The JOB
The Interview came and the interview went. Generally I was shocked at what transpired (in a good way).
It all began when I found the place and walked in. I said a little prayer “if God wills it, let me have this job” and I walked in. I was greeted by the person I talked with over email. It turned out that she was the secretary and she ushered me over to the couch.
She told me it wasn’t her that was going to interview me, but Mr. Bush. Mr Bush?! Urrr uhh.. Ok. A young looking guy came out in casual looking clothes (and to my relief it wasn’t “The Bush”) he reached out his hand and said, “Hajimemashite” or Nice to meet you (in Japanese). As you can expect, I was very shocked by this. Quickly I replied the same and he asked me (in JP) if i’d like some water. From then on it was kinda a blur, but I remember parts of it being in Japanese and some in English. I was very impressed to find someone like this guy.
He was a white guy, but he told me that his wife was Japanese from Sapporo. Whoa. He told me that he’d been reading my Sapporo blog and could relate to a lot of what I wrote there. In my mind I knew “Dang! Whatta a good 1st impression.” To say the least, I was very happy with the interview.
In some ways I feel somewhat justified for the hours spent struggling to learn Japanese characters and sentence structure. I felt that after I came back from Japan, I would probably keep my skills up for a month and then slowly forget it all. That was my fear, but it seems that this job opens up avenues for my skills… a purpose! A reason to dust off the grammer books on my shelf and practice to keep those skills sharp!
I was interviewed again by two nice ladies who went over my resume, as well as, laugh and joke around (what I thought was the “chemistry test” or will this person be laidback and workable test). Both the Mr. Bush test and the Chemistry test… in my opinion, went very well.
I was told that i’d get an answer by the afternoon on friday. Sure enough, at 2:58pm I recieved a CONGRADULATIONS email. People from miles around could hear my Ego boom! I was one happy camper!
The buzz still circulates around the house and my girlfriend is proud of me which feels good.
A Victory for me and most of all I’m getting paid a rate that was more then I anticipated!
Total wait time to get a J.O.B: little over 1 month... That’s the current for Portland, Or 2007.
Goodtimes!
~J out