop receive guidance to explore various career options, see how they match with professional criteria, and begin to plan their careers. The career counselor helps with one-on-one counseling, worksheets, guide books, and online assessment evaluations. Notably, for a special discounted rate, IUJ students have access to CareerLeader.com, a wealth of information for business professionals designed by Harvard career counselors, to help discover your place in the business world. CareerLeader.com is used by over 200 graduate business programs worldwide, but only by one in Japan: IUJ. Through this service, and close consultation and practice with the career counselor, some discover professions they match but had never considered. All job hunters can go into their search with confidence and are well prepared for interviews.
Internships
Internships, while not a traditional part of the business culture in Japan, are available for qualified IUJ students. Internships are an opportunity to test and apply newly acquired skills and to learn firsthand about how the business world in Japan works. Networking is another benefit. Finding an internship requires early and active participation in campus programming beginning immediately upon your arrival on campus. Busy students must juggle school work with their internship hunt and participation in career services. For those who secure positions in Japan, IUJ helps with Work Permits and special insurance.
The career counselor’s aim is to help students find an internship as closely related to their long-term professional goals as possible. Opportunities are very diverse: Some lead to employment offers and some do not; some are unpaid and some are well compensated; some are with Japanese companies and some with foreign or global companies. Hosts represent diverse industries and are usually in Tokyo or Osaka, but more in others parts of the nation are gaining interest in our program. Opportunities in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Jakarta and Mumbai are on the increase as well. The more Japanese language skills candidates have, and the more specialized professional skills such as in IT or Finance, the more opportunities are available.
Japanese is often a deciding factor so students are highly encouraged to enter IUJ with some language skills, and aim to start at the Intermediate level their first year.
The Resume Book
The Resume Book is distributed to recruiters interested in IUJ students both in the business and non-profit world. With its distribution, companies and organizations are invited to campus to meet candidates and the selection process begins.
For more information, and to view the IUJ Placement Reports, please see the main IUJ Career Webpage. You will also find there traditional recruiters for jobs and internships, career paths IUJ students have taken, and information on contacting the IUJ Career Counselor, Gretchen Shinoda.