From Japan to Aus: How Notion has built a strong employer brand in APAC

In this interview, we explore how Notion has successfully built a strong employer brand across the APAC region, with a focus on Japan and Australia. Keisuke, Notion's Head of GTM Recruiting, shares the strategies behind the company’s growth in the region, the cultural nuances they’ve navigated, and how they’ve tailored their recruitment and employer branding efforts. From their revamped mission to a deep commitment to values-based hiring, Keisuke shares valuable insights into how Notion is positioning itself as the hot new place to be in APAC. 

What is Notion’s mission?

Keisuke: We actually just revamped our mission.“We build the beautiful tools for your life's work.” It used to be  “Make software toolmaking ubiquitous”, but it was a bit big. We wanted to make it more concrete and easy for people to imagine. Obviously, we are tool makers. We provide a tool, but against all other SaaS in the market, we are trying to position ourselves as an anti-SaaS tool.

This means we want to give all users the capability to create their own tools to solve their own problems. Instead of using one tool to solve one problem and then using another tool, we want the user to have one all-in-one tool that can solve a range of problems. Essentially, that's what we are aiming to be, we are software makers who want to change how users use software. And if we jump into the business case, we are like a documentation tool to take notes, manage projects, and organise knowledge, all in one place.

How has Notion grown since it was founded?

Keisuke: Notion was originally founded in 2013 by Ivan Zhao and Simon Last, however, the product was only officially launched to the public in 2016, with a big part of the build being done in Japan. The product was inspired by the craftsmanship and detail-oriented nature of Japanese people. Since then, Japan became our first international office outside the US in 2020, and we have grown in the region, first in Japan, South Korea and then in Australia this year. Our user base grew from 1 million in 2019 to 100 million worldwide in 2024.

What has your career journey been like since starting at Notion?

Keisuke: I joined Notion as the first recruiter based in APAC to expand our go-to-market team. Initially, I covered Tokyo and Seoul, when I started two years ago, and with the Sydney office just opening this year I am now leading all recruitment and employer branding activities for Notion across three locations in APAC. The team has grown about seven times larger in the last two years.

How have you built the Notion brand in APAC?

Keisuke: I’m very passionate about employer branding. The good thing about Notion is that we have so many great content pieces to showcase our mission, values, culture, and people. We are very particular about how we show up in the market; from the candidate’s perspective and for our audience. While we follow the guidelines set by headquarters, We have significant freedom to adapt our approach to what works in Japan.

For example, in Japan, Notion’s awareness was low and people didn’t know we had an office or that people were working at Notion in Tokyo. I partnered with an employer branding platform in Japan and created interview articles featuring various employees, from sales candidates to solution engineers and our general manager (GM), to give an authentic employer voice. We also believe in the magic of in-person creativity and tight-knit teams that learn and grow together. So much philosophy and a considerable amount of time have been invested in our office environment which makes Notion a unique place to work at. We are happy to see our home expand as the team grows in APAC.

Did you find there to be many cultural differences between Japan and Australia in regards to hiring?

Keisuke: Yes. In Japan, people tend to be more conservative about changing jobs. Many still go to an agency first for guidance. In contrast, when I started recruiting in Australia, I posted a job and received many direct approaches via LinkedIn, which is more popular there. In Japan, the LinkedIn user base is only about 4 million, so it isn’t as common for candidates to approach directly. The enthusiasm and approach in Australia have been quite different from Japan.

How do you create content to promote Notion’s brand?

Keisuke: Our internal team focuses a lot on employer branding for hiring, having significant ownership of the process. I work with our communications team to review articles before publication, but most of the employer branding efforts come from our side. We even have an employee branding manager at headquarters overseeing APAC. I led the charge to boost our #LifeatNotion program in APAC to encourage our employees to post their personal experiences of working at Notion. We believe employee posts are one of the most effective ways of growing our employer brand in an authentic way! I accidentally won the prize for posting the most content but we are seeing more and more content posted by employees in APAC.

What roles are you currently hiring for in Australia?

Keisuke: In APAC, our focus is primarily on go-to-market roles, ranging from sales development representatives to account executives, and customer success managers, as we plan to expand that team next year. We also need solution engineers to support our sales team and assist customers with technical features.

Of course, we have a large marketing team at headquarters, but each region has its own nuances. We recently hired a head of APAC marketing in Sydney, who now oversees the region from a marketing perspective. We also have a customer experience team to support technical questions from users.

What is Notion’s hiring process like?

Keisuke: We have a structured interview process where we evaluate different attributes at different stages. What makes us unique is our two-part focus on “craft and values.” “Craft” refers to the skills and experience required for each role, we deep dive into, for example, a sales candidate’s achievements and growth. But even if someone is great at sales, if they don’t align with our values (we have four core value drivers), we typically don’t move forward.

We ensure that candidates are aligned with what motivates them and with our culture. Additionally, we have a final interview process called the “craft and value interview.” Initially, our founder Ivan conducted every final interview to ensure we hired the right people. As we scaled internationally, this responsibility was handed over to our regional GMs. For instance, in Japan, our GM now conducts all the craft and value interviews. We’d like to make sure the candidates are aligned with our values, including soft skills and mindset, as well as their personal mission and career goals with us.

What are you excited about for Notion’s future?

Keisuke: I’ve been mainly focusing on Japan for the last two years in employer branding. In Seoul and Australia, when we first started, awareness and enthusiasm for Notion were already high, so we didn’t need as much focus initially. However, in Korea, where we’ve been operating for almost two years; I recently discussed with the GM the need to do something similar to Japan by featuring our own talent to increase visibility into what it’s like working at Notion.

In Australia, while many people already know Notion, there’s still untapped talent in the market. I’m looking forward to featuring our founding members, especially in Sydney in articles that authentically showcase both the positives and the challenges of working at Notion. I want to ensure candidates have the right expectations about what they can expect when they join. I’ve just relocated to Sydney which will open up even more opportunities to connect with candidates. 

Learn more about life at Notion

See why Notion is one of the best places to work and explore the range of opportunities currently available on their careers page.