Nawon: I joined Turnpoint Consulting, because I was looking for a company that was pretty small, so that I can know everyone and everyone knows me, which gives me more motivation to work.
And I can also speak English, so I wanted to talk in English, and talk to foreigners who live in Japan. So that’s why I joined this company. How about you, Julia?

Julia: I joined mainly because of Andre (our CEO).
I had the interview with him. He gave me really good career advice. I joined as a new grad and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but he gave me some really nice things to think about. Ultimately, I decided to join.
Sales wasn’t something I was super strong in, but I knew it is a useful skill to have, so I wanted to build it up here.

Nawon: How about Rory?

Rory: Because of Tatsuya.

(Laughter)

Nawon: Then maybe Tatsuya should talk first.

Tatsuya: I’ve already decided to leave my former company. I wanted to change my career. Then I met Andre as well and talked with him during the interview. I thought, at that time, it was really similar to my job at that time, where I can use my experience and use English as well. Fortunately, the offer came out, so I decided to join.

Nawon: And then you introduced Rory.

Tatsuya: Yeah.

Rory: But I mean, for me, similar reasons too, though. I was wanting to change my career, using previous skills in some way different. That’s probably one of the biggest reasons for me.

Nawon: So it’s pretty much similar reasons, wanted to use our skills plus English, and felt the connection with Andre by talking to him.

Nawon: For me, it changed a lot. I thought it would be only sales oriented, and I didn’t expect the atmosphere it would be this friendly. So it made me more enjoy my job. I wonder what kind of impression you guys had after joining.

Julia: 覚えてる？（笑）

Rory: Maybe a stereotype of consulting or recruiting is, you’re in teams, but it’s all super individual. Like, I shouldn’t care about others and things like that. I mean, there’s always going to be that aspect in the job, but it doesn’t feel like it’s the number one thing here. For example, you hear about a lot of other agencies that are very individual. You have a team, but you need to do this, you need to do that. Here, it’s like, of course you have your things you need to do, but the team aspect seems to be first or feels like it’s first. So, yeah, that was maybe an impression more of the industry or the job than the company. 

Julia: I agree. When I joined, I only had an image of what a traditional Japanese company might be like, so I didn’t know what to expect. I came in looking like a new graduate with my black blazer and white dress shirt. But the atmosphere was more laid back – for example, I didn’t have to clock in and out for lunch on the dot. That was a little culture shock. いいことだけどね… 

Tatsuya:フラットだよね。

Julia: うん。結構フラット。

Rory: 思ったよりフラット。

Nawon: I don’t think all Gaishi-companies are like this, so, I think it’s pretty different from other companies.  

Julia: Maybe this is due to being in the back-office, but I feel like there is a lot of flexibility. If I have an idea about how to do something, I can present it to my manager, and she’ll be like, Oh, that’s a good idea, or, how about we try it this way. Basically, I can work with discretion, rather than being micromanaged where you are told to “do this, do that,” instead it is an open discussion, “we want to achieve this goal, how can we get there?” It’s kind of up to you. 

Nawon: I think my やりがい is all same as you. If I have something to say, whether it’s to my team members, or my manager or Andre, I’d just go there and talk. It’s really fast. I think that’s a pretty good point when we’re especially working on a contract or something.
But I think sales part will be pretty different from back office. 

Tatsuya: Our side of success is, getting money, hitting target, but most importantly, getting gratitude from clients and candidates. That is what’s important.

Rory: I can’t add much more to that. It’s probably the same feeling whether it’s from candidates or from clients. That gratitude does feel good. 

Nawon: I think that might be really in our corporate value, because we have ‘respectful’ as our corporate modal. Because we respect our clients. That’s why I think the clients are having more gratitude towards consultants.
We have five models for our corporate value, but I think each of them are all important and that’s what makes all our consultants and employees professional.  

Julia: ‘Continuous Improvement.’ I think it’s really important that we’re always striving to improve ourselves, not necessarily competition with each other, but how we can work together and, ultimately, be the best version of ourselves, and continue to get better.

Nawon: We also have like a bookshelf that people can borrow books about being a professional, becoming good at sales or being more informative about the industry. Also, the language learning support from the company, I think that helps us more in ‘Continuous Improvement’.

Rory: I guess on the sales side, a lot of them, like ‘Committed,’ ‘Trustworthy’ and ‘Professional.’
Deliver your promise whether it’s to a candidate or to a client, you’re going to get that respect and trust from them. If you’ve been committed to delivering on that, that’s obviously something quite good.

Tatsuya: Our culture. As I told you, quite flat, allows you to work individually, but sometimes, of course, we can support each other working in a team.

Julia: I agree, especially the supporting part, I like how everyone’s really encouraging and if you struggle with something, instead of putting you down, everyone tries to see like how can they help or offer some nice words.

Nawon: For me, it’s like flexible time because it depends on the day my condition differs. So if I don’t feel like I can wake up early in the morning, I’ll just come here at 10 and start when my condition is kind of better. So I think that makes my work a little more efficient, which I think is important.

Rory: You basically said all the good parts.

(Laughter)

Tatsuya: Manager. Right now, I’m a team Leader, so next I will be a manager to support others because I have a lot of work experiences more than most of the members.

Rory: I want to be your manager. (Laughter) Manager’s managers. Yeah.
For me, not so much the title of being manager, but the responsibility is more attractive. I don’t want to say like oh, I’m the manager, but more for the guidance or support for other people is a big thing for me.

Julia: (Nodding) In the sense of responsibilities, like being in a place where I can make the biggest impact on the company and beyond.