Michael Page Japan

Michael Page Japan is another basic, run-of-the-mill, terrible recruiting company. From their website, they are a British company with about 1 billion pounds in revenue and more than 5,000 employees. They are listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Already, by the fact that they are a public company with large revenues and numerous employees, this should be a red alert to people. They are a churn factory, and what they do is push people to any number of random positions to meet quota. They will put a furniture worker for an IT data engineer role because, hey, wood working could actually be seen as an engineer of some sorts! Or they may put an English teacher forward for a country manager role, because, hey, this guy has lived overseas and is an international man of mystery!

I have used Michael Page Japan several times. I went to their shitty old offices in Kamiyacho where they tried to portray themselves as international-chic, but they are no more than a bunch of old JET and English teachers who are trying to find a way to stay in Japan without teaching English. It's as simple as that. The Japanese staff there, meanwhile, are washed up corporate rejects who are unemployable and have no skills other that goma suru and brown nosing their bosses, while working as loyal robots with no opinions of their own. Their former country manager is a Euro-dork who is completely clueless and is a passive aggressive moron.

In my next post, I will talk about specific examples of their ineptitude.

Another reason why I hate Robert Half Japan

Last month, I met one of their recruiters at an offsite place in Tokyo. She was nice enough, but invariably spewed the company line. "Robert Half is the leader in the industry, blah blah blah, we have contacts with all of the top companies, blah blah blah".

So I said ok, lets see what you've got. I put my resume for a job which I fit pretty well for. They said I should get an interview. I asked if this required native level Japanese skills, which I do not have. I am fluent, but I don't have quite the level yet to be considered native. They said no, all it requires is business Japanese and that they need a native English speaker to talk to the clients and staff. So this sounded great. I thought I was in.

One week pass, no response.

Second week passes, no response.

I start thinking something is fishy. I send email and phone calls to that recruiter. Nothing. Fuck that! I get fed up and then emailed their main email line and her. Not surprisingly, she responds in a few minutes. "Oh, they actually were looking for a native Japanese speaker. Sorry for this, but I will continue to keep looking for opportunities for you."

WTF! Why did you fucking waste my time and effort if this was the case?! Shit. I could have saved my paid time off instead of wasting a half day to go meet this chick. Piece of crap is what I say. I will add more stories in the future. This is just the tip.