Japan Bitches!
I suppose I'll start from the beginning. Went to Tokyo at the end of march. (I'll post a little something on that after I get some pictures.) In Tokyo we meet an Australian girl named Katie. She said she applied for a work visa, and 2 weeks later she moved to Japan and was teaching English. Well, I was quite intruiged by this possibility, so I decide I'm going back to Japan ASAP.
Well, I get back to America, and I find out that it ain't quite as easy for AMericans as it is for Australians. Americans need to have a job before they can get a work visa. But many jobs won't hire you unless you have a work visa. Not only that but the process takes 2-3 months. So I applied fo the biggest English Teaching company there is called Nova. Only the closest location is Chicago.
So Chicago it is. I bought the first $200 roundtrip ticket I could get, and I was off. Luckily Mom and Dad volunteered to foot the hotel bill, or else I'd be update here about the car I slept in. Instead I stayed at the House of Blues Hotel in Downtown Chicago. Which I really liked, and would recommend.
With no camera, and stressing over the interview, I didn't really get to enjoy Chicago. However, I showed up right after a front left. And I left right before a front came in. So I got to enjoy 2 days of 70-80 degree whether. The only place I went to was the Sears Tower. Which I was quite impressed by. Most of the view from Chicago isn't quite as amazing after being in Tokyo. Tokyo has 5 story building as far as the eye can see, and several little skylines. Whereas Chicago has one Skyline right next to Lake Michigan, and a lot of small building in all other directions. However, Chicago's skyline is out of control amazing. Dense and huge. Amazing. Certainly more impressive than any of the skylines in Tokyo, and prolly 2-3 times bigger than Houston's skyline.
Little Side note. I use to work for an architectural engineering company. I learned that actually cost/sq foot of a building is cheapest at the 5-10 story range. After that it actually starts costing more due to many factors such as hall space, elevators, environmental control, etc. So basically, people don't build skyscrapers because they want to save money, they do it because they want to have the biggest dick. Well, in the early 70's Sears had the biggest dick by far. Now, they've been overtaken by Walmart, Kmart, and Koehls. They sold the building in 1993, but kept the naming rights.
Anyways in the end, I didn't get to see anything else because I was stressin over my interview, but I feel like I saw what I needed to see in Chicago, and the whole state of Illinois for that matter.
Anyways the interview was on Monday April 23rd. And it started with a 2 hour information session. Which was laid back and prety cool. Then they follow it up with a 45 minute interview. The interview started with a 20 question rapid fire session where I had 5 seconds to answer each question in a word or two. I didn't answer every question, but I did good enough.
IMO, the whole classic interview structure like the one I went through are complete bullshit. But in the end, if you can't ace one of those interviews, you're bull shittin yourself. For instance, if I'm having beers with a buddy, I can go on and on about why I want to move to Japan. Certainly it will be a colorful explanation, but if I'm asked that same question in an interview, I have to think about an answer. A part of me freezes and doesn't know what to do. So I just start talking and hope things get sorted out by the time I'm done talking. The real problem that I have is not bullshitting. Heck, I've bullshitted for 7 paragraphs just in this blog post. The real problem is I'm talking to a stranger, and I'm talking to someone that has authority over me. Over the past years, I've met a lot of strangers, and forged great friendships over the course of one day. Sometimes, I still lock up and get really nervous with strangers, but I'm mostly over that type of social anxiety. However I still have a real problem with authority. I don't like anybody telling me what I can and can't do. Specifically in the interview situation, the person's job is to judge what you do and say, and then decide whether or not to hire you. It sucks to have to submit yourself to giving someone that kind of power over you. Well I could go on and on about interviews, and the effects they have on me. But I'll conclude this topic by saying the only thing I know to do to make this awkward situation work for me is to pretend that I'm just shootin the shit, and to pretend that my interviewer is my friend.
And in the end, that strategy worked. Cause I got the job. Pending a background check, and pending the work visa application process, I'll likely be in Japan 3 months from now. 3 months is a long fucking time though. I'm all about the here and now. I don't yet know what I'll do to fill the time, but it's gonna have to involve raking in some cash to pay for this journey. Fuck, life's too short. Way too short.
I suppose I'll start from the beginning. Went to Tokyo at the end of march. (I'll post a little something on that after I get some pictures.) In Tokyo we meet an Australian girl named Katie. She said she applied for a work visa, and 2 weeks later she moved to Japan and was teaching English. Well, I was quite intruiged by this possibility, so I decide I'm going back to Japan ASAP.
Well, I get back to America, and I find out that it ain't quite as easy for AMericans as it is for Australians. Americans need to have a job before they can get a work visa. But many jobs won't hire you unless you have a work visa. Not only that but the process takes 2-3 months. So I applied fo the biggest English Teaching company there is called Nova. Only the closest location is Chicago.
So Chicago it is. I bought the first $200 roundtrip ticket I could get, and I was off. Luckily Mom and Dad volunteered to foot the hotel bill, or else I'd be update here about the car I slept in. Instead I stayed at the House of Blues Hotel in Downtown Chicago. Which I really liked, and would recommend.
With no camera, and stressing over the interview, I didn't really get to enjoy Chicago. However, I showed up right after a front left. And I left right before a front came in. So I got to enjoy 2 days of 70-80 degree whether. The only place I went to was the Sears Tower. Which I was quite impressed by. Most of the view from Chicago isn't quite as amazing after being in Tokyo. Tokyo has 5 story building as far as the eye can see, and several little skylines. Whereas Chicago has one Skyline right next to Lake Michigan, and a lot of small building in all other directions. However, Chicago's skyline is out of control amazing. Dense and huge. Amazing. Certainly more impressive than any of the skylines in Tokyo, and prolly 2-3 times bigger than Houston's skyline.
Little Side note. I use to work for an architectural engineering company. I learned that actually cost/sq foot of a building is cheapest at the 5-10 story range. After that it actually starts costing more due to many factors such as hall space, elevators, environmental control, etc. So basically, people don't build skyscrapers because they want to save money, they do it because they want to have the biggest dick. Well, in the early 70's Sears had the biggest dick by far. Now, they've been overtaken by Walmart, Kmart, and Koehls. They sold the building in 1993, but kept the naming rights.
Anyways in the end, I didn't get to see anything else because I was stressin over my interview, but I feel like I saw what I needed to see in Chicago, and the whole state of Illinois for that matter.
Anyways the interview was on Monday April 23rd. And it started with a 2 hour information session. Which was laid back and prety cool. Then they follow it up with a 45 minute interview. The interview started with a 20 question rapid fire session where I had 5 seconds to answer each question in a word or two. I didn't answer every question, but I did good enough.
IMO, the whole classic interview structure like the one I went through are complete bullshit. But in the end, if you can't ace one of those interviews, you're bull shittin yourself. For instance, if I'm having beers with a buddy, I can go on and on about why I want to move to Japan. Certainly it will be a colorful explanation, but if I'm asked that same question in an interview, I have to think about an answer. A part of me freezes and doesn't know what to do. So I just start talking and hope things get sorted out by the time I'm done talking. The real problem that I have is not bullshitting. Heck, I've bullshitted for 7 paragraphs just in this blog post. The real problem is I'm talking to a stranger, and I'm talking to someone that has authority over me. Over the past years, I've met a lot of strangers, and forged great friendships over the course of one day. Sometimes, I still lock up and get really nervous with strangers, but I'm mostly over that type of social anxiety. However I still have a real problem with authority. I don't like anybody telling me what I can and can't do. Specifically in the interview situation, the person's job is to judge what you do and say, and then decide whether or not to hire you. It sucks to have to submit yourself to giving someone that kind of power over you. Well I could go on and on about interviews, and the effects they have on me. But I'll conclude this topic by saying the only thing I know to do to make this awkward situation work for me is to pretend that I'm just shootin the shit, and to pretend that my interviewer is my friend.
And in the end, that strategy worked. Cause I got the job. Pending a background check, and pending the work visa application process, I'll likely be in Japan 3 months from now. 3 months is a long fucking time though. I'm all about the here and now. I don't yet know what I'll do to fill the time, but it's gonna have to involve raking in some cash to pay for this journey. Fuck, life's too short. Way too short.
posted by robbo at 11:35 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home