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What is The Difference Between New Graduate, Second New Graduate, and Mid-career?

What is The Difference Between New Graduate, Second New Graduate, and Mid-career?

Hello everyone.
You may come across the term “second new graduate” when job hunting in Japan. What is the difference from a new graduate?
This article will clarify the difference between new graduate, second new graduate, and mid-career.

Basic Definition

Types of recruitment and basic definition

New graduate

students who graduate from universities, vocational schools, and high schools during the current school year. Although it is an abbreviation for “new graduation”, in recruitment, it is often abbreviated to “new graduate”.

Second New Graduate

a young job-seeker who graduated from school and got a job, but left within a couple of years, and is looking for a new job.

Mid-career

Those who have experience of working for more than three years. In mid-career hiring these people will be seen as work-ready.

※ Already graduated

“a person who has not taken a job even after graduation”. The difference between “already graduated” and second new graduate is whether a person has worked in a company since graduating from school.

The situation of recruitment of second new graduates

The proportion of those who can be categorized as second new graduate is increasing every year. According to statistics of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, 30% of new graduates will quit the first company they work for within three years. Due to changes in variety of factors of the current recruitment style, it is also expected that a certain percentage of people will continue to become second new graduates.

The proportion of companies seeking second new graduates is increasing. According to a survey for companies implementing a new graduate recruitment in fiscal year 2014, many companies answered they accept second new graduates. “Acceptance of applicants within 3 years from graduation” was 62.5%. It was 13.2 points higher than the previous year.

Benefits of second graduate recruitment

Why do companies hire second new graduates?
One reason is that training costs are lower than new graduates. Unlike new graduates, expenses of basic training is unnecessary. In addition, the fact that you are young is important. Characteristics such as “adaptable to new things”, “able to get results in a short period of time”, “able to familiarize with corporate style”, “easy to train”, and “energetic” are some things companies prefer about second new graduates even when comparing with those with a robust career.

Disadvantage of second new graduate recruitment

The biggest disadvantage is the fact that they quit a company in a short period of time.
It is understandable that the human resource may be worried that they will quit right after entering the company. In addition, despite only having a few years of experience, they will be seen as a professional and must act like one.

Do you have a better understanding of different types of recruitment? This article gave a detailed explanation of “Second New Graduate”, which is difficult to understand.

Which type of applicant will you be?
It might be good to know about the different types when job hunting in Japan!

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