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自己PR! How to Write Jiko PR (Self PR) on a Japanese Resume
Jan 18, 2024
7 min read
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In addition to the information about education and work experience, in the Japanese CV, there are two parts: 自己 PR (Jiko PR, or Self PR) and 志望動機 (reasons for application) which can be used to convey the personality and enthusiasm of the candidate. In many cases, these two sections are combined together (like the template below).

What you should write here depends on the different companies you are applying to, and needs certain flexible adjustments.

In this article, we will show you how to write the 志望動機/自己 PR part of the Japanese resume!

What Do Recruiters Look For in Your Self PR (自己 PR) Section on a Japanese Resume?

Do You Have The Strengths and Capabilities They Need?

Depending on different companies, the strengths needed are different. So, before listing your good points, first, see what they expect from you.

The recruiters look at the Jiko PR section of your resume with the primary purpose of discerning whether you have the capabilities they are looking for. So, the first thing you need to do is "define what expectations the firm wants from candidates" and "flexibly change the PR part to suit the firms' demand."

Begin in a Straightforward, Concise Manner

To avoid boring the readers (recruiters) bored, list out the points you want to promote before going into a specific story.

× 「私の長所は〜です」

(My strengths are…)

〇「現状を分析して 、 解決策を出す力に自信があります」

(I am very confident in my ability to analyze the situation to come up with a solution)

=> Presenting this type of interpretation will help the reader better understand what you intend to present.

NOTE:

A common mistake when writing this section is to write a long story about your previous working experience before concluding, "because of that, I have this strength, that strength…"

Creating a Catch Copy!

Catch copy is the phrase used for advertising purposes for a particular product or brand while "catch copy" in 自己 PR is to describe yourself to attract the recruiters' attention.

Usually, when reading a resume, employers often only read the first 1 ~ 2 sentences carefully, so you have to find a way to promote yourself, grabbing the employer's attention by short, concise, but impressive catch copy sentences

One thing to keep in mind when writing the 自己 PR section is not to write general sentences that can be found in any self-promotion, such as:

×私は協調性があります」 、「チームワークが得意です

( I'm a very cooperative person, I can work in groups. ...)

私は糊のような人間です。どれだけバラバラのチームでも間に入り、人同士をまとめられます

(I am like glue. No matter how disparate that team is, I can reconnect everyone.)

Support Your Self PR Section By Facts & Be Specific!

自己 PR should be written based on facts. You can attach a story to illustrate it, to bring out the authenticity of what you are promoting.

Let's put yourself in the shoes of a recruiter. Try to write to someone who does not know anything about you, but when reading the story, he/she should be able to visualize your actions and thoughts against a problem.

Example 1:

This is a typical faulty PR ↓

× 私はリーダーシップに自信がある。リーダーシップに重要なのは、人を引っ張る力だけでなく、人を支える力だと考えている。学生時代には、バスケットボールサークルの 幹事長となり、メンバーの意見を上手く吸い取り、皆が納得できるサークルの運営を心がけてきた。このリーダーシップを活かして、社会に出た後の活躍してきたと考えている。

(I am very confident in my leadership ability. Good leadership is not just the ability to manage people but also the ability to support others. When I was a student, I was the president of the basketball club. I was very good at listening to everyone's opinions to be able to run the club at the highest performance, making everyone satisfied. I think I can develop this ability at work.)

The mistakes the candidate made here:

・ It doesn't have enough evidence for the recruiter to believe

・ Many subjective words such as 上手く吸い取, 皆が納得する

・ It needs to be more specific about how you gained everyone's satisfaction

・ It should clearly illustrate how satisfied everyone was

合宿の運営の方針を上手くまとめるためには、皆の意見を吸い出す必要があった。ただ、議論をする中で「声の大きい人」の意見ばかりが通っていることに気づいた。そこで、「声の大きい人」を抜いて、どう思っているかをヒアリングする場をつくり、全員の本当の意見を吸い出した。

(To point out the best solutions for group meeting management, gathering everyone's opinion is necessary. But I found that during the discussion, the opinions of those who speak louder are appreciated. So I arranged a session to listen to others' opinions without the participation of these loud friends. Thanks to that, I gathered everyone's opinions.)

⇒ So, the reader will know precisely what you did to solve the problem of not being able to gather everyone's opinion in the meeting and the specific results achieved.

Structure of a Self PR Segment

When writing 自己 PR, make sure that what you write includes the following:

✔ What are your strengths? When is that strength most clearly promoted?

・I am confident in my ability to connect with people.

・ That ability is best brought into running a group meeting.

✔ What was the problem then?

・ To point out the best solutions for the group meeting management, gathering everyone's opinion is necessary. But I found that during the discussion, the opinions of those who speak louder are appreciated.

✔ Which solution did I choose?

・ So, I arranged a session to listen to others' opinions without the participation of these loud friends.

✔ And how were the results achieved?

・ Thanks to that, I gathered everyone's opinions.

Remember, what the recruiters want to see through is the ability to produce results. Therefore, when presenting, always pay attention to follow the circuit: "I have used that strength A to solve problems B, and achieve results C."

Depending on the PR segment's proper length, you can go into more detail in each part (For example, write details about why you choose to deal with a situation like this...)

A Complete Example for The 自己 PR Section

Please refer to the example below to see how to write an effective PR part!

担当事業は価格的には、競合よりも圧倒的に安いという強みがあったにも関わらず、なぜか売上が伸びていない状況でした。問題の原因を特定するため、顧客が注文をする際に利用するサイトのアクセスデータを解析し、「顧客がどの情報を見ているか?」を分析しました。

結果、ウェブサイトのデザインのせいで、顧客は、事業のウリである価格情報のページにたどり着いていないことがわかりました。

そこで、私は事業の強みである安さが顧客に伝わり易くなるよう、価格の安さを前面に押し出したウェブサイトにデザインを変更しました。結果、本来の強みが伝わるようになり、サイトを訪れた顧客が契約をする確率が4倍以上になり、上記の成果を達成することができました。

御社のビジネスコンサルタント職では、顧客の問題を分析し、その解決策を提供する力が問われるので、私の長所を活かせると考えております。

(My strong point is problem analysis ability. I am very confident in the ability to analyze the cause of the problem, and based on that, to propose a plan to solve it. That capacity was best shown when I was an intern at an IT venture. I run a customer support website, and I helped increase the revenue from 80,000 yen to 330,000 yen.

At that time, although my company's price was much lower compared to the price of our competitors, the revenue still hardly increased. To determine the reason, every time we received an order from a customer, I analyzed the access of the site they used to see what information the customer was viewing.

It turns out, due to the design of the site, the customer hardly visits the pages with pricing information, which is our strength. To solve this problem, I changed the design to emphasize my company's price advantage by bringing out the price. As a result, the price advantage was conveyed to the viewers, and the contracting rate of the site visitors increased four times, thus achieving the above results of revenue.

I believe that I can promote this strength of mine in a job that requires the ability to analyze and solve problems like business consulting in your company.)

Don't Worry Too Much About Your Resume Self PR Section!

Do you have any other questions or issues filling in your Jiko PR part of the Japanese resume? Let us know in the comments or on Facebook!

If you’re looking for a job, check out our jobs page: Guidable jobs.

The Guidable team hopes you found this article as a helpful piece of information! After all, all of our activities are aiming for a better life for foreigners in Japan! So, stay tuned and follow us!

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