An Interview, A Resignation and A Low Blow

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

An Interview, A Resignation and A Low Blow

Wow, for once I didn't immediately update after some potentially life changing event. Huh. Weird.

Well, anyway, I got the job. I got a call three days later while I was at 'work' at Nova in Kanamachi congratulating me and offering my a job with Interac. I was surprised and delighted to hear from them so soon, and with that answer.

Oh, speaking of 'work', man, that's been a joke and a half. On Tuesday of last week, I went to my mini Voice type thing in Kashiwa at Mos Burger and chatted with the ladies for about an hour and forty five minutes, and raked in a whopping 15,000 yen. $150 for that long? And all I did was sit there and chat? Amazing. Gotta love this country sometimes.

But there was something odd about that morning as well. Even before I went in for my little lucrative chat, I was stopped on the street walking past the rotting corpse of the Nova building, by a Kashiwa student, asking me in what appeared to be a panic, if the Kashiwa branch was open. I had heard that it was scheduled to open the following day (it didn't, it's still closed), so I relayed the information to what appeared to be relief. Great relief. At the chat itself, a lot of the conversation revolved around Nova and the reopening of branches. They were all, each and every one of them, itching to get back into Nova, which had basically screwed them out of a LOT of money.

Also, as they're to find out, they're going to be able to use their tickets, but they have to pay 25% of their value to use them. And they're all gonna do it. Weird. Way to pay to use tickets you've already bought.

Anyway, I got to Kanamachi after I finished up in Kashiwa to find the doors locked and Dara waiting out front. So, when all of us had congregated out front, we decided to go into a coffee shop next door to sign the paperwork. Here's the deal we were given:
1) Start work immediately and go on standby if your assigned branch isn't open yet, receiving 100% of your pay regardless of whether you actually go in. Get paid on the 5th of Dec. and the 5th of Jan. and so on. Option to take a 50,000 yen advance on your December paycheck.
2) Start work on Jan. 10th, and get paid 150,000 yen to be unemployed until that date, due to having far too many teachers for what's actually needed. First actual paycheck Feb. 5th.

I chose option 1. So, of course, the next day Kanamachi opened up and I've been going to 'work' ever since. Why scare quotes, you ask? Because so far it's been a joke. We literally sat around all day doing nothing, nothing nothing nothing, all last week. I mean, sure we cleaned up the office, and made Christmas decorations, and so on, but really, it's been us playing poker in the break room and playing all sorts of creative word games, such as, a personal favorite of mine, "pick a word out of the dictionary, define it, and see who can guess the word first". So, yea, not too bad really.

Today I actually taught a lesson, gasp. Only one though, so not so bad. But it's amazing how quickly one can forget how to properly teach a lesson. Oh well. It comes back just as fast. Really it's just been a lot of stand up comedy, as Nova more or less always has been for me, but there's nothing wrong with that, as long as the students are involved, I rather enjoy it. To be honest, I'm going to miss it now that I'm leaving.

Right now, I'm reveling in the joy that is having just handed in a resignation. I'm sure I've written about this as some point before, but there really is something amazing about the feeling you get knowing that you're a lame duck. Work just gets fun after that, nothing can hurt you. I mean, what's the worst that can happen? I already have another job. If they fire me I just get a vacation before starting up again. Big whoop. I mean, it hurts where it counts, the pocketbook, but it's not gonna happen. Who's going to fire someone who's already quit? So from here on in it's just me having fun at Nova. Biiiiig deal. My resignation was as follows:
As I have been offered a position at another company, I hereby tender this, my resignation. I have greatly enjoyed working here, and I wish you all success in your endeavors. Thank you.

So now, it's just a matter of time. I've got some more paperwork to do for Interac before my training comes up on the 18th, but it's no big deal. Oh, yea, I've got training from the 18th-21st of December. I'm taking unpaid holidays to go, which were instantly approved, cause, well, we're overstaffed, so anyone who wants vacation days gets them by default, Dara just signs the thing, makes an note of it, and it's done. Sweet.

Oh, ya, the interview, forgot about that. The interview itself was pretty much what I expected. The obligatory introductions, the long ass video about why Interac is good and what they do as a company, so on and so forth, yada yada yada. I say that because during this whole time I had to pee like no other, so I wasn't really paying attention. Thankfully, I was not asked to regurgitate any of the information presented.

But, much to my surprise, when they were introducing the recruitment staff, in walks Vinny 'Vincenzo' Birch, a buddy of mine from Nova, who was promoted to AT about 6 months ago. Funny stuff, you shoulda seen the look on his face, or more, probably the look on mine. Priceless stuff, talking to each other as if we're not not only well acquainted but haven't gone drinking and gotten piss ass drunk on a number of occasions.

After a much needed potty break, we got down to actually doing some work, which involved the obligatory grammar/spelling check that weeds out, man, I dunno, mongoloids who somehow managed to make it past the first screening. I never know what that stuff is about. I mean seriously. I hope they give tests like those to relax you, you know, by acing the thing and thinking, "shit, if this is as hard as it gets, I'm golden" so you don't just ham everything else. But, the interesting twist was that the longest quiz I took was the Kiersey Temperament Sorter, something with which, as a psych major, I'm intimately familiar with. Apparently, thanks to an X, I'm either a Rationalist or an Idealist, my choice. Being Japan and all, I'm surprised they didn't just ask our blood type and leave it at that.

After the group part, we took a break before starting on the individual interviews. This is where I get to size up the competition, so to speak. Which, incidentally, is always in my favor, because, well, it just is. I happen to interview well, and other people's A Game is generally contrived to begin with. So as soon as we go on break, is when you get to see what kind of people they all really are, and I was not in the least surprised to discover that most, despite their experience, were either clueless or lacked genuine desire to have the job. Or, I dunno, they just didn't meet my standards. I wouldn't have hired them. Listening to their video lesson presentations from the other side of the dividers didn't do anything to change my impressions.

Lesson 1 I've learned when it comes to other foreigners: Other people's Japanese sucks. Seriously. Wa taaashi wa Bu ra yan dessssss. Oh man, I just can't do it justice. I mean, at least they try, but, shit. I speak better Japanese in my sleep. How these people function in Japan without even the most basic ability to introduce one's self is beyond me. Their lessons weren't that sparkling either. I knew as soon as I heard two or three other people's lessons that I was a shoe-in. I had the job as soon as I walked in, even if I hammed the thing myself.

Now, that's a lot of really cocky talk right there, but really, I think I have the right to talk like that. I've earned it through preparation and time spent making sure I can walk into a place that has no idea who I am and leave knowing they liked what they saw. If you give me 5 minutes on camera to impress a group of total strangers, fine, you got it. I get the feeling these people thought about their presentations as one would a book report, something you prepared for the sole purpose of getting it over with, or at least having something to do at all to fill 5 minutes and get out of there. For me it was just stupid, it's 5 minutes of something I do every day; make an ass out of myself so that other people can enjoy whatever it is I'm talking about. What on Earth is there to be nervous about there? I was more nervous about screwing up my Japanese than I was my lesson. My leg was shaking as I introduced myself, but as soon as some color cards came out of my pocket it was as good as over.

Some day, I hope, secretly, and halfheartedly, to attend an interview where I'm surrounded by people I'm genuinely worried are not only more qualified but better fit to a position I really want than me. Just to see how I react. My record of never having applied for a job I didn't get stands. I guess I'm not applying for the right jobs. Hmm. I'll have to think about that.

Anyway, the presentation went fine, and the interview did too. I interviewed with Denis, who is the Recruitment Manager for Interac, and is basically the 2nd highest person in the foreign side of the whole company. We got along fine, and I closed it with my ever-successful, "when given a chance to ask questions at the end, not only ALWAYS ask questions, but ask personal ones and get them to talk to you as a normal person" strategy. It's amazing what you can get out of a person when you take it to them instead of having them be someone feared by would-be future employees. When they open it up to you and you just fire one at them about if they like the company, and what do they get out of it, and how long they've been around etc etc it shows them so many things if they're thinking about it, like, "hey, this guy isn't intimidated by me" and "wow, he might actually be relaxed enough to care about who I am", but if they're not thinking about it, all the better because all of a sudden they realize they're opening up to this person they've never met and yammering on forever, huh, that's strange, must be something about him.

Anyway, so ya, got that job. Wrote them an email after I got home thanking them for their time, remembering Denis' comment that he loves when he gets a call from people afterwards just to say thanks. Speaking of which I should give him a call tomorrow and do just that, since emails don't really count, ya?

So, here I am, with a month left at what's now my old job, and I start work for Interac not in April, but first thing in January.

The problem is this: I start work in January, which means I can't go home in February as planned. And, the job's in Shinagawa, which is pretty far from where I live now. Which means I'll either be moving, or I'm gonna be getting up at 5:30am or so every day to go to work. Either way, I'm gonna be getting up ass early every day to go to work, since it starts at 8am regardless of where I am. Yuck. So, I've been thinking about moving, and where I would should I.

Actually, the other part of that is, with who. Living by myself would be fine, I'd rather live by myself than with unknown roommates at this point, I'm tired of living with other people I don't know. But, actually, odd as it is, I'm thinking of asking Saki if she wants to move in with me if I move. Ya. I know. I just said that.

But, I'd like to. I would live with her. I've spent a lot of time with her lately, she came over Saturday night after going to a wedding, she was all dolled up and waking up next to her, I could really get used to that. She came over last night for dinner too, and she actually cooked a bit for me for once. Before then I've always cooked for her, so it was nice to see her make something. It was pretty good too, this salad involving green onion, mushrooms, bamboo, boiled chicken, sesame oil and salt.

Anyway, I'd love to live with Saki. It's a strange feeling for me, but I would. Sitting on the couch with her last night, it was perfect, we just watched TV and joked around, but mostly enjoyed just relaxing and being close to each other. She looked so beautiful sitting there with me. It really amazes me.

So yea, might be askin her about that soon. I mentioned in an email when she complained that if I lived in Shinagawa that it would be harder to see each other in our spare time that it would be nice if we lived together, to which she replied that ya, it would. So, I think she's open to the idea. More on that later I guess, as that's a pretty huge thing too.

K, lemme read back over this and see if there's anything I forgot. Nope, ya, I think that covers it. Stay warm out there all, it's freaking cold.