To hear about smartphone job hunting, I paid a visit to Wantedly. (Wantedly × Dentsu Smart Plus)

I want to increase the number of people who can achieve a flow state at work.

 

Kanzaki: Wantedly launched four years ago this year, right?

Naka: We started not just focused on jobs, but as a service where people with a vision could gather like-minded individuals. Wantedly as it is today came from that. I built something I wanted to use myself (laughs).

Kanzaki: So you wanted to gather talented people yourself, Ms. Nakako.

Naka: Exactly. Wantedly's service concept is "Making 'Work' Fun." It's about "wanting to increase the number of people who can achieve a flow state at work." I wanted to gather people who resonated with that vision and increase their presence in the world.

Kanzaki: By flow state, do you mean becoming completely absorbed in work?

Naka: It's that feeling of being so absorbed in your work that you lose track of time. I thought it would be interesting to increase the number of people like that. Isn't that what work is fundamentally supposed to be? But after entering the workforce, I realized how few people actually experience flow.

 

The way we gather PVs changes at regular intervals.

 

Kanzaki: Was there a specific trigger for launching Wantedly?

Naka: I read the shifting tides of web marketing. I believe the methods for transmitting information and gathering page views have changed at regular intervals throughout history. In the late 90s, Yahoo! went public as a search engine. Since they built directories manually, the best way to get page views was to befriend Yahoo!'s editorial team. The second shift came with Google's era. It became an age where those who properly executed SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) dominated page views. Then, suddenly, SNS emerged. Social media was completely different, right? No matter how much SEO you did, you couldn't gather page views. That moment became a zero-reset start, turning it into a battle between new business divisions within large corporations and startups. I was around 25 at the time. I thought, if I miss this, the next chance won't come until I'm in my thirties. So I decided to start Wantedly now. I joined Goldman Sachs right after graduation, but by then I had already moved to Facebook Japan. I'm really glad I had that six-month experience at Facebook. It's been incredibly valuable for Wantedly.

Kanzaki: When did you personally start using SNS?

Naka: I started when I was a senior in college, during my Peace Boat trip around the world. All my foreign friends were on Facebook, so I joined. Back then, hardly anyone in Japan used it. First, I tried advertising the manga posting site I created on Facebook. The cost was unbelievably low by today's standards. I invested about 100,000 yen of my own money and managed to reach around 5,000 people – I used it quite effectively.

The mindset for mid-career hires and new graduates is completely different.

 

Kanzaki: Wantedly's concept is "Making Work Fun." How do you view today's job hunting landscape?

Naka: First off, mid-career hires and new graduates have completely different mindsets. Mid-career professionals know the harsh reality of work all too well, so the more talented they are, the more likely they are to want to use Wantedly. Talented people are already being approached by many recruiters, so they have no reason to proactively apply on job sites. But they're highly curious, so if they hear about an interesting project or company and think, "I could just drop by," they'll likely say, "Why not?"

Kanzaki: What about new graduates?

Naka: New graduates often lack that sense of reality about working life. They tend to think, "I'll just apply to big companies first." So, if the reality differs slightly from their expectations, they often quit.

Kanzaki: True, many lose sight of their motivation during the job hunt.

Naka: I think people seek three things in work. First is "meaning." If the purpose isn't clear, they feel uneasy. Second is "growth" – mastery and skills. Third is "ownership" – whether they can have discretion and be entrusted with responsibility. Smaller organizations are often better at fulfilling these three. Wantedly's service design clearly emphasizes this sense of purpose. It doesn't list benefits or conditions at all. It's more like, "We're doing this because we want to create this kind of world!" – purpose bang! I think mid-career professionals with clear personal values tend to use Wantedly. In contrast, new graduates seem to use Wantedly to build their skills. Many participate in internships during their second or third year.

Kanzaki: Rather than relying solely on Wantedly, job hunting has become more hybrid these days. People use various services on PCs and smartphones for their job search, right?

 

We want to change how companies behave in recruitment.

 

Naka: Personally, I want to change the behavior of large corporations going forward. For example, when Wantedly first launched, every company said they didn't want to accept "people who just come to play." But now, they're quite accepting of it. I think large corporations can be seen as gatherings of startups. As a form of team recruiting, I'd like to see each team use Wantedly to tell their story to job seekers, gain their empathy, and hire them. Eventually, I hope this changes job hunting across all of Japan.

Kanzaki: Team recruiting is a brilliant idea. It's probably quite challenging, but the feeling of being hired by a team or individual, rather than just a company, feels very contemporary.

Naka: Previously, students wanted info like salary, but now they seek dreams, purpose, and growth. So we must provide that information properly—that's Wantedly's innovation engine. Routine work and creative work have different incentives. Data shows productivity rises with financial rewards for routine tasks. But for creative work, focusing solely on pay actually lowers productivity. For example, if someone says, "I'll give you 1,000 yen to draw a picture," you'll end up drawing a picture worth 1,000 yen. Even if they offered 100 million yen, you'd probably think, "I'll draw a picture worth 100 million yen." Conversely, if they just said, "Draw a picture," you'd try to draw the best picture you possibly could. In today's world, all the routine work is flowing to developing countries. If Japanese people don't become creative-driven, they'll lose their jobs. That's why if companies only offer money as information during recruitment, good things won't be created. You have to aggressively provide non-monetary rewards like the meaning of work, a team you can empathize with, and growth potential. Otherwise, creativity can't be unleashed.

Kanzaki: So does that mean Wantedly targets the high-quality segment? Looking broadly at Japanese employment, there's still a lot of routine work, right?

Naka: In that sense, Wantedly is somewhat niche. Japan currently has about 60 million workers. Even if we target just 20% of that—around 12 million people—that's still a significant number. We hope to influence the behavior of large corporations through these 12 million individuals.

 

Job hunting via smartphone is becoming more casual.

 

Kanzaki: I'd also like to ask about the era of job hunting via smartphone, or so-called smartphone job hunting.

Naka: Wantedly's smartphone app is doing well. In 2014, it was selected as one of Apple and Google's best apps.

Kanzaki: Do you have data on the usage rate difference between the desktop version of Wantedly and the mobile app?

Naka: I believe mobile users now make up more than half.

Kanzaki: Do people use the desktop and app differently?

Naka: I think they do. The peak access time for the desktop version is during work hours. I wonder if that's a negative factor. People are looking at other companies' projects and daydreaming when work is tedious.

Kanzaki: Like watching cat videos during work (laughs).

Naka: Watching cat videos might actually be healthier. I suspect the app's peak times are during commutes or before bed—those spare moments. At first, I wondered, "Job hunting on an app?" but surprisingly, the app user base is growing.

Kanzaki: Wantedly centers on a company's vision and story, right? It focuses on information that appeals to people's emotions rather than rational factors like salary. At Dentsu Inc. Smart Platform, we view smartphones as "feeling devices" that directly connect to people's emotions by sensing finger movements ( see Part 1 of this series ). I thought, "Isn't Wantedly precisely the kind of service that's easy to use on a smartphone?"

Naka: That might be true. Also, one of Wantedly's features is "Support," where users can share job postings via LINE or SNS and cheer on companies. Many people use this, helping spread companies' recruitment information. The compatibility between SNS and smartphones might play a role too.

Kanzaki: How do you envision Wantedly evolving on smartphones going forward?

Naka: We're considering overseas expansion. Smartphones might be better suited for crossing borders. Since Android dominates outside Japan, the US, and the UK, we're planning Android support with Southeast Asia in mind. We're also strengthening support for new graduates and interns. Students especially spend more time on smartphones than PCs, which is why we recently launched a dedicated app for new graduates.

Kanzaki: The app's feel, and concepts like "support" or "hang out," really fit well with smartphones' casual vibe, I think. Was that intentional?

Naka: We're very mindful of lowering psychological barriers overall. For instance, we constantly think about how to make it easy for popular engineers to join without feeling suspicious. One-tap login, one-tap to visit. You can choose based on interest level—some companies let you visit even if you're just a little curious. It might be that you accidentally hit the "visit" button while browsing.

Kanzaki: That "accidental" aspect is unique to smartphones. They have this characteristic where your finger just moves the moment your interest is piqued. Changing the subject, I feel like corporate recruitment activities are becoming optimized for smartphones. What do you think?

Naka: That's right. Now you can post job openings with just a smartphone. You can take photos and write text on your phone. Job seekers can pull up information instantly. They can even view it while riding in a taxi. So I feel both companies and recruiters are becoming more casual with each other.

 

How Each of Us Uses Wantedly

 

Kanzaki: Finally, could you share a message?

Naka: For students: I think students exposed to digital media today have more career choices. Being digitally savvy is an asset in any industry—sometimes you're the only one in your department with that skill. But you learn that skill better on the job than from books. Many people use Wantedly to find internship placements. Most offer compensation, so you should definitely give it a try! Also, we launched the job-hunting support app " Wantedly Intern " on February 23rd, so please use that too!