(no subject)
Phew!! I just came back from my job interview. I'm so glad it's over; now I just wait for them to call me back within a week. They said that if we don't hear from them we should assume that we didn't get the job. How very Japanese hahaha.
The job interview was a lot more than I thought it would be. I thought I would just fill out a simple questionaire and then answer a couple of questions orally. Instead, they had us fill out a resume type of worksheet (pretty standard), took 20-30 minutes to explain what the company/what working for that company consisted of (it's a big corporation that owns 20+ brands) (the company's 5 commandments(?) are: 1. Smile, 2. Greeting, 3. Loud Voice, 4. Response, 5. Gracious Behavior<--these all make more sense in Japanese by the way), then divided us so they could interview us in groups. I think it took about 2 hours. Is that normal?
Anyway, I was pretty intimidated by the whole thing at first. There were 10 applicants, all pretty cute and dressed fashionably. The coordinator for the interview had a deep voice and spoke very confidently (<--I know that shouldn't intimidate me but it just cast a very serious, professional tone to the whole interview in which no mistakes are allowed). When she was explaining about the company and what we would do, there were a bunch of kanji on the handouts that they gave us that I couldn't read but could kind of get the gist of. In any case, I felt like I was in over my head.
Then came the interviews. My group had 2 other girls. Our interviewer (different from the coordinator) (she was really nice) asked us stuff like, what challenge we overcame recently, what we would do on the first day on the job, etc. All of the applicants looked really able and I was thinking "grrr how do I compete against them?? They probably have better Japanese and responses...all I have is my 笑顔 ("egao"=smile)" hahahaha. (This interview was for different shops btw...so the 2 others in my group weren't applying for the job I wanted so it wasn't really like a competition. I guess I just didn't want to stand out as the incompetent one.) Butttt as the 2 other applicants started answering the questions, I felt better. Like, the girl on my left was 25 and was kind of weird. I guess she's the type who talks on for a bit and goes off topic? She was kind of quirky in an odd way, kind of like "these days I'm really taking care in being more 丁寧 ("teinei"=careful) in everything I do. I go home and I look back on my day and try to think of how I can be more 丁寧"<--gahh that sounds really normal doesn't it haha. Oh I have an example: when the interviewer asked if there were any questions, the girl was like "so, in our spare time should we practice the five commandments? Should we practice our smiles and greeting?" and I think the interviewer was like uhhh...but she was nice and said "well, I think it's good to smile when you talk because that will be a plus in any situation." She didn't really address the practicing part hahaha. I think the girl was partly trying to kiss up/show that she was a hard worker(?) etc. The girl on my right was 19 and didn't have much of a personality(?). Her way of talking was very 19ish, just a little bit crude. Also, I really couldn't tell which one it was, but one of them smelled kind of funky. (It wasn't perfume or BO or anything, I think it was the smell of someone's house, kind of musty-like.) Aaaaanyway, the reason why I'm saying all this is that I thought everyone was so completely competent and didn't have any weaknesses, etc, but it showed me that everyone is, after all, just human. I'm definitely not saying I was better than them or anything, cuz I must have sounded weird too, with my hesitant, incorrect Japanese and embarrassed smiles and laughs. But it made me realize that since not everyone is perfect, I should have more confidence in myself and not be so intimidated.
All in all, it was a good learning experience. I'm not looking forward to doing another interview (if I don't get this job) but I guess this is all a part of life. Today I broke in a pair of cute blue heels (very low heels) so even if I don't get the job, at least I discovered a pair of shoes that I can wear now (before they would give me blisters so I didn't wear them. They fit just fine today though yay~.).
I will type about the maid cafe experience another day. I am off to take a nappy!! <3
The job interview was a lot more than I thought it would be. I thought I would just fill out a simple questionaire and then answer a couple of questions orally. Instead, they had us fill out a resume type of worksheet (pretty standard), took 20-30 minutes to explain what the company/what working for that company consisted of (it's a big corporation that owns 20+ brands) (the company's 5 commandments(?) are: 1. Smile, 2. Greeting, 3. Loud Voice, 4. Response, 5. Gracious Behavior<--these all make more sense in Japanese by the way), then divided us so they could interview us in groups. I think it took about 2 hours. Is that normal?
Anyway, I was pretty intimidated by the whole thing at first. There were 10 applicants, all pretty cute and dressed fashionably. The coordinator for the interview had a deep voice and spoke very confidently (<--I know that shouldn't intimidate me but it just cast a very serious, professional tone to the whole interview in which no mistakes are allowed). When she was explaining about the company and what we would do, there were a bunch of kanji on the handouts that they gave us that I couldn't read but could kind of get the gist of. In any case, I felt like I was in over my head.
Then came the interviews. My group had 2 other girls. Our interviewer (different from the coordinator) (she was really nice) asked us stuff like, what challenge we overcame recently, what we would do on the first day on the job, etc. All of the applicants looked really able and I was thinking "grrr how do I compete against them?? They probably have better Japanese and responses...all I have is my 笑顔 ("egao"=smile)" hahahaha. (This interview was for different shops btw...so the 2 others in my group weren't applying for the job I wanted so it wasn't really like a competition. I guess I just didn't want to stand out as the incompetent one.) Butttt as the 2 other applicants started answering the questions, I felt better. Like, the girl on my left was 25 and was kind of weird. I guess she's the type who talks on for a bit and goes off topic? She was kind of quirky in an odd way, kind of like "these days I'm really taking care in being more 丁寧 ("teinei"=careful) in everything I do. I go home and I look back on my day and try to think of how I can be more 丁寧"<--gahh that sounds really normal doesn't it haha. Oh I have an example: when the interviewer asked if there were any questions, the girl was like "so, in our spare time should we practice the five commandments? Should we practice our smiles and greeting?" and I think the interviewer was like uhhh...but she was nice and said "well, I think it's good to smile when you talk because that will be a plus in any situation." She didn't really address the practicing part hahaha. I think the girl was partly trying to kiss up/show that she was a hard worker(?) etc. The girl on my right was 19 and didn't have much of a personality(?). Her way of talking was very 19ish, just a little bit crude. Also, I really couldn't tell which one it was, but one of them smelled kind of funky. (It wasn't perfume or BO or anything, I think it was the smell of someone's house, kind of musty-like.) Aaaaanyway, the reason why I'm saying all this is that I thought everyone was so completely competent and didn't have any weaknesses, etc, but it showed me that everyone is, after all, just human. I'm definitely not saying I was better than them or anything, cuz I must have sounded weird too, with my hesitant, incorrect Japanese and embarrassed smiles and laughs. But it made me realize that since not everyone is perfect, I should have more confidence in myself and not be so intimidated.
All in all, it was a good learning experience. I'm not looking forward to doing another interview (if I don't get this job) but I guess this is all a part of life. Today I broke in a pair of cute blue heels (very low heels) so even if I don't get the job, at least I discovered a pair of shoes that I can wear now (before they would give me blisters so I didn't wear them. They fit just fine today though yay~.).
I will type about the maid cafe experience another day. I am off to take a nappy!! <3