Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The JET Interview - What I Went Through

Considering it’s already mid-january, I probably should note down some of my thoughts on the JET interview which should be coming up in about a month’s time.. but before that, congrats to all the 2009 shortlisted applicants! :) you guys are one step closer to the JET programme and japan! I’m glad to be hearing from some of you on the tagboard.. hope this site has been useful, or at least interesting to you :) wonder how many people made the shortlist this year, but if it’s anything like last year, they’ll probably filter about half of the interviewees for the final selection (approval by tokyo)..

anyhow, the best resource for preparing for the interview is definitely the internet. Last year, I surfed around and found a lot of sites that listed topics and questions to think about. Those are always helpful, as the more you ponder and reflect on what you want to achieve while on JET, what you can bring to the programme with regard to teaching and cultural exchange, as well as how you are going to overcome the various problems that you might face while working and living in Japan, the better shaped your responses will be during the interview.

Think over and consider these questions carefully, and mentally write a paragraph or main points in your head the way you might express them naturally in an interview. i actually wrote down my responses on a piece of paper so that I could rephrase and refine my answers, which might seem a bit too much to some, but I think it helped me think through and present myself more clearly during the interview. That was the interview that I prepared the hardest for in my entire life by the way.. perhaps if I’d put in as much effort into my scholarship interviews back then post-A levels my life might have turned out rather different! Haha.

Anyhow, quite a few sites warn interviewees to expect to be grilled and be given a hard time by the interviewers, which made me slightly worried about what it was going to be like. I suppose expecting the worse would make things a breeze when you meet really nice interviewers, which is what happened to me. The panel was an all male one - a former JET (a Caucasian who currently works for the embassy), an embassy representative (Singaporean) and a representative from what I think could be CLAIR (Japanese).

the embassy representative asked the most questions. he focused on my personal experiences, while the caucasian focused on teaching and the japanese asked me things regarding being a cultural ambassador and japan. they started off by asking me to give a brief self introduction.. then they asked things like:

  • why did you choose to study geography?
  • you didnt take 3rd language in secondary school. did you have no interest then?
  • you have some teaching experience, what was it like?
  • how different was it between teaching sec 1s and sec4s?
  • was it intimidating teaching sec4s, since they were the first batch you taught?
  • what do you think is the job of an ALT?
  • as a chinese singaporean, do you think you have enough knowledge about malay and indian culture to tell others about it?

next, they asked me to outline the overseas experiences that i have. about how i think i will be able to survive an extended stay of at least a year on the JET programme if i get selected, what would i share with the japanese people and students about singapore or what i would want to tell them about singapore, if i have a good grasp of grammatical technicalities or be able to explain grammar etc.

the questions that they asked were rather different from the ones that i had prepared based on what i'd read online.. those posed to me are really specific to my personal experience while those that have been provided by pple online are more general and sort of situation based. for example, as compared to "There's a student misbehaving in class. what would u do?" type of questions, i was asked: "because you will be teaching english in japan where the students are not native english speakers, how would you alter or not alter the way you manage the class?"

i think the last question they posed was the most nerve wrecking one of all, as they requested that i explain how the JET programme fits into my future career aspirations in japanese. it's essentially the same thing as what i'd written in my application form, but because i wrote - and the question was posed - in japanese, it required a lot of translation on my part, which wasnt easy at all especially under interview conditions!

but all in all, i think that apart from preparing sufficiently well for the interview - which includes being extremely familiar with what you wrote in your statement of purpose and application form - it's important to appear confident, mature, culturally sensitive and open to learning and experiencing new things in japan. one of my JET friends here told me about this guy she knew back home who was had really good japanese and knew so much about japan and had visited japan quite a number of times who didnt make it through the interview, and the few of us present concluded that the interviewers are probably looking for applicants who will be able to grow and develop while on JET. so it might be useful to play down your knowledge about japan if you're extremely familiar with the country, or at least appear very open to discovering new things about japan!

i hope this has been useful; all the best and good luck! :)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

i've been short-listed!! very exciting!

almond_truffle said...

hi joanne! interesting blog you have here =) so for your interview, does that mean you must be able to speak Japanese to apply for ALT?

Little Piglet said...

Hi Joanne,

Yr blog's been really interesting and useful. I'm a Singaporean who just got shortlisted for the interview. Like to find out what you wore to the interview pls, as well as how long it was. Tks!

jo~ said...

Hi Little Piglet,

I'm glad you're finding my blog useful!

I wore business formal to the interview - collared long sleeved blouse, skirt + suit.. there were people in pants too, although i only saw the person after me as well as the one before. i dont remember how long it was - i was very nervous - but i think it's at least 10-15min? i was asked quite a lot of questions!

jo~ said...

congrats on making the interview too! :)

ah le said...

Hi Joanne,

My interview is on the Monday after CNY. Thanks for posting this; it means a lot to read about a fellow Singaporean's experience:)

Allen Tan said...

Thank you for sharing your experience here! I wished I had discovered your blog earlier. I just had my interview yesterday. It was totally cordial and there were only two interviewers - a Caucasian gentleman and a Japanese lady. Happy Chinese New Year to you!

Dawn said...

Hi Joanne,

Thanks for sharing this =)

Could I inquire, whether one needs to have a good command of Japanese to apply/get selected?

Thank you!

jo~ said...

Hi Dawn,

Japanese is not a pre-requisite for going on the JET programme, and there have been JET participants with no Japanese ability.

Joanne