People often ask me, "Should I join a foreign business management consulting company as soon as I graduate, or should I first accumulate practical experience in a local company, study abroad after a few years, and then change the runway to a foreign company?"
It is true that many large Japanese companies still recruit freshmen who have just graduated, while many foreign companies are actively hiring people who want to change jobs or change tracks. But don't think that it doesn't matter if you enter a foreign business in the future. When I was a human resources manager in the past, there were many applicants who made me think, "If this person had just graduated, maybe I would have hired him, but now that I want to change jobs, it's hard for me to nod my head." 」
After a few years of work, you must be careful that your abilities are limited by the "work environment"!
One of the most serious problems is that some people who thought freely and boldly when they were students have received their initial professional training in a large conservative company, and they have gradually become obsessed with work efficiency or results, and they are afraid to assert their opinions because they are afraid of hierarchy, and they have lost the soft mindset to think from scratch.
The first environment after leaving society will have a great impact on a person. Once a particular pattern of behavior is in your head, it's not so easy to modify it later. Those who have been in the same workplace don't even notice that this is a problem, not knowing that they don't look like a "great social person" during the interview, but just a "member of an ultra-conservative organization".
Once they get into the habit of having group discussions with other candidates, they may be afraid to disagree with the interviewer or test the answers they want, which can also prevent them from doing jobs that require a lively discussion regardless of class.
In addition, since large companies can use profitable departments to maintain loss-making departments, some people may have been working in loss-making departments since they joined the company, and have developed the concept that "profit = cost reduction" is unique to sunset industries. As a result, it can be difficult to become a leader in a fast-growing industry or to lead a new business in an emerging country. There are also people who come from public institutions, whenever they encounter something that they have never seen before or that contradict the law, they immediately stop thinking and their minds become blank.
Under normal circumstances, newcomers can only follow the company's arrangements and cannot choose their own departments. In organizations that emphasize years of daughters-in-law becoming mothers-in-law, or require all newcomers, regardless of their strength, to start from the grassroots level, the possibility and speed of growth will vary greatly depending on luck and chance.
It was painful to meet applicants who had been excellent in the past, but who had changed since leaving the world, and who were unable to be admitted. If you have friends who are about to become new to society, remind them that if you are not careful, you may learn some common sense that is outdated in the world in the first few years of laying the foundation of society. Don't underestimate this risk!
Changing jobs only after growing to the limit in the previous company is the type we don't want to be hired!
In foreign business management consulting companies, most of the employees who do not join the company as soon as they graduate from university are admitted before the age of 35. Therefore, in addition to the level of ability when you first enter the company, the growth potential after entering the company is also very important.
But there are many candidates who feel like they have grown to the limit of their previous company, but it has taken many years for them to start thinking about changing jobs, and this kind of person is the last person we want to be hired.
If he feels that he has grown to the limit and still works silently, it means that during this period, the work he does is not challenging, and he does not need to challenge with all his strength, as long as he can do it mechanically. After a period of time, the possibilities of the person will gradually be destroyed.
If you can keep taking on challenges, you won't be afraid to touch newer, bigger work, on the contrary, when you keep doing simple work, you will feel that it is scary to be exposed to work that you may not be able to do well. It's like people who used to drive every day, once they haven't touched a car for several years, they are afraid to hit the road again.
In addition, when the difficulty or weight of the work exceeds one's load, people are forced to classify the work according to their importance, such as "important things that must be achieved to achieve the goal" or "small tasks that do not take too much time". However, for those who are always doing "the work that must be done step by step", no matter whether it is important or not, he has enough time to deal with the details of the work, so there is no need to distinguish the importance of the work from a comprehensive perspective, and it is easy to waste energy on those trivial things.
That's why if you continue to do a job that you can do well without trying your best, you will unconsciously become conservative and your perspective will become narrower after a few years. It is very difficult for anyone to do simple work and continue to grow at the same time.
The people that managers need the most: people who are not satisfied with the status quo and can grow in the future
Of course, even if you work for several years without growth, you will not necessarily be unable to make up for it. Just moving from a large Japanese company to an organization like McKinsey is like a soccer player playing for a foreign team, and you have to face a very drastic change in the environment, and this new environment requires everyone to achieve their goals from the moment they enter the company. Now that we are in a state where we can fight with all our might, it is a matter of course that we should take on new challenges.
The management consultant in charge of the interview will also try to determine how much room the candidate has for growth during the short one-hour interview. Candidates who can grow quickly will be able to absorb the essence of the words spoken by the interviewer and use them immediately when answering the next question.
When a person is responsible for a job that is far beyond his own strength, he will not just sit and wait for a special learning or training opportunity, because he will not be able to learn the necessary skills without actively and greedily absorbing learning from his daily work. Therefore, such a person will always maintain a "learning combat state".
No matter where you work, as long as you feel that your growth rate is slowing down, you need to change the environment as soon as possible. Of course, you don't have to change jobs, you can change departments, change work methods, and areas of responsibility. When you start to think, "I haven't grown much in the past few years", but continue to be content with the status quo, then even if you want to change jobs in the future, it will be difficult to have a good result.
(This article is from "Yuanshen Book Live Network", excerpted from "Recruitment Criteria: What the World Needs is This kind of talent", please click here for the original text)