Interview with Candidate & Employer : Statista Japan

We would be happy to hear your impressions of our services from both sides, the side where you are headhunting and changing jobs, and the side where you are hiring people as a client. Thank you very much for your time. Firstly, may I ask what made you decide to meet with Ryze in the first place after you were contacted by a headhunter?

Kento: The first time was because I was interested in a particular position that sounded interesting, so I thought I’d ask about it. I was replying to Ryze in January 2023, and to be more specific, it was about a management position at another company that Ryze works with.

I wasn’t really looking for a job at the time, but I was in a position where I’d be interested in hearing about any interesting manager positions that came up. The first thing that happened was that I was introduced to information about a company that was growing and that had a position that would lead to skill improvement, rather than my current position.

You received a message on LinkedIn.

Kento: I received it on LinkedIn. It was from Mayu Hatano, and I remember that the communication was really polite.The communication about things like schedule coordination was smooth, and the confirmation contact… it wasn’t anything particularly amazing or topical, but the response was quick, and the contact when coordinating the schedule was very detailed. On the day, they even sent a reminder email… the way they phrased things was very considerate, and I got the impression that they were very pleasant people.

You had a good impression when Ryze first contacted you.

Kento: Yes, at the time, I wasn’t thinking of changing jobs any time soon, so I didn’t continue with the interview process for the first position. But they didn’t push me to do so, and for me, it was easy to work with them. And I think they probably asked me about other things at that time, and I think I told them that I was interested in things like that. I can’t remember exactly, but I was impressed that they remembered what we talked about at that time, and that they contacted me about Statista this time, saying, “I think it would be a good fit for you”.

Do you receive many headhunting contacts?

Kento: Yes, I did. I was often contacted but did not change jobs, but I had similar experiences, such as when I was interview at different companies in parallel.

I see. Thank you. What were your feelings when you first received the contact? For example, were you surprised, or did you think, “Why did they contact me?” or anything like that?？

Kento: No, I often receive contact in this industry, so my first impression was, “It’s just one of the many.”

What are some of the reasons why you decided to contact Ryze and speak with them?

Kento: Yes, I did. I remember that I wanted to know market information that I could not get as an ordinary job seeker, because the recruitment project I was interviewing for was very interesting.

When you were first contacted by Ryze, was there anything in particular that you wanted to ask Ryze about the hiring company?

Kento: Yes, the size of the organization and its form. For example, “Does this report directly to the home country or to Singapore?” or “The ratio of the sales team to the rest of the staff?“. I wanted to ask questions that would show my motivation rather than questions about the organization or money, and Ryze helped me to obtain such relevant information. It was very helpful to be able to get that kind of information through Ryze.

I see. You wanted to ask about things that weren’t really related to the interview.

Kento: Yes, that’s right.

How did you prepare before the interview?

Kento: I did research as much as I could about that company, because it was necessary during the interview. I remember that I researched a lot about the business, and I also researched the backgrounds of the people working there on LinkedIn.

Also, when you were going for that interview, what was the most important thing for you? There are lots of things to consider, like salary, job content, company culture, career growth.

Kento: There were two other companies I was interviewing with in parallel. Although the salary was higher there, that was not the final deciding factor. Of course it was important, but it’s not just the most recent OTE. It is hard to choose whether it is the job description or career growth as the deciding factor. In this case, I feel like I chose the job description that would lead to career growth.

I see. So you have prioritized your career growth. By the way, what did you find good about Ryze?

Kento: I thought that the communication from the person in charge was very polite, and I remember thinking that it was a good level of service… or rather, I had a very strong impression of it. When you ask me if that was the deciding factor in my decision to work with Ryze, I’m not sure if it really was, but I did have a really good impression of them. Also, as the project progressed, the main person I was talking to at first was Mayu Hatano, but then the main person I was talking to became Bill (William DeLorme), and when I compared him to the recruiter from the other company that I was also working with at the same time, yes, their personalities were really quite different.

The other headhunter was quite, how should I put it, sales-like…the type who tries to persuade me. Yes, I thought that headhunter must be very good at what they do, and I was able to put my trust in them. However, when I have a lot of concerns, Bill was like a gentle uncle. He would say things like “That’s tough, isn’t it?’”, and even though I was talking about something that was quite an important concern in my life, and not necessarily clear problems, I was impressed that he listened to me so well.

Did you have any concerns during the hiring process?

Kento: This is a bit of a generalization, but I remember having a conversation with a manager from a large company about the consequences of going to a smaller company, and if I did not do well at all at that company, would Ryze help me with another job change. I remember discussing with them what the worst case scenario of the choice I am about to make could be.
Also, I had the opportunity to give a presentation during the interview, and Ryze reviewed that. I think we talked about some of the points that would be looked at in the selection process, and I think they advised what we were going to talk about and asked them if they had any concerns about it.

When you finally accepted this Statista offer, were there any services that you found useful, such as advice from us on how to prepare for your retirement or negotiating your annual salary?

Kento: Yes, I think they may have helped me negotiate my annual salary. I don’t remember the specifics, but yes, they helped me.

Also, what other factors were there, such as the overall trend in the industry, your family’s opinion, or your own career plan?

Kento: Well, I think this career plan is the best for me. I’m the type of person who likes to talk with my family, so we did have a conversation, but rather than having a conversation where I was like, “This is definitely better, isn’t it?”, we decided on it while talking. I was really concerned about things like career plans, titles, and where I could go next time I changed jobs.

So, I think you’ve experienced both the candidate and client sides, but is there anything you feel about that?

Kento: Yes, I may be talking a lot from the client’s perspective. Even though I have been in the so-called software industry for a long time, my career change took the form of moving into an industry with a slightly different flavor. Conversely, when I asked Ryze to help me find someone to replace me, I was a bit worried because it was not an industry I was used to. We are a data vendor, but we can hire from people who used to provide research-related services, marketing consultants, software salespeople, and so on. The target audience for the candidate search was a bit broad. I have the impression that they approached a rather broad range of candidates, even though I was not able to ask for that high a resolution of what kind of persona to approach, and I have the impression that they suggested a good landing spot based on a variety of factors, including salary range. Turning that around, well, I was in a different industry when I was a candidate, but I am guessing that they approached me individually based on the content.

Thank you. Also, what are the advantages of being headhunted rather than looking for a job yourself? Conversely, what are the advantages of being selected by a client through headhunting?

Kento: Well, I have chosen to work only with headhunters, so I haven’t been able to do much comparison. I haven’t necessarily gone out to look for jobs. Well, I did not necessarily go looking for jobs, and if I had to say, I would say that I only looked for jobs on LinkedIn, but headhunters can tell me about many companies that I cannot find on LinkedIn, so I feel that it is an advantage that they can tell me about companies that I cannot find on my own. If you are changing jobs in a so-called foreign-capitalized company, the companies you want to go to are not listed in the job search media of Japanese companies, so you may not have a choice in the first place. Also, I don’t want to negotiate salary by myself, so in that sense, being headhunted was a must in my job search. In this case, it was a confidential position (private recruitment). I think there are only a limited number of recruiters who have confidential positions, so in that sense, it was a good thing for me.

Thank you very much. For example, when you look at it from the client’s perspective, it’s like you’ve turned things upside down, and in that sense you gain their trust.

Kento: Yes, I agree. We can use LinkedIn recruiter licenses to contact people directly, but I think there are limits to what we can do with a limited reach and without knowing their interests.

I see. In your current position, do you ask the headhunting company directly for information about recruitment?

Kento: Yes, I’ll ask them, and if I want to know about things like information or market conditions, I’ll ask them.

So, rather than asking around and finally deciding on Ryze, you had already decided on Ryze from the beginning?

Kento: As for the request to Ryze, well, we didn’t want to create a sense of desperation in the recruitment market by having our own recruitment proposals coming from so many different sources. When there were cases where the candidates did not match, or the message was off, or the expectations were off, it was very easy to adjust if we were working with one company, so we decided to work with one company. Since this was a particularly confidential project, we decided to work with a company we could trust rather than with several companies.

So, when you finally decide on a recruitment agency to use, what is the most important point?

Kento: Personally, I was deeply moved by the fact that I was able to ask the recruiter who introduced me to Statista to outsource the hiring process to me. It was like “returning the favor”. However, Ryze made a good proposal and responded very quickly, and I felt comfortable with their understanding of the position and was satisfied with their service.

Thank you very much.

Kento: When you want to meet as many candidates as possible, quality is more important than quantity, but you also need a certain number of candidates in order to assess their quality. However, I thought that just because you were working with a large company, it didn’t necessarily mean you would get a large number of candidates. I think the balance was good, in that you could get a good number of high-quality candidates.

Were you satisfied with the introduced candidates? Specifically, what was good about them compared to other companies?

Kento:  I don’t have that much to compare so I am just talking about my impression, but they introduced me to someone with good experience and track record while meeting my requirements. I have the impression that they found the right person for my requirements.

Thank you very much for your valuable insight. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule today to give us the opportunity to discuss various thought-provoking topics. We will continue to do our best to provide the best headhunting services for you.