All the old posts from the old Your-Japan.com on the Your-Japan Blog Network

The interview lasted an hour and a half. I showed up to the building about 30 minutes early, just in case. I had been there the day before to confirm where it was and make sure I wouldn’t get lost at the last minute. So yesterday I got to the building with plenty of time to spare and even stopped by the starbucks on the reception floor to calm my nerves with an iced coffee (seems opposite to reason, but when you’re this much of coffee junkie it actually just calms you down). Pretty soon some guys sat down next to me and were about to light up a cigarette when I decided that it was my cue to leave. I don’t mine cigarette smoke, but I don’t want to be smelling like that for my interview. I went up to the security reception desk, got a visitors badge, and used the badge to beep into the elevator area. The security seemed a little superfluous, but I guess companies don’t want just anyone from off the street coming up and visiting. On the other hand, when I walked up to the reception desk and asked the nice ladies for a badge (in English) they asked back (in accented English) ¡ÈDo you have meeting?¡É All it took was a simple yes and I got my elevator passport. No name checking or anything. Oh well.

So, I went up to the floor where the company was located with still 10 minutes to kill, 5 of which I used washing my hands nervously in the bathroom and checking my appearance. I went up and checked in at the desk, they led me to an empty conference room where I waited for the interviewer. While I was waiting, a young woman came in and quietly set out water for two. She left quickly and I waited for a few more minutes before the first interviewer arrived.

The first guy was the director for the Human Resources department. This guy was really nice, and actually seemed as nervous as I was. He gave me his card in Japanese-like fashion, which I received with similar Japanese-like fashion and set it carefully in front of me on the desk. We spoke the whole time in Japanese. The interview started with him asking me questions. A few of the questions were:

1. Give a short self-introduction.
2. Why did you decide to learn Japanese (instead of Chinese, European lang, etc)?
3. How would you describe yourself?
4. How would others describe you?
5. Why did you choose to apply for an investment company?
6. What is your ideal company?
7. What are your future goals?
8. What is one good and one bad thing about Japan?

These were simple enough to answer. It would have been better if I didn’t have to spontaneously think of answers on the spot, but on the bright side, I now have something to go off of in order to prepare for interviews with other companies. The guy then proceeded to talk about the company itself and what its strengths and weaknesses are, and what it specializes in. This all lasted about half an hour and then the second guy to interview me came in.

This next guy was the Vice President of the branch in Tokyo. He was much more casually dressed than the previous guy, lacking a tie and had the top few buttons of his shirt unbuttoned. He started off by saying that my Japanese was probably better than his English (not so) and then he proceeded to talk the whole time in English. We didn’t really talk about the company or the possibility of me getting a job there. Instead, he kind of meandered about Japan after the war and about how he really admired the Japanese people from that time (1945-1964ish) for building the country, and Tokyo, back up after America had firebombed the crap out of everything. This didn’t lead to a argument or anything, but rather it felt like two people sitting back and shooting the breeze. I tried to keep things neutral, not really disagreeing but not really agreeing either. I was actually a little stunned. Whatever I had expected the interview to consist of, that was not it. After a half hour or so of talking, he said that even though I would be someone that they would like to hire, they don’t have any positions available at this time, but they would like to keep my information on file so they could contact me in case something opened up.

Looking back on the experience, part of me thinks they were being honest and even though they thought I was a good choice for hiring, they just didn’t have any open positions. The other part of me thinks that they did this to oblige my contact and really had no interested or intention of hiring me. I wonder if I should send them an email thanking them for their time but also saying that I had a feeling like I messed up on the interview and would they please tell me what I could have done better. This might give them a way to tell me what I did wrong but still save face. Any thoughts?