Hello, my name is Nam Jin-hee and I am from Korea. I was in Korea until college and came to Japan when I started working. Currently, I am working in the sales department of the SNS division of Wiz Inc.

My interest in Japan was first piqued due to my interest in books. As my parents refused to buy me a game console and I had quite a lot of free time, I often borrowed books from the library to read in my spare time. I’ve read a large variety of books, but what interested me the most was Japanese mystery novels. As I gradually learned about Japanese culture from books, I became more and more interested in it. Eventually, I began to consume all sorts of Japanese media such as manga and anime, and now I am completely hooked.

I started studying Japanese when I was in high school. At that time, it was just an extension of my hobby, where I memorized various vocabulary from anime. Later, during my military service, I spent three months concentrating on my studies and passed JLPT N2. For every certification I obtained, I would get a day off, so I decided to study since I couldn't go outside anyway. At that time, I studied by reading and writing Japanese over and over again.

I majored in Korean at university. Also, while juggling my studies, I worked part-time. As I didn't want to burden my parents financially, I worked at three part-time jobs concurrently to pay for my university tuition fees. On weekdays, I would work at a convenience store and a pizza parlor while on weekends, I would work as a photographer at a wedding hall. I think I worked around 30 to 40 hours a week then.

Additionally, I had to serve military service while I was still in college. For the period between 2015 to December 2017, I was in the army. During my military service, I studied Japanese and passed JLPT N2.

After finishing my military service, I took a leave of absence to do a working holiday in Japan for a year from March 2018. During that time, I worked part-time at a ramen shop and a convenience store. After that, I returned to Korea in September 2019 for university. I graduated from university in February 2023.

Looking back on my university years, I wish I had made more friends. As I spent most of my time in college studying and working part-time, I wasn’t able to participate in many bukatsu (after-school activities) and club activities. As I grew older, it became harder to make new friends. Hence, I regret a little for not making more friends during my university years as there would have been more people that I could still keep in touch with today.

I believe that self-analysis is important to find the right company for you. In particular, it is important to identify what skills you have at the moment and how that could be seen as attractive to a company.

In this aspect, I think I was pretty lucky. To be honest, I didn't think my qualifications were as high as compared to others; I didn't have any certifications other than the JLPT, and my major at university was Korean. From the perspective of a Japanese interviewer, I don’t think I was seen as a particularly attractive hiring candidate.

During the Wiz selection process, my adventurous spirit and proactiveness —embodied by my decision to embark on a working holiday in Japan simply because I had a Japanese qualification which I only studied 3 months for — resonated with the corporate culture at Wiz, ultimately securing me the job offer.

Hence, I want you to also think hard about what you can bring to the table and figure out how to put that in words to pass the interview for your dream job.

Also, I think it is very important to never stop honing your skills. Even though I had JLPT N2 while I was job hunting, I felt that it was a little lackluster. Hence, I sat for and passed the JLPT N1 exam to improve my portfolio.

I think it is important to look at things with an open mind and be willing to accept new ideas.

When you’re 20 years old, you begin to develop your own outlook towards the world. However, as you start working, you will start to realize that your preconceived notions toward various matters may not be entirely correct. Hence, I think it is really important to learn how to absorb new information. For instance, you need to listen to and digest what people around you tell you without prejudice.

Immediately after joining the company, I was assigned to the SNS division. I was in the sales team and was tasked with making phone calls to obtain appointments from the first day. The product we had was a tool used to increase traffic for restaurants. So, I was calling restaurants and asking "Would you like a website to advertise your restaurant? Wiz will take care of the operation of the site.”

At first, it was very difficult because I didn't know what I was doing. As the person on the other end of the phone was unfamiliar with our services, it was hard to convey the appeal of our services despite my best efforts. We were often turned down by people who said "Our budget doesn't align with that," or "We don’t have time for website management."

But as months went by, I got used to it. Now, not only can I make appointments, I can also handle the rest of the business negotiations. I always get really happy when a client I was in charge of signing a contract. Closing a deal was always extremely difficult. This meant I had to sound confident in the services that we provide.

Even though the SNS division is a rather new division within Wiz, we were able to turn a profit last month through a trial-and-error process. As such, I'm eager to continue working together with everyone to propel our success forward.

Wiz is the ideal choice for individuals seeking growth and challenges in their professional journey. Being a venture company, our working environment is rapidly evolving. At Wiz, your hard work doesn't go unnoticed—we have a culture that values recognition. It's a vibrant workplace, perfect for those who enjoy a fast-paced atmosphere, love to push their abilities to the fullest extent and work autonomously.

Though, what I find the most attractive about the company is the support I get from the people around me. There was a time when I was feeling disheartened as I could not get any contracts for six consecutive months. Even so, the senior members in the division were patient and worked with me to devise ways to improve, suggesting changes like, "Let's change the order in which we explain things”. Also, the general manager, who works beside me, listens to my business presentations and commends me on areas I did well while giving me feedback on areas for improvement. As I learn and discover so many new things every day, I feel like I have grown so much in the past 6 months that I feel like a different person.

Some of you may be concerned whether sales is right for you as a foreigner. Fret not! Even though I also felt rather uncertain when I first started, I gained confidence when President Yamazaki said to me during onboarding, "If you can speak Japanese and sing karaoke songs, you can do sales at Wiz.” Even as a Korean, I have been able to successfully close deals with Japanese people in Japanese. Hence, even if your Japanese is not perfect, if you like singing Japanese songs at karaoke, feel free to consider working at Wiz.