IEICE President’s Statement: Shifting to a Recruiting Style that Respects Educational Opportunities for Universities and Graduate Students

By Chairman Naoaki Yamanaka, Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, August 26, 2024

Electronic information and communication technology is becoming increasingly important around the world as a fundamental technology for realizing AI, IoT, and even a smart society. As one of the largest societies in Japan covering this area, we recognize the significance of this field.

The employment situation for university and graduate school students in this field has been extremely favorable in recent years, leading to a labor shortage. However, the abolition of employment agreements has resulted in a more heated job hunting environment in Japan. This has led to the rise of “internships” that are, in reality, company experience and information sessions (job hunting) that begin early. Students are anxious and exhausted from long-term job hunting, while companies are also investing significant effort and cost in protracted job hunting.

Overseas, employment selection is typically based on experience and achievements at university or graduate school. Students confidently present their research results at top conferences and negotiate for jobs on the spot. In Japan, many students are energetic and present high-level research at academic conferences, but often do not connect with job hunting and do not receive enough attention from companies.

To address this issue, we propose the following:

1. We encourage companies to actively engage with academic societies in human resource discovery activities.
2. We ask companies to review their current job-hunting style and communicate with students on a regular basis at actual university laboratories and academic conferences.
3. Economic organizations should consider restructuring employment agreements and putting a certain amount of restraint on early job hunting activities to prevent excessive competition in job hunting.

Through these efforts, we believe that Japan’s science and technology will be able to strengthen the valuable and essential source of competitiveness, human resources, through collaboration between academia and industry.

Join us in discovering the true faces of students who are active in academic conferences and shaping the future of our industry.