Running a business in Japan naturally means I have to interview Japanese job applicants who want to work for J-List, and I often wonder if they’re not freaked out by having a foreigner sit down across from them at the interview. Job interviews work somewhat differently in Japan compared to the rest of the world. Here, in lieu of a western resume or C.V. applicants write out a form called a rirekisho or “personal history form” which shows all school, work and other related information. (We had to learn to fill these out as part of my Japanese class.) A reserved, humble attitude is extremely important during a Japanese-style job interview, too, and successful applicants will actually talk down their own past work achievements in ways that would be incomprehensible in the U.S., where resume-padding and a bit of exaggeration are all part of getting a job. When my wife was learning English in the U.S. they would do mock interviews and she was unable to talk about any of her achievements, so used to being humble at job interviews was she.
Of course, a lot of these odd rules are thrown out the window in the case of foreigners, so if you ever find yourself in a job interview here, don’t worry too much about it. They can’t very well expect foreigners interviewing for, say, a cheerful ESL teacher to act as if they have no personality as Japanese must do.
Job interviews are a unique (and strange) process in Japan.
