None of the standard SPI sections were on the test.
Overall, there were three sections:
1. Personality test
A fill-in-the-blank style test which consisted of about forty or so quick-fire sentences where you had to write in an answer to finish each one. With only ten minutes for this section, I was immediately overwhelmed. Not only was there a character limit, but I did exactly what you’re not supposed to do and thought over each question for too long. Some of the questions were simpler, such as “My favourite game character is…” and “I would sum up my time at school with this kanji…”, but many involved complex idioms or figures of speech that I’d either never heard of before, or didn’t know how to adequately respond to. For reference, I answered the two questions above with “Bowser” and “長” (long) respectively. In the end, I probably only finished about a quarter of the questions, if that.
2. Quick-fire concepts
This was a twenty minute section that was split into two halves, with ten minutes per question. Each time I was given a non-game related creative brief, for which I then had to suggest as many one-line concepts for as possible. The first COVID-inspired question asked me to “come up with ideas for a virtual graduation trip (卒業旅行)”. I don’t remember much of what I wrote here, but I only came up with a handful of suggestions, one of them being a Google Street View trip. The second question asked me to “come up with novel ideas for a new haunted house attraction”. Again, I only coughed up a few answers which I don’t really recall, but two which I definitely put down were “A hospital/coronavirus-themed haunted house” (which was probably in bad taste given the spread of the virus in Japan at the time), and “a haunted house where you experience it from the ghosts’ perspective – being terrified of the humans“. Felt clever coming up with that one.
3. Long-form concepts
The final section was forty minutes long, again with two parts. I had to come up with two new game concepts and explain them, first with a one-line proposal, and then a fleshed out response underneath where I explained the mechanics of the game, as well as why I felt it was appealing. At this point, I was completely devastated by these questions, which I was not expecting at all. I had done some short essay writing before in Japanese to improve my writing skills, but there is no-way that I was ready to do something like this by myself. My Japanese teacher suggested beforehand that I should ask if I could use a dictionary for any Japanese sections that might come up as a way to make the playing field more equal, but even considering that prospect left me with a sense of embarrassment that stopped me from asking. Though even with a dictionary and/or a translation engine like DeepL, I don’t think much of a difference would have been made.
The first concept I wrote about was essentially a re-hashed version of what I submitted for the BAFTA Young Game Designer Awards which got me a nomination – a platformer which would help Japanese learners study kanji. For the second one, I tried to make something that also touched on “tangential learning”, this time an open-world game set in an Arabian-inspired environment that used puzzles to teach people about the history and culture of the region. Unfortunately I think what I wrote was too vague for any meaningful concept to be parsed out of it. In hindsight, Heristyo was spot on when he said he heard that non-programming applicants took tests focusing much more on language skills, which is something that I should have picked up on.
After this, the test was over. Everyone bowed, wrote their thanks in the chat and exited the call. The only other thing I needed to do was enter all of my university grades into a database so that they could be examined by the HR department. I had no issue with this, though at the time I had some trouble with some of my online classes which led to one class which I marginally failed being waived by the university, though I still had to enter the original grade into the Japanese system.
About a month later I heard back from Nintendo… And unfortunately I did not do well enough to pass on to an interview. The fact that I left the personality test part of the exam mostly blank is probably what sealed my fate. At the time, my Japanese just wasn’t good enough, and unlike some other companies, Nintendo was strict in making sure that the test was weighted equally in importance for everyone, regardless of their language ability or background. With another year of Japanese study under my belt, I applied again for a planning role in 2022 – but my entry sheet was rejected at the outset. At the time, I had just found out that my scholarship to Japan was cancelled, and a few other places also rejected me which left me feeling low. But, nonetheless I persisted in my job search and pulled through with a job offer from Japan!
From this point on I can do nought but speculate, but based on my other experiences with Japanese companies, and looking at what Nintendo says comes next, here is how I think the next stages would play out.
Step Five: Interviews (面接)
At this point, I imagine that successful candidates (probably only about two or three out of the dozen or so candidates in my zoom call) would be asked to do a HR interview. This would likely be in front of two or more employees from Nintendo that would try to establish why you applied as well as probe you for answers to more universal interview questions. Were you to apply as a foreigner, here I imagine you would be asked about your Japanese ability, why you want to move to Japan, as well as some other questions relating to general curiousness about being a foreign applicant. As much as I wanted to fit the mold of a typical candidate in Japanese interviews, I was advised that it’s much more advantageous to highlight your unique experiences and perspectives as a non-Japanese applicant. Offering these to a company is more likely to get you to the next stage, as they can be seen as valuable skills that can only be gained from foreigners.
A good piece of advice to remember is that you shouldn’t feel intimidated by any interviewers. In my experience, they’re usually really friendly and curious to learn about you – and they want to help you through this process to get the best out of you. And by the time you reach an interview, the human factor becomes more apparent and the process loses its Squid Game-like mentality.
If you managed to pass that interview, then a second interview with your maybe-future-boss and some other employees you might end up working with would be next. Here, you would probably be asked to present your portfolio and talk in-depth about your work and creative process, and how you think you can apply all of that at the company. Nintendo is such a large company that I doubt that any higher ups would show up, but as a more unique candidate, you never know. Hiring a foreigner is seen as a riskier step than just taking on another Japanese person, so they might want to make sure that you’re right for the job before making any big commitments.
If you make it to the second interview, there is a considerable likelihood that you will be offered a job, or in Japan, a ‘naitei’ (内定), which is a more informal/non-binding offer of employment than you would get in the UK or America. Before this though, they might ask you to visit the company in person so they can see what you’re like when you’re not hiding behind a screen, which is why it helps to be studying in Japan while you job hunt. If you don’t though, don’t despair! It is possible (though unlikely) that you can get an offer without being in the country.
I never managed to get further with Nintendo, but I did get an amazing offer elsewhere, all while being outside of Japan. If you have any more questions about Nintendo’s process, or the shuukatsu process in general, leave a comment or get in touch and I’ll try to answer any questions you might have.
