Blog
Notes:
Recently, I came across this YouTube channel that provided excellent video introductions on different terms and positions in sales. I reached out to them to invite them to the show, and they happily sent me two of their best people: Bryan Rios and Shivangi Dharne.
The YouTube channel was owned by Wahl+Case, a recruitment agency based in Japan, and so my conversation with Shivagni and Bryan easily turned into the work culture in Japan among other stuff.
If you are interested in all things Japanese or are curious about what possible opportunities are available for Sales Engineers in Japan, then please give this episode a listen.
Key Takeaways:
- The company Whal+Case
- How Shivangi found herself in Japan
- How Brian moved to Japan
- What it’s like to work in Japan
- How companies in Japan define what a Sales Engineer is
- Why being bilingual (knowing Japanese and English) is required for sales engineers in Japan
- The challenge of learning Japanese
- What soft skills are companies in Japan looking for in Sales Engineers
- How to pick up the cultural nuances in Japan
- The interview process for SEs in Japan
- The importance of building a relationship with recruiters
- How to ask your recruiter what kind of recruitment company they work at
- A list of questions to ask any recruiting company
- The two types of recruitment companies in Japan
- What to look for in a recruitment agency
- Relationship between SEs and Salespeople in Japan
- How hard it is to break into sales engineering in Japan
- The different kinds of companies looking to hire in Japan
Quotes:
Every company has a different problem that you know they’re trying to solve. And the first thing that’s really common with all of the companies is probably they start off with, “This has been a really difficult role to fill.” And… they tell us all the reasons why. And I think one of the biggest reasons why is because of the language requirement. So in Japan… the market is constantly short of bilingual talent. — Shivangi Dharne
We focus on Japanese candidates who can speak English. Since… they have experience working with Japanese clients as well. And that’s another big part of it, is that, depending on the company, they prefer somebody who has worked with a lot of the local clients in Japan and know exactly what the culture is like. — Shivangi Dharne
They’re constantly saying we don’t want engineers, we want client-facing experts. And I think it’s because they really want people who are really good with the people. — Shivangi Dharne
I think in Japan, it’s okay to ask your recruiter what kind of recruitment company they’re working at. Because there are so many different kinds at this point. And Japan has one of the most booming recruitment industries in the world. — Shivangi Dharne
We always tell our candidates, “Listen, we are not an agency that tries to have any kind of candidate ownership. We want to make sure everybody has all the information that they need about you so that we can send you as many options as possible.” — Shivangi Dharne
There are companies that will not tell you until you’re later in the process that it’s a contract position, and that it kind of happens a lot on the technical side in Japan because a lot of the bigger companies like Google really only hire contract positions for engineers. — Bryan Rios
It’s really important during the interview process to see if you get along with the salesperson that you’re going to be working very closely with and if their style is matching yours. — Shivangi Dharne
So a good way to get into sales engineering is to learn from existing sales engineers in your company, and see if you can join the department in some way and support that team in some way and slowly get that role within the same company and then you can obviously look around for other opportunities outside. — Shivangi Dharne
Knowing what you want only comes with experience. — Ramzi Marjaba
Marketing is literally just selling to people that you’ve never met. — Bryan Rios
