How to Write the ES (Entry Sheet) for an SE Role at a Japanese Company

The ES for new-grad SE (systems engineer) hiring at a Japanese company looks like a fixed format, but the drafts that actually pass the screen all hit "concrete + insider language + answerable under follow-up" on three fronts: the motivation ties into the company's real business, the self-PR matches the role, and what you focused on as a student has quantifiable results.

Motivation (Shibo Doki)

• Don't write canned lines like "I was drawn to your company's technical strength"—nine out of ten people write exactly that.
• Pick a specific business, product, or customer domain at the company, and clearly explain where it intersects with a problem you care about.
• Ideally, end by landing on "what I want to do after joining," rather than stopping at "I want to learn."

Self-PR (Jiko PR)

Self-PR isn't listing personality traits; it's taking one project or experience that proves how you work and clearly telling the story of "the challenge → your action → the result (ideally with numbers) → the transferable skill you can distill from it." SE roles especially value "collaborating with people + handling uncertainty."

What You Focused On as a Student (Gakuchika)

1. Pick one thing: research, an internship, a club, or a personal project—anything works, just don't try to cover too much.
2. Use the STAR framework: Situation → Task → Action → Result.
3. For Action, write "what you specifically did," not "what everyone did together."
4. For Result, use numbers wherever you can: how much you improved, how much you shortened, how many people you served.

Points Specific to SE Roles

• Emphasize the "bridge-builder" positioning: customer ↔ technology ↔ team. An SE is not a pure coder.
• Programming or algorithm experience is a plus, but you don't need to turn the ES into a list of technical skills.
• Companies that are "OK with no IT experience" tend to weight "learning ability + initiative + team collaboration" more heavily.