Headhunters in Tokyo

[Bucky]

[TennoChinko]

Your son would be a lot better off if he tried applying directly. Most firms immediately post any openings on their corporate homepages. It's not like they are crazy about paying 30% commissions to headhunters.

Here are some examples of sites he might want to check on a regular basis:

Bloomberg http://about.bloomberg.com/careers_find.html
Morgan Stanley http://careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/client_ms/external/search.do?functionName=getSearchCriteria
UBS https://jobs.ubs.com/1033/ASP/TG/cim_home.asp
Thomson Reuters https://toc.taleo.net/careersection/2/moresearch.ftl
GE https://xjobs.brassring.com/1033/ASP/TG/cim_home.asp
Barclays http://www10.i-grasp.com/fe/tpl_BarCap01.asp?newms=se

Or, look at a direct link aggregator site like this one http://jobbind.com/japan/list

[Taka-Okami]

[Taro Toporific]

...Bucky Jr. moving to Tokyo and looking for work. For the past 9 months he has been trading foreign exchange contracts --

How about leveraging his time spent with foreign exchange contracts with this challenging (but no overtime) job?
Bloomberg is famous for being slave drivers, but fair slave drivers. Also note that Bloomberg is unrealistic in its job requirements that are just their wetdreams for an idealized, demigod-like candidate and not carved in stone.

[INDENT]

Commodities Markets Editor
http://careers.bloomberg.com/hire/jobs/job24233.html

Job Requisition Number: 24233
Tokyo - JPN

The Company
Few organizations can keep up with the fast-paced, 24/7 nature of today's media coverage]

[Samurai_Jerk]

If he's a young guy and wants to work a client facing job he should look into getting into the front office at an investment bank. They're starting to hire again and Westernized bilingual kids are always popular. He should expect to work 12 to 14 hours a day (or even more) at any job that's worth doing though. Especially starting out. Most recruiters don't like to work on entry-level positions since the comissions are low and most companies don't want to pay recruiters to place entry-level people since they aren't hard to find.

[hairygateau]

Hi

erm.. if he want's to stay in finance, don't expect too much especially for the first few years.

~3m yen for a graduate (assuming he left uni 9mo ago?) isn't all that uncommon in japanese securities firms. I've also assumed that he hasn't included any bonus in that per hour calc? I would expect any guy trading FX would be incentivized by a bonus - even at a japanese shop. Bonus is what you come to work for. Salary just pays the bills and the rent.

13 hour days? thats only a little more than the norm, especially in asia, where you typically work longer days to trade the european crossover. 7 hours sleep? how much does he need? Again - he's not in the right job if expecting <10hr days and >8hrs sleep a night.

As for getting screamed at, yelled at etc - it's very common, probably moreso in the 'western' banks. It's part of the culture, rightly or wrongly. If anything we love nothing more than making the MBA geek fetch the coffees as it brings them down a peg or two. Such an easy thing to do, yet even the brightest brains can't get the simplest things right.

to offer some +ve suggestions : suggest that he updates his linkedin profile and networks on that thing aggressively. it's free. all the western headhunters use it now. knowing how lazy some are, some probably exclusively. the first 5 years in finance are basically about finding out what you like, or can do well; thats the reason to move. sounds like he has great prospects, good school and bilingual. dont squander that on the odd million yen here and there or a few extra hours sleep.

[sublight]

That's what I was thinking. The description sounds pretty close to what I've heard about American trading firms and investment banks. I remember one rep during a college recruiting session telling us, "if you think you need 8 hours of sleep a night, leave now."

[Samurai_Jerk]

I'm going to back up these last two posts and say that that's exactly what it's like to work in finance on Wall Street. My friend is a commodoties trader in NYC and he was absolutely abused when he started out on the floor. He used to get shit thrown at him when he made bad trades. If your son doesn't like high stress, abusive colleagues, and long hours, he needs to get out of the finance industry. But if he sticks with it he'll be making six figures well before he's 30 and could make millions if he goes into the front office at an IB.

[Adhesive]

Hate to sound like a broken record, but I think if your boy wants to stay in this line of work, it's going to be pretty much the same story anywhere he goes.

My former boss was an ex-Lehman Brothers guy. Had an MBA from an ivy-league school in the US, and he used to regale me with stories of his time there as an associate. I'll spare you the details, but what it essentially boiled down to was sleep-deprivation and liver damage. He got out after a few years because he just couldn't take it anymore. His wife is an anesthesiologist, so it was easier for him to walk away from the salary than most. Anyway, take that for what it's worth.

[Bucky]

My response to him was that he is better off having a job than not -- given the current economic situation. It seems like this treatment is pretty typical of the industry and if you can't take the heat get out of the frying pan.

I told him to do what he feels he has to do but it would be better to find a new job *before* bailing on the old one.

Kids! What ya gonna do with 'em?