Tenshoku Sodan Bar seeks to fill a need that’s not served by the traditional job-hunting process.

Go for a walk around most major train stations in Japan, and you’ll see a lot of bars. There are izakaya, pubs with a wide assortment of small side dishes to munch on as you drink. There are wine bars, whiskey bars, and sake bars, and if you venture farther into the back alleys, hostess bars too.

But if you’re thirsty and strolling around Yokohama Station, you’ll find an especially unique watering hole: a bar that’s just for people who are thinking about quitting their jobs.

Called Tenshoku Sodan Bar (転職相談Bar), or Job-changing Consultation Bar, it’s a place where the drinks flow freely and career paths are the topic of conversation. The bartenders are all counselors from staffing service LIA, and if that has you wondering why customers wouldn’t just make an appointment at a regular LIA office, it’s because Tenshoku Sodan Bar isn’t trying to be an employment agency that serves booze. Instead, the bar’s goal is to create a space for the kind of talks that don’t really fit into other environments.

There’s a lot of mental space between “I love my job and want to stay in it forever” and “I hate my job and want out ASAP.” The problem, Tenshoku Sodan Bar realized, is that when your feelings are somewhere between those two extremes, it can be hard to find impartial advice or an experienced ear to sound ideas off of. Friends and family with whom you have a personal connection might be influenced by their hopes or concern for you. On the other hand, an official appointment with a recruiting agency means having to write up a new resume and go in for an interview in which you’ll be required to, very clearly, lay out your qualifications, short and long-term career ambitions, desired salary, and reasons for wanting to leave your current position. The information you provide will need to be as specific as possible to avoid wasting the recruiter’s time, and to show your professionalism, there’s an expectation that you should be dressed in formal business attire for your interview.

Honestly, it’s a lot of hassle unless you’re really ready to hand in your resignation papers. Tenshoku Sodan Bar, which opened earlier this month, wants to be an alternative to all that, a place where you can talk with a career guidance professional in a more free-form way. Unlike with a recruiting agency or employment office, there’s no expectation at Tenshoku Sodan Bar that you’ve already made up your mind to change jobs, and around 60 percent of visitors saying they’re not yet at that stage. Instead, satisfied customers have said they appreciate having a place where they can have more abstract discussions about their current job situations without the pressure that comes from a presupposition that they want a new job NOW and the discussion should be progressing towards that goal.

▼ Tenshoku Sodan Bar’s job-changing conversations are held in private rooms with just you and your bartender, to preserve confidentiality.

As such, there’s no need to bring in your resume, wear a suit, draft a list of your strengths and weaknesses, or force yourself to make any concrete decision about keeping or quitting your job. Despite the “consultation” part of the bar’s name, the vibe they’re going for is really more conversational, a place where customers can say “I don’t hate my job, but I’m not sure if it’s the right place for me permanently” without a commission-hungry recruiter immediately pulling up a list of openings and saying “Let’s see which of these match your resume and start sending in your applications right away.”

Because of the one-on-one nature of Tenshoku Sodan Bar’s conversations, reservations are required, and can be made via the Line messaging app, with instructions available on the bar’s official website here. Most conversations last about 60 to 90 minutes, the management says, though there is no strict time limit put in place, and as for prices, both the beverages (alcohol and soft drinks) and consultation are completely free of charge.

Bar information
Tenshoku Sodan Bar / 転職相談Bar
Address: Kanagawa-ken, Yokohama-shi, Nishi-ku, Kitasaiwai 1-1, 2nd floor
神奈川県横浜市西区北幸１丁目１−１ 2階
Open 3 p.m.-11 p.m.
Website

Source: PR Times, Tenshoku Sodan Bar
Images: PR Times
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!