Special Seminars Held for 2016 Graduates

Sumitomo Corporation held special recruitment seminars on March 10 in Tokyo and March 18 in Osaka for a total of nearly 2,000 university students expecting to graduate in 2016. The contents of these seminars were below; President and CEO Kuniharu Nakamura conveying Sumitomo Corporation's vision and describing the ideal type of candidate the company is seeking, a presentation by Professor Ken Kusunoki of Hitotsubashi University's Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy about "Why can trading companies develop employees who have business sense?", a briefing on a project allowing Sumitomo Corporation employees to relate their thoughts on work, and other learning that the students could take home with them.

Reflecting on his time at university and his days as a young employee, President and CEO Nakamura spoke of the necessity of the willingness to improve as well as the various difficulties he had experienced and overcome in his career. He also mentioned that Sumitomo's 400 years of history and explained the business mindset that remains alive and well to this day. He described the ideal type of human resources that the company is seeking as "a person with humanity and appeal able to build relations of trust with other companies," and encouraged the students to consider a career with Sumitomo Corporation: "The best part of working in Sumitomo Corporation is to create new businesses themselves. We want human resources of mettle full of curiosity and questions who can make a big picture and realize them with spirit and enjoying to challenge."

In the project briefing, Sumitomo Corporation employee involved in the geothermal power generation business in Indonesia were video-linked to the venue and shared the motivation of working for the project. Among the comments offered by participating students were "After hearing opinions directly from the president and employees, I was impressed by their determination to continue taking on challenges" and "I believe the things we learned today will serve as food for thoughts not only in our job searches but also in our future lives."

Sumitomo Corporation intends to continue creating numerous opportunities for students to interact with the company, including visits by employees and small group seminars, and pursue recruiting activities that give students a better understanding of the company.