Raku Job Aftermath

ell, folks, I have been to and back from the job event held by Raku Job. I must say that I entered the event with very low expectations. I certainly thought that there would be things there for me to see and I would have the opportunity to make one or two connections in the game industry, but I'll be completely honest and say that I didn't have high hopes for getting any truly good leads.

Well, I guess my cynicism can be ratcheted back perhaps at least one notch for the time being. In retrospect, the whole event was a great move. Especially considering that I was planning almost on blowing the whole thing off and sitting around at home tinkering with my Fallout 3 mod instead. I had the distinct pleasure of meeting some great folks from Pixiv, Asobism, Acquire, Frontwing, Oh-Ami (Amiami), Digital Hearts, e-Smile, and some others in the gaming and other digital entertainment industries, but the most interesting happening was that of me running into the Director of the company that put on the event, Be Higher.

After having a great time wandering between booths and having some entertaining conversations with the people there, discussing the current life and future of pixel art with the folks I was talking to, I was winding my day down and taking a breath on one of the seats around the corner from the main event and staring off into space when a gentleman wearing a STAFF card around his neck walked over to me and struck up a conversation.

Like a lot of Japanese businessmen, it felt at first like he was just interested in practicing his English with me, which I have no qualms with - especially when their English is understandable and they're friendly, much as this man was - but after a few minutes of idle chit-chat, he revealed to me that he was one of the top people at Be Higher, the company that owns and operates Raku Job, and upon my revealing my background as a headhunter, we immediately found that we had a lot to talk about.

I don't want to get ahead of myself and say that things are going to happen when they may not, but it seems that they as a company are also looking for people, and someone who has a background in recruitment/consulting, strong knowledge of gaming, animation and cartooning, and the skill at English to help to develop a foreign market (Check, on all three counts) would fit the bill rather smoothly. He even offered to introduce me to the CEO of the company, who was sadly indisposed, but I was introduced to one or two other members of the staff, and first thing upon getting back to my apartment, I sent off a thank-you mail and a copy of my English and Japanese resumes to him to peruse.

Hopefully, he'll be interested and get back to me soon. This could well be the break I've been searching for.

An unusual twist, I suppose, as I've been desperately trying to get out of headhunting, but I think that this is one brand of recruitment that I could still see myself getting behind: portal-based, commercial, organized, and focused on three industries that I'm both passionate about and have a fair bit of knowledge in. I know that with my age, and lack of practical business experience with game development/art, that I don't have as much chance in the proper gaming industry, but I'd be more than happy to be in a position that puts me in close contact with people in the industry, to help pad my future with them, perhaps a ways on down the road.

Either way, fingers crossed - and of course fingers crossed for the plethora of other tentative applications that left my hands on Sunday afternoon.

My advice for people interested in changing their jobs? Go to Job fairs. I may just have had a good experience and this could well not be indicative of what they all have to offer, but I chose the right job fair - one that caters to my niche. I had a lot to talk about with everyone there, and it was eye-opening in many ways.