The Career Services Office held the career event "Networking Event 2019" on Monday, January 15th at Millennium Hall, NAIST.

This event was aimed at Japanese companies and foreign-affiliated companies based in Japan with a high interest in international students with specialized abilities and training. Last year's event received favorable reception from both the companies and the international students that participated with comments such as "It was a rare opportunity to meet with postgraduate international students of science fields," so the NAIST Career Services Office organized the career event again this year. In the 2019 event, there were twelve companies which focus on R&D and technology development in various fields such as VR, IoT, data science, pharmaceuticals, and inspection equipment.

Approximately 60 international students, including participants from other universities in Kansai Area, joined this event. Although it was only a three hour event, international students started with visits to each company booth in 30 minute slots, moving to other booths twice in the first half of the event. Through these visits, international students were able to obtain knowledge concerning business directions in the global market and the future directions of research and development, while also having the opportunity to ask questions in a casual atmosphere.

Students gave comments such as "I really enjoyed communicating with the enthusiastic industry representatives.", "It was helpful to receive so much meaningful information directly from people in different industries and those who work in R&D.", and "It was a good opportunity to think of a career in Japan."

From the companies, NAIST received feedback such as "This was a good opportunity because usually we are not able to meet with students in science fields at regular career events.", "We had a favorable impression of the international students we met because they have expertise and working experience, and were still aiming to flexibly build their careers.", "We hope students will aim to apply their research to actual societal issues.", "We had various concrete discussions because many international students had clear career plans.", and 'I believe that the event would be even better if students brought their research papers with them so we could discuss things even further."

Both companies and students were able to gain much through the event this year as well. As organizers, we at NAIST were able to confirm the usefulness of this information exchange and such collaboration with the career support staff members of universities from which the other international students attend.

The Career Services Office will continue to plan and organize various career events to offer further such opportunities for international students continuously.