Tips for Interviewing at a Japanese Company
You agonized over your resume, sent it in and now you got an interview!!! If you’re nervous about your interview, don’t fret. Take a deep breath and read this to find info on how to prepare for and ace the interview for an English teaching job in Japan.
I’m an American who applied for some English teaching jobs in Tokyo while I was in the US. I managed to have a few online interviews with Japanese companies and succeeded in getting a full time English teaching job with visa sponsorship in the greater Tokyo area. In this post, you can learn from my experience about what you might be asked in an interview and how to prepare for an online interview to get an English teaching job in Japan.
Connection of your device
Is your home wifi connection good? You might want to consider purchasing a new one if your wifi often cuts off in the middle of Zoom meetings or the connection is weak. Also, if you open many tabs on your laptop, these tabs could be the potential reason why your laptop is working slow. Please restart your laptop before the interview starts. Although you might not want to restart right before the interview incase it doesn’t reboot correctly
Bright room
How do you make a good first impression to your recruiter through an online interview? The answer is lighting in your room. If the room is dark, your face will look nervous, anxious, and tired and won’t be able to make a good impression. The best way to solve the lighting problem is to have your set up by a window, so the natural light from the sun makes your face bright. If you don’t have a window in your room or it’s night time, please make sure you have enough artificial light in your room.
If you feel like you don’t have enough light in your room, you can get this ring light for your laptop or phone on Amazon for $15.99
Presentation
When interviewing for any job presentation is essential, and interviewing for an English teaching job is no different. Japanese working culture is slightly more conservative than most western companies. Nonconformity is frowned upon. The more generic you can look the better. I recommend concealing facial piercings, tattoos, unnatural hair colors, etc. for the interview. It’s important to note that you will need to conceal these things on the job as well so for something alterable like hair color or piercings it might be a good idea to change/remove that before you start your job search. For tattoos don’t worry! Just wear clothing that covers them. As long as you don’t have facial or hand tattoos you should be fine. I personally have more than 10 tattoos and did not have a problem.
Mentality
If you’re applying from abroad like I did, you will most likely have a Skype interview. It definitely helps mental preparation if you think about it as if it were in real life. Dress up entirely, shoes, accessories, makeup the whole thing, even if the interviewer won’t be able to see everything you’ve done about your appearance it helps to prepare and treat it as if it’s a serious thing. For in person interviews leaving our homes and being in a new environment helps us to be more formal, but when interviewing in your own home it’s easy to forget what you are doing and relax. This is why even for a phone interview I dress up and sit at my desk even though the person on the other side of the line cannot see me. You might think this is silly but I swear it works!
Preparing for questions
Generally the questions you will be asked for a English teaching job will revolve around why you want to teach in Japan, what you believe makes a good classroom, how you might handle specific problems, and your previous experience teaching if applicable. The best way to prepare is to write down your response or even practice aloud beforehand.
I also advise you to find out as much as possible about the school or program before the interview. As you research, make note of anything interesting or unique and ask for more info about it during the interview. This could be a teaching method they adhere to or certain activities that they focus on. A compliment goes a long way, even something small like “I was browsing your website, and it was so user-friendly.”
Showing that you are interested in their school/company makes you look like a wonderful candidate who actually cares, and taking the extra time to really investigate is also good for you to get a better idea if they are place you’d want to work for. After all the interview isn’t just for you but the company as well. You want to be confident and comfortable to accept offers of employment that you get, so doing your own research is really valuable.
Overall
Most of all relax and be honest in the interview! I think it’s easy to want to exaggerate or lie, and while yes it’s definitely okay to paint yourself in a positive light, going to the point of dishonesty will only come back to bite you later. If you’re friendly, warm and really want to teach this will be apparent!
Thank you so much for reading this post! I hope it helps you to prepare for an online interview with a Japanese company. If you want to know about how I got an English teaching job from overseas, please check this post.
Best of luck on your interview!