Since I’m the only local person in my
department who speaks Japanese, I helped HR department when they’re
interviewing a Japanese speaker staff. Well, besides looking for my successor,
apparently my department decides to have a manager who speaks Japanese. Wicked!
I became a little bit used to interviewing
people. It’s basically just questioning them in Japanese, which is I’m not that
excel too (haha). But yeah it always makes them feel like “Oh God this girl can
speak fluent Japanese!” or “Oh look this girl is so calm throwing questions!
She must have lived in Japan for several years!” or at least that’s what I
assumed seeing them all nervous and sweaty (yes, almost all the guys I
interviewed were sweating).
Last Friday was pretty interesting. So there
are 3 guys that we interviewed, let’s call them Mr. A, Mr. B, and Mr. C. Please
note that most of the person I interviewed was older than me. I feel like a
little princess who’s looking for a guy to amuse me because I’m super bored and
don’t own a wifi router.
Here are things that I learned after
interviewing them.
Mr. A
He went to a not-very-reputable university
and took English Literature major. He studied for 3 years, did NOT finish it
but instead went to Japan for some 3 years factory internship program. That’s
where he got his Japanese language skill (d’uh!) but he doesn’t own a
legitimate TOEFL certificate. What a lousy English Literature major student.
And to be honest, his English was really not that good. He even requested to
answer the question in Bahasa Indonesia! Dude, not cool.
After he’s back to Indonesia, he went to a
different college, start from zero in computer major. The weirdest thing of
this guy is when he described his job. He basically only did administrating job
and a little translating in between, BUT he receives a much higher salary than
I did! What the heck?!? I’m highly doubt that and believe he exaggerated his
current salary, like, probably almost twice than the real salary he got.
Lesson learned:
- - Do NOT ever request to change
the language when you’re interviewed in a language other than your mother
language. Just, don’t.
- - Do NOT exaggerate your salary
TOO MUCH. It’s OK to do it from time to time, but don’t over-do it.
Mr. B
He went to universities in Japan for both
of his bachelor and master degree, graduate with summa cum laude GPA (perfect
4.00 GPA for his master degree), received the Monbukagakusho Scholarship, his
TOEIC score was 825, have a JLPT N1 certificate. Bottom line, he’s not human.
He’s a mutant with a super intelligent brain. Yet he’s very humble, calm and he
even referred himself as “not very good in Japanese language”. I was ready to
throw off my pencil at his face.
When my manager tells him about our
business, he listened to it and asked some very good questions. I could see
that this guy is really, really smart with eagle eyes that sees what human
generally don’t see. He’s that good. And cool. And good looking. And married.
Anyway, beside my broken heart of seeing
his wedding ring, this guy is top-notch but probably over qualified for the
position. He expected high salary, which is OK considering his background.
Lesson learned:
- - Be bold when questioning about
the company and the job. You can see immediately what you’re gonna get through
if you take the job.
- - Be humble. Even though it makes
some people want to throw things at your face, it’s still a lot better than be
a smug.
Mr. C
Firstable, this guy doesn’t speak good
English and never took any TOEFL test. He’s currently working in an Indonesian
company. When we asked him why he wanted to leave his job, he said that he
wants to work in a international company. I think he meant was bi-national
company since he only speaks Bahasa Indonesia and Japanese Language.
International, you say? We wouldn't hire this guy, but for the sake of
humanity, we still interviewed him. I don’t know why HR department sent him to
us.
He has a really loud voice despite the fact
the he also went to Japan for a 3 years factory internship. I guess he went to
a part of Japan where people speaks loudly to each other. I don’t know what
part of Japan is that, but oh well.
Lesson learned:
- - Try your best to adjust your
voice volume to match your surroundings.
- - When you apply for an
international company, for the love of God, SPEAK ENGLISH. Seriously.
Soo.. I’m not the one who’s going to choose
them since I’m only helping. Not sure the management already picks the winner
either. But it’s a good experience since I’ll be having some interview for my
self too in the future *wink*.
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