Thank you for having a phone chat with one of our hard-charging Recruiting Directors! I really appreciate you considering our firm to kick start your recruiting career. We believe hiring and training new recruiters without prior experience is the quickest way to deliver first-class recruiting service for our small and medium size company clients and candidates. I totally understand your position regarding work / life balance. I put emphasis on it too as I have two small kids to look after. However, balancing strong achievements and work / life balance at CSJ as a new recruiter, especially for the first year, can be challenging (it's the reality). I'll try to touch on a few points from your post: 1) New consultants will have to learn very fast as they will eventually be put in front of senior executives, hence, we encourage you to develop your expertise as much as possible to bridge the knowledge gap quickly (ie, reading or learning independently) 2) Effort and hard work have a direct correlation to your earnings. The quicker you build your network by working smarter and / or harder, the quicker you'll start earning large commission checks. We pay a maximum commission of 45%. New recruiters that want to maximize compensation for their efforts (including whatever overtime they might incur) will apply themselves to achieve their financial goals. ** The level of overtime incurred is totally up to the new recruiter. The Recruiting Director you spoke with works very smart AND hard, which is why he's a top biller and why I've promoted him three times. We never push anyone to work overtime and make sure our new consultants keep OT levels below the legal limits (I check this on a weekly basis). 3) We are a Japanese company dealing with 99% Japanese customers that is run by non-Japanese who love Japan. Of course, we aren't trying to be a traditional Japanese company, but we do show respect to all Japanese laws and cultural norms. All of our non-Japanese staff are encouraged to improve their Japanese skills (which are at a high level across the company) and to be good citizens. This is, quite simply, the right thing to do. Thanks again for chatting with us and even though we weren't a good match, I encourage you to continue your efforts to enter into the great recruiting industry! I'm sure you'll find a company that is a good fit and be on your way to a fruitful career. Rocco