For consideration

[averagesmartguy]

I wanna say that I think that this community is rockin' and definitely helped me during my time while on JET. I also was not aware of it before I was accepted, but anyway

Comments

[lion]

Hmm, I've wondered that myself. That said, when I was doing research for my interview and reading interview reports, I only used the questions people reported being asked. I formulated my own answers and didn't find myself being influenced by the answers people were giving. At the end of the day I think it's important to be yourself, because if they take you based on something that isn't real then chances are, you're not going to be happy on the program

[bluecollarmoxie]

i agree 100% with this

[atashida]

For every profession there are going to be "typical" interview questions and answers, as well as better answers, posted on the internet. Shrug.

I read up quite a bit here before my interview (Wednesday of this week), and while the interviewers asked the people before me so-called "standard" questions, they asked me none. Some of them had absolutely nothing to do with teaching English in Japan (...I don't know either) and the remainder did but were incredibly personalized to my situation.

So practically, reading up on the interview experience didn't help, but I think emotionally it gave me a better idea of what to expect in terms of...what kind of questions they ask, and how the interviews are set-up with the panel and such.

[luckydragongirl]

I agree with you; it's hard to give the interviewers a good idea of who you are if you're giving them the answers you think they want to hear. And some of the advice I've seen here lately seems to involve answers that the interviewers actually don't want to hear.
Basically the interviewers want to know who you are and what you bring to the table. Being able to think on your feet is one of the skills they value. And never try to make prepared answers fit the question that was asked instead of just answering it.

Also, the interviews are supposed to be confidential so if you're posting interview questions here you may want to leave out info about where you interviewed and anything else that could be used to identify you...

Confidentiality

[averagesmartguy]

Yeah, I'd forgotten about that aspect! But you're right - interviewees aren't supposed to be repeating the questions outside the interview.

So aside from potentially shooting yourself in the foot by helping someone else get what may have been your slot, you'd be breaking the rules in the process. Heh.

Re: Confidentiality

[rivereyes]

Actually, I'm fairly certain that confidentiality is only an issue if you sign a statement/consent verbally? Nowhere in the application/interview were we asked/given a disclaimer about confidentiality.

[averagesmartguy]

You weren't? Interesting. I remember having been. Go figure.

[zinagod]

Agreed. If you're worried being yourself wont get you into JET, then you're probably not right for the program.
That being said, when I had my interview they told me NOT to talk about it with other JET applicants, and I've even been told stories about how someone would post their questions and answers on forums and were stupid enough to include details that were used to figure out who they were. They ended up being disqualified, sooooooo...

[hkmercredi]

I think to a degree the posting of "here's how my interview went and here were the questions asked" is certainly intended to help others prepare for their own interviews, and it has been done for the past few years at least, but to a point it's also because of the camaraderie between the applicants. There will also be a bit of "here's how mine went; oh, he asked you that? I wish I'd been asked that; did you get treated this way too?" etc... For some, it's a means of venting, and for others, it's a good way to prepare for the general sorts of questions that might be asked. I got a lot out of this site when I was preparing for my interview five years ago