The long awaited part II finally arrives! Small warning: working in Japan provides little-if any-free time to do things like blogging and what have you. Time to list up all the paperwork and what have you that you will need prepare in order to apply for a job in Japan:
- 履歴書 or Rirekisho. This is a really basic summary of companies you worked at, schools attended and any certificates you hold. This site has a fairly straightforward web form you can use to make yours. Start with your oldest experience first. This goes against the Western grain of newest first. You must include a photo of yourself on the 履歴書. Make sure it’s a good one!
- 職務経歴書 aka your Resume/CV. Again, oldest experience first. List individual projects, your specific duties in each project and duration of the project at minimum.
- 応募作品 or Portfolio. Just about every job application will require a work sample/portfolio of sorts. Artists and game designers, prepare to print yours. Companies prefer paper for security and privacy protection as papers can be shredded or returned. It makes it more difficult to prove that a company has stolen or illicitly distributed your information if the one copy they saw they got rid of.
A few things to remember when creating your portfolio:
- Pay attention to any requirements or instructions posted in the job listing.
- Write as much as you can in Japanese.
- Artists: lots of Japanese companies like to see デッサン or life drawing. When hiring junior artists, some companies will take a traditional artist and train them in 3D.
- Programmers: Prepare to burn your work to CD or DVD. Be sure to make note of any resources you use that you didn’t create yourself.
- Planners: You have the most work cut out for you with your portfolio. Most companies will ask for 企画書 or product proposals. These need to really play your strengths as a game designer and show you understand the company’s direction. For example, you wouldn’t give Platinum Games a proposal for a visual novel or Nippon Ichi Software a proposal for an FPS death match game. Pay attention to page counts, quantity of proposals and your Japanese. Given that communication is key, submitting Japanese language materials is of utmost importance.
Once you have all this together, place it in an envelope with the name and address of the company you’re applying to and off you go!
Next up, the interview…