Pros
Lots of candidates and clients. Great place if you are new to recruitment- and a graduate. If you make alot of money you'll be a Manager in a year at least. International environment and chance to move abroad with career. Great place as a Manager- you'll make lots of money.
Cons
You will be allocated what Walters wants you to recruit for- and usually one of these will be a tricky customer or a PSL where you just get a JD and can't meet the Line Manager. Very long hours- expect to be working til midnight Monday to Friday, weekends etc. One Saturday night I passed the office and the lights were on at 10pm. Expect to be working til midnight towards year end. There is Management everywhere, and they want their company cars and need paid- you'll be treated like a naughty child most of the time and be told off non-stop. if you are not on the phone the team PA will join in and bully you too to get on the phone. Not a place for experienced consultants- if a graduate outperforms an experienced member of staff they will use this as an example and say 'look at this'. They don't value experience at all and see experienced Consultants as expensive and costly. A bit like 'Mad Men' the Tokyo office is very male, chauvanistic and is a bit 1960's- lots of comments about weekend conquests etc. If you are an expat forget any help or assistance to do anything- you'll have to do it all yourself, which, if you don't speak Japanese, is your worst nightmare. You've got to be very careful what you say- everything has a double edged meaning here. Very aggressive environment- mainly graduates who've taught in English schools, being rude and aggressive to one another all day. U'd join Walters to get a big PSL and candidates- you'll get that anywhere in Tokyo as there are so few recruiters. Management are very young- you can be an Associate Director at 28- which just doesnt make sense in any other recruitment firm. You are forced to go out and drink even when you don't want to. Women can get away with it but men can't.
