Job Interviews

It goes without saying that preparation is important for a job interview.

However, as the interviewer, while I certainly listen to what the candidate has prepared, I also try to draw out things they haven't prepared for.

What candidates have prepared comes out smoothly during the interview, and sometimes you can faintly see a script, as if they have thought through the structure and narrative of their story.

I want to explore the deeper parts, or what you might call the person's inner core, and I want them to bring that out. I observe things like the speed of their response to unexpected questions and their genuine thoughts.

If they answer too smoothly, I also consider whether it was a question they anticipated, or if they are naturally eloquent and good at improvising conversation.

In particular, when someone isn't speaking well in an interview, or—though it's hard to express—doesn't seem to have that 'spark,' I feel that they aren't expressing their true strengths, so I want to know and draw that out.

If nothing comes out, then that's that, but sometimes there are people who have a certain brilliance. When I find that, I get a little happy and want to dig deeper.

I want to draw out those deeper parts, such as the hardships they have overcome, their feelings of gratitude toward their parents, or how a certain experience from childhood is connected to the source of their current identity. I think there are many people who don't actually talk about these things in interviews.

Personally, I'm not used to the term 'gakuchika' (what you put effort into during school), but originally, what you put effort into should be your studies, not part-time jobs, volunteer work, or clubs.

Of course, once you enter society, the skills you cultivated in part-time jobs or clubs, such as the ability to act as a team or the ability to become a leader and manage juniors, may be useful at your place of employment, but I find myself wondering, 'Is that really it?'

I believe that in the world to come, individual power will change the world. With the development of AI, won't that trend only accelerate?

I think it is more important to think about how to acquire superior individual abilities. I believe that people with an 'otaku' temperament—or rather, people who can be absorbed in something even when they are alone—will be the ones who thrive in society.

Management skills that can effectively handle these individual strengths and turn them into the power of the company as a whole are also important, but it is difficult to tell in an interview whether someone is capable of that, and there is also the fact that we aren't necessarily looking for that level of skill.

Another important point is that the interviewer is observing whether they can imagine working with this person. It is difficult to say what criteria they use to judge this, but for example, they are trying to see if this person seems like someone they could overcome difficulties with if the company were to fall into a crisis.

Conversely, when applicants are being interviewed, while it is important that they want to work at that company, I think it is also good to include in their perspective whether there are people at the company they would want to work with. The number of people you can meet in an interview is limited, but precisely because of that, if there is someone you feel it would be difficult to work with, you should consider that carefully.

I myself have changed jobs thinking about the environment at the time and what I wanted to do, but most recently, I changed jobs because I heard someone speak in an interview and wanted to contribute for that person's sake. Assuming that I myself was needed by that company, I really felt the importance of the interview.

I have written about job interviews from a slightly different angle, and I hope it is helpful. See you again.