Behind the Scenes of Engineer Recruiting and PR at KINTO Technologies—A Day in the Life of a Recruiter

This article is the Day 13 entry for the KINTO Technologies Advent Calendar 2025 🎅🎄

Introduction

Nice to meet you if this is our first encounter, and hello again if you've been following along!

I'm Hikaru Takeno (@t_hikarutaaaan), and I handle engineer recruiting and recruitment PR at KINTO Technologies (KTC).

The annual Advent Calendar tradition—I signed up for it again this year as naturally as breathing! (lol)

This time, I'll give you a casual look at the behind the scenes of engineer recruiting and recruitment PR through a day in my life.

Brief Self-Introduction

It's been about 4 years since I joined KTC and about 2 years since I became a recruiter in the company.

Back then, I started with absolutely zero experience in HR or recruiting.

I could barely understand half of the technical discussions and would get frustrated with just sending a single scout email. In addition, at interviews, I was so nervous, so all I could do was just read my script in a monotone voice. (Now, it’s a funny story. lol)

As I have been committed to recruitment without stopping, I can say this now:

"I truly love this job."

KTC is a company that genuinely entrusts responsibilities to members who raise their hand and say they want to try.

Thanks to that corporate culture, I was able to move forward even with no recruitment experience.

Now, I can host events with a smile.

Engineers Are Basically Wizards

A little while after becoming a recruiter, I built a small app that could analyze recruiting data using generative AI for writing the app code for me. (It may not as well-developed as apps at a professional level, though. lol)

With a single click on the app, a graph appeared on screen, which I couldn't help but speak out loud,

"Wow, that's amazing! It’s like magic."

I was simply impressed by how technology can solve someone's problem in an instant.

And that's when I thought:

"I need to engage in this job more seriously."

I wanted to understand what kind of passion onsite members have when they build products, thereby introducing them to the public even in a more appropriate manner.

Since then, I've been busy working on my job every day. (lol)

From here, let me casually show you a day in my life!

Time	Activity	What I Actually Did	How I Feel About It (Example)
09:00	Scouting time	Selecting target candidates, reading profiles, drafting & sending scout messages.	With a consideration of which platform should I use, I found a great candidate, always writing "why I want to reach out that person."
10:00	Resume screening	Reviewing work history, sharing evaluations with onsite team members.	Hmm... this person is really impressive...!
11:00	Onsite team meeting	Sharing recruiting status, checking if the potential candidates meet our requirements, catching up project updates.	I ask honestly when I don't understand. I’m grateful for the culture where team members kindly answer my questions all the time. 🙏
12:00	Lunch time	Gobble a tamago kake gohan (rice with a raw egg).	Bonito flake is a great combination with the egg. I’m so full.
13:00	Casual interview	Learning about candidates’ career, introducing our products	The best moment is when we can have a real two-way conversation. I often don’t enough time to understand candidates just in the single interview.
15:30	Recruitment PR planning	Researching recruiting trends and competitors’ strategies, drafting plans, organizing materials	I’m stuck..., needing someone to bounce ideas off.
17:00	Casual interview	Learning about candidates’ career, introducing our products	I couldn't answer some technical questions...so got to ask them to team members later.
19:00	Event operations	Reception, photo shooting, making announcements, assisting attendees	I basically running around the event venue (lol), taking photos, talking to people... OK, coming right up!

Tamago kake Gohan—the most cost-effective and time-efficient meal to me

Facing the Difficulties in Talent Recruitment Every Day

Recruiting is a field where we can’t judge individuals on their knowledge, skills, and other characteristics.

• The atmosphere of a conversation with them
• Subtle changes in their facial expression
• The values behind their choices

You need to carefully perceive these hard-to-see signs from candidates.

I can't forget what one said:

"To me, the important factor when choosing a new job is 'who I work with.'"
This made me realize something—

I had been so focused on conveying attractive points about working at our company.

But what candidates really want to know is:
"Can I entrust my career to this team?"

Since then, I've strive to talk openly and honestly to candidates about our teams’ atmosphere, corporate culture, and even what we struggle with and concerns arising from our working environment.

I still remember when a candidate said at the end of an interview:
"I can clearly picture myself working together with you."
After hearing that, I made a little fist pump in my mind. (lol)

Efforts I Made for Recruitment PR

This year, as part of recruitment PR initiatives, I led a speaking session at Japan Mobility Show 2025, one of the largest mobility events in Japan.

It was a project that involved stakeholders within the TOYOTA Group where KTC belongs, as well as people engaging in both real-world and IT domains. To be honest, it was the most challenging project I've ever experienced with such large number of tasks for the event coordination and high-level difficulty in handling them. (lol)

Despite that, I really wanted to make the project a success—that is because

I wanted to properly convey to the public our strength of taking on new things collaborating with real and IT areas.
I also wanted to share the passion of our senior managers who readily agreed to work the project together.

I wanted to deliver through live words the atmosphere in KTC and our passion that can't be conveyed through job postings alone.

After the event, team members who had been cheering me on said,
"That was really great!" and it made me so happy.

When the video of the speaking session was released, employees from group companies who I work with on various tasks also gave us the following comments:

"I watched your YouTube video!" "Great content!" "That was cool!"

And the senior manager, who spoke at the event session, gave me these words:

"The recruiting impact might come a bit later, but it'll definitely work for internal PR and KTC's self-branding."

I was so incredibly happy but couldn’t find words to clearly express my feeling. (lol)

Recruitment PR is a job to facilitate sharing information about the company's initiatives with future teammates.
I want to be the bridge between them and our company.

Myself working hard to take photos at the event venue

By the way, here's the archived video of the speaking session I mentioned above!
I hope you enjoy this 50-minute video packed full of passion♪

https://youtu.be/NXM2lyapia0?si=QiK5GP2XFtCh0c9c

Recruiting Is Achieved through Teamwork to Build Future

There's no single right answer in recruiting talents.

Every time, I get lost, worry, or waver.
(Honestly, I feel restless for so many days because I can’t often find any solutions for my concerns. lol)

But there's one thing I'm sure about:

Good recruiting can only come from good dialogue with candidates.

At KTC, there are 5 recruiters including myself. Each of us is assigned as a dedicated recruiter for specific divisions.

That's why we are able to communicate super closely with the division members on the team,

sharing information about products and cultures in each division, as well as
happy things and tough things in their work—we think through everything together.

That's how I feel we're building recruiting as a team.

I think this is truly something to be proud of.

Finally, to All Reading This Article

To all engineers:
  I respect you. I mean that seriously.
  The way you change the future with technology has always looked like magic to me 🪄
To everyone involved in product development:
  I understand your dedication to seriously engaging in product development through constant communication and trials and errors to create a single value.
  Those real stories always struck me so deeply.
To my teammates in the Human Resources Group:
  Thank you for always worrying alongside me while I'm running around all over the place!!
  Let's keep running together!! (/・ω・)/
To everyone at KTC:
  Thank you for always helping me!!
  I'll contribute to making my beloved company even stronger with all my efforts as an employee working at the recruitment frontline!!!
To everyone who read this article:
  If anything resonated with you even a little,
  I'd love to meet you somewhere—at an event, a casual interview, or anywhere else!!

To Future Teammates

We at KINTO Technologies are taking initiatives in building an organization focusing on internal product development from scratch, right in the middle of the transforming automotive industry.

Opportunities to be part of such dynamism don't come so often.

We're waiting for teammates who will create the future together🙌

That's all for a day in the life of a recruiter and PR person!
Thank you so much for reading!