Late nights with Joelle & Weiting from Wantedly
“What looks like job hell?” Weiting leans towards me, with his arms on his knees. “It’s when you wake up, go to work, and find no purpose in what you do anymore. No one wants that.”
“That’s why I joined Wantedly,” says Joelle, eyes wide with seriousness. “When I met our CEO, Akiko, and saw her succeeding in such a difficult market like Japan, it really inspired me. I too wanted to work on a mission that built passion in the world. That’s how I ended up here.”
Most conversations that happen with Joelle and Weiting from Wantedly, take place at around 11pm when they’re hard at work. It’s clear that they operate on nothing less than passion, even as I’m speaking to them, tired from the day’s work. But this is one of many late night conversations, with topics as wide-ranging as their personalities, and conducted with the same fervour that they preach about.
“This stuff is meaningful. It’s a chance to create happy lives through happy jobs — something that people spend half their waking lives doing.”
Although Wantedly operates mostly in Japan, where they are one of the top recruiting platforms online, they’ve made a strategic move to expand across the rest of asia. Their first stop is Singapore, which is where Joelle and Weiting come into the picture. Their job is a big one — expand Wantedly’s presence in the Southeast Asia region.
“The more I read about the product, the more I liked it. This is the future of work, and from this we can create better lives,” said Weiting, smiling to himself, satisfied.
“The worst job I had was probably when my boss started asking me for information about my colleagues. To make things worse, he told me that to help people, sometimes you have to throw them under the bus.” Joelle pauses for effect, eyes wide open. It’s the most shocking request she’s received. “Crazy, right? After that, I knew I had enough, so I quit.”
They go on to relate other incidents of people who have chosen their own path. The stories are colourful and varied, as they cite examples from people they know personally, or have met through their work.
It comes full circle when I finally get to ask them about Wantedly’s position in the market, where their motivations for being a part of the company start to become evident.
“Wantedly isn’t just about jobs. It’s about people. We’re a social recruitment company. That means we help companies hire from their existing networks. From people they know and trust,” says Weiting.
Without expanding further on the company, they query me on my hobbies outside work, and ask for my opinion on the platform’s interface. They listen keenly, and while I’m spewing out my thoughts — which they listen to patiently — I come to realise just how focused they are on people, instead of themselves.
We close off the night by cracking open a round of beers. We sit around the desks in the flex space area, and have conversations about anything that comes to mind. It’s one of many that we’ve had, and will be one of many to come.
