Job interviews are never comfortable… except for the one I had last Thursday thanks to Ms Beatrice Carter who gave me the enriching opportunity to learn more about her organization and the chance to reflect on myself as a potential contributor to an active, goal-oriented team. But sufficed to say, all the other interviews are arduous, anxiety-filled walks through a minefield of loaded questions.
Thankfully, now there are a lot of online resources and even AI chatbots that can prepare people to optimize their answers and land the job of their dreams. However, some employers are also upping their game at finding new ways to make people sweat.
A recent one in Japan, according to Internet portal Lasisa referring to social media posts, is requesting an anatarashii shashin which translates to something like a “you-ish photo” or a picture that represents who you are as a person. While asking for a photograph on a job application can range from being frowned upon to downright illegal in some countries, in Japan it is still common practice. They tend to be of a uniform four-by-three-centimeter headshot dressed in the standard dark suit known as a “recruit suit.”
▼ How to dress and pose for a standard job application photo in Japan
▼ How to dress but not pose for a standard job application photo in Japan
For better or worse, at least the rules for these photos are so clear and rigid that it’s hard to screw them up, so it’s a relatively less stressful part of the job-hunting process. However, it turns out that getting scores of photos of people with blank expressions, in front of a blank background, wearing the same nondescript suit, made it hard to get a sense of the person’s character.
So, a growing number of employers are seeking out more candid pics of candidates, preferably in a setting that would show them as valuable human resources such as volunteering or playing team sports.
This is bad news for the some 98 percent of people who aren’t star athletes or humanitarians, opting instead to focus on personal development by getting all the trophies in "Helldivers 2."
As requests for “you-ish photos” get more widespread students on their way into the workforce have been spreading the word across social media.
“I want to tell all first-year students to work with your friends to take photos of yourselves doing some activity over the next four years for your resumes.”
“I don’t have any photos of myself, so I’d just use a close-up of an insect.”
“I didn’t leave my home for two years because of COVID-19. What pictures?”
“All pictures that represent me are rhythm game result screens and wet dreams.”
“If I see a company ask for that I’ll know it’s not a place I want to work, so that’s good.”
“I think it’s good. You can’t help build a society by being a recluse and only studying.”
“Just find the nearest mountain, climb it, take a picture, and call it a day.”
“Can I use a photo of a bus stop I stumbled across in the countryside that has the same name as me?”
“It’s sad that pictures we take with friends during school are now tools for employment.”
“I’ll need to call one of those friend rental agencies.”
“Finally, a use for gen-AI!”
This does seem to be a lucrative opportunity for human photographers to start up “you-ish photo” services since the demand is clearly there.
Source: Lasisa, Itai News
Read more stories from SoraNews24.
-- Japanese company offers a “little sister rental” service, and our reporter just tried it out
-- Foreigners in Japan sound off on the top four quirks of the Japanese job-hunting system
-- Four frustrating attitudes women in Japan run into when interviewing for jobs, grouped by age
- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2024/10/30/japanese-job-hunters-dismayed-by-requests-for-a-photo-that-shows-who-you-are-as-a-person/
16 Comments
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ArtistAtLarge
The world has gone mad.
CaptDingleheimer
I enjoyed my time on JET, and I love our yearly family visits there.
But why the hell anyone from a Western country with job prospects beyond Starbucks would want to live long-term in Japan is beyond me.
David K Anderson
"Hmmm...how can we make the Japanese work experience, including the process of job seeking, even more stressful and horrific?"
[...]
"Hey, I've got an idea!"
virusrex
ChatGTP, remake this ID photo in the me-ish style.
englisc aspyrgend
Utterly pointless in assessing a candidates suitability for a particular post. Most leisure activities relate not at all to the skill sets needed in work, so youngsters will start adopting or appearing to adopt what they think will look good. And so Japans toxic work culture invades what ever personal space they may have.
Neither variety of curated photograph will tell you anything useful about a candidate. Mind you most of the asinine questions that HR come up with are about as useful as teats on a bull as well.
GBR48
Finally, someone in Japan is taking their first clumsy steps to treat their potential cubicle droids as real humans. Maybe they would be a better company to work for than the others.
It may be a positive development rather than a creepy intrusion. They are not asking for you in your JK glamour shots, but some proof that you function as a human being beyond the traditional Japan Inc. path: School in uniform until office in suit until deceased in coffin. They may actually want people who have a life beyond that.
The assumption seems to be that someone standing at the South Pole or invading Belgium would get a thumbs up, and someone cooking with their family or asleep, face down on their keyboard, clutching their game controller, would not. I'm not sure that's correct. Put a bit of thought into it and this is a rare chance to distinguish yourself from the masses.
Imagine you work in HR. What else do you go on? I'm sure they get thousands of CVs all written according to cram school hints and all pretty much the same. Get snapping and bag yourself a job.
ian
I thought people post pictures that represent them every second, now someone actually ask for it they get dismayed
shogun36
Horrible idea. It's already bad enough with the standard face pic rule.
How many fake pictures are going to come out of this as a result?
No one is gonna take a pic of them lying on the sofa doing nothing or yaking it up at the izakaya. (the real life events of young people.)
All you gonna see are photoshopped pics of someone climbing a mountain or maybe riding a bike with the sunset in the background.
Why not just make the interviews less robotic and stressful, instead?
Maybe don't ask dumb questions like, why do you want to join this company? (for the paycheck, there is no other reason involved.)
Maybe ask more casual questions in the interview?
Or maybe not have one chair in the middle of the room with 69 old men in suits behind one long table in front of each candidate?
kohakuebisu
Interviews are bad enough without making the candidate second guess what the company wants.
I remember doing one of those aptitude tests thirty years ago for a job at a Japanese TV company. The ones where you get dozens of combinations of four statements and have to say which one applies best to you. I had never encountered those tests before and started freaking out halfway through when I encountered something like the tenth combo featuring "I can apply myself and finish tasks on my own". Is that good? Bad? Did I say yes to that five minutes ago? It put me in a real muddle.
vallum
I was asked for such a picture once!
As I am quite good with origami, I sent one of a really small 'tsuru', one that was sitting above my small finger to better show its size.
Never got any reply. Maybe they didn't understand the message (dilligent, good with details, good concentration, etc)? Maybe I didn't understand the request? Maybe it didn't matter at all?
That's confusing.
Adam
While living in Japan many years ago, I can recall going to job interviews where the company actually informed me on the spot (during the interview) that I didn't get the job, but several had the nerve to ask if they could keep my photo anyway.
I always thought that was creepy.
I didn't realize photos were still necessary with job applications. I feel bad for job seekers.
itsonlyrocknroll
'Photos showing who you are as a person'......?
Totally absurd, irrational, fallacious to the point of being harmful, damaging for "job-hunters" the self-esteem.
Opens the possibility of a claim of discrimination.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Why do they need to see your photo at all? Unless you are appearing on TV or in public for the company, what difference does it make? Just opening your company up for discrimination accusations.
deanzaZZR
Winner. It shows you have energy and are goal oriented.
“Just find the nearest mountain, climb it, take a picture, and call it a day.”
yakyak
I enjoyed my time on JET, and I love our yearly family visits there.
The only way to live in Japan long term is you must love the people and the country, money should have nothing to do with it as you will live a life of misery if money is the only reason you came to Japan.
8T
The only way to make money in Japan is to start a company. Japanese business respects companies over people.