Unexpected Wings
Hi my name is Seth. I’m and American expat who’s been in Japan for a while. I work at a SaaS company called Zeals in Tokyo. We do chatbots B2B2C, and I am a Product Manager to a team of awesome people providing asynchronous workflow solutions. I’m a new face for 2021, and have loved my journey here. This story is about a time I was feeling a bit tired, but an unexpected event gave me a boost, and reminded me what I work for.
Yuki was a new graduate in 2020, and he’s coordinating some new graduate recruitment for Zeals for 2022 graduates. Vish Nambiar’s character chart for talents & experience at Zeals, would look like this: Dude has probably done 1000x interviews. 👇 Pure stamina.
🗓 Since about August, Yuki, Vish, myself have casually touched base on a new graduates Q&A session. I’m sure Mane and the recruiting firm he worked with put in a lot of work on it, and they looped in Vish and I on a few meetings to get things ready. It started to feel like overkill, and I wasn’t so sure this would be productive. But they wanted to make sure Vish and I weren’t going to muck up all their effort. And when we finally got through the event, I was absolutely surprised.
🤓 At the actual event, we had 13 students. All foreign, studying at good universities. Some in undergrad, some time their master’s course. I would say about 65% female, and all multilingual. We started with a general info slide deck, then moved into breakout rooms for 20 minutes, cycling through everyone. We had just enough time for short introductions, and one question from each student to us. You could tell they had prepared their introductions, and their questions were also rehearsed. There was a huge sense of knowing what they wanted, and wanting to get out of school and straight to work. I started to make a list of “want/don’t want”, and in the end there was no on the “don’t want” list.
👋 At the end of the event, we had some general slides and info, tried to squeeze in some final questions or feedback from the soon-to-be graduates. And I can genuinely say they we’re surprised at our approach versus other companies in Japan they had Q&A sessions with. At the end, they filled out a feedback survey. Let’s break down some of their feedback:
Would you recommend this event to your friends? (score 1–10)
8.6
Were you satisfied with this event?
77%: Satisfied
23%: Somewhat Satisfied
Why did you rate this way?
- I learned about engineering workflow.
- I learned real information about how foreigners work.
- They shared straightforward insight, which showed the good personality.
- I want to enter for this company.
- I heard straight from working members.
- I got a lot of information about Zeals.
What points are you interested about in Zeals? (Multiple response possible)
This Startup will grow: 6 votes
I’m interested in global expansion: 11 votes
I identify with the vision: 5 votes
I have interest in A.I. & DX: 2 votes
Foreign-friendly environment: 8 votes
Original feedback, no edits!
- エンジニアの働き方を教えていただきました。
- 担当者の方々に聞きたかったものが全て聞けたので。
- 実際に働いてる社員さんのお話を詳しく聞いていただいてよかったです。
- ジールスについて新しい情報を知ることができた。また、外国人社員の方々が積極的に情報を教えてくだった。
- 素直な話ですし、色々なメンバーと話せたから時の流れが速いと感じた。
- エントリーしたくなったのです。
- 現役エンジニアの方々のリアルボイスを聞くことができ、テクノロジーバックグラウンドのない私にとっては新鮮な経験になったためです。また、ジールスに関する質問だけでなく、個人的な質問（仕事のやりがいなど）にも快く回答してくださっていて社員さんの人柄の良さが伝わりました。
- 社員に直接質問することができて、ご回答もいただきました。
- Zealsについていろんな情報を聞けました。
⏲Mind you, the event ended at 1830. Vish and I couldn’t contain ourselves, it was really more than we expected. And we chatted about some of the high-flyers.
🧨 I immediately hit up an HR member saying who I had a great impression on, and coordinating to get things rolling for recruitment. I had three of them in mind in particular I was really excited about. And that was BEFORE we saw the feedback at 1910.
And GUESS WHO the two were that gave us the best feedback on the survey? (Giving the most, best, and highest scores. 💯 )
Student of Graduate School of Informatics
- 9/10 satisfaction score
- 4/5 positive rating on categories of Zeals
- Comment: I was taught how to work as an engineer.
Student of Graduate School of Information Science and Technology
- 10/10 satisfaction score
- 5/5 positive rating on categories of Zeals
- Comment: It’s a straightforward story, and I felt that the passage of time was fast because I was able to talk to various members.
🎆 I was absolutely astonished. These students have been shopped around to multiple companies, but WE hit them differently. We, Zeals, have arrived at the point where we are externally attractive as a company. Let that sink in…talented youth who have massive amounts of potential…felt WE are an attractive option. To me, that is an extremely exciting precedent. I am so excited about this because I remember some of the feelings when I was a 20-year-old:
- Extreme confidence in myself, and that I will make a difference.
- That I would enter a place to succeed, grow, and challenging myself (next to like-minded people).
- I would work a higher purpose, and work tirelessly to achieve everything.
Sure, this is overly idealistic perhaps. But that is 100% why a lot of us are here. We want all the same things, couldn’t do it in other places, so we came to Zeals to do it.
🙃 SO! what’s the point of all this? Well;
- I had an unexpected and positive boost from this experience.
- It reaffirmed so many of my beliefs, “shook me awake” as to what really matters.
- Made me super, crazy motivated to get things ready by spring 2022.
Bang-up job to the leaders that have stepped up. I see you, and am really thankful for your hard work. We have the basic structure, teams, and some processes for our jobs. Who’s hungry to make more? We need to offer resume-building workshops, interview coaching, mentorship programs, create spaces/workloads for new people anyways. Let’s send it in the biggest way possible!
