I know that this might not be Japan-related, but it’s just so frustrating when that happens. I wen’t in for my first ever Japanese interview yesterday and the guy was really nice and kept saying my responses to his questions were really good, he put his hand on my shoulder when I was leaving the building etc. I was really under the impression that he was going to give me the job.
For those who saw my post yesterday, I wore a mask then took it off after I realized nobody else was wearing one.
The reason I am posting here and not in a general interview/job related sub is because I want to ask if this is something to do with the kind Japanese culture? Does this happen in most interviews? People are friendly to you because (from my experience) Japanese people try to be kind when working together or potentially establishing a work-based relationship with that person?
I’m open to the fact I must have made mistakes, but I’d rather be given the impression that I messed up so that I don’t end up waiting for the offer to come through later. I’m sad… waahhhhh
12 comments
Save yourself some time and ask the interviewer or HR directly (whoever you have been in contact for the interview) the reasons why they rejected you. Always good to follow up, whether results are positive or not.
It is easy to dwell on every little things that happen during the interview but any decent professional will happily offer you why they didn’t decide to go with you.
I think you’re overthinking this. I have about 10 years of interviewing/hiring experience. When you have just one position and multiple people you want to hire, you sometimes just have to pick one. Or maybe they loved you, but right after you was the “perfect” candidate. It happens.
I even had this situation recently. One position, two candidates that I would have loved to hire. Just had to pick one and reject the other. That’s how it works.
Life lesson; no matter how good you feel after an interview, you don’t have the job till you’ve signed the job offer.
I interview a fair amount of people, we are always kind and friendly to the people we interview even if we have no intention of hiring them after the interview. It’s not necessarily a question of making mistakes, but can be a case of having a better candidate in mind or realizing that while someone may have a good resume the interview shows they aren’t really a fit for the sort of role they are are interviewing for.
You can fail an interview for literally any reason. One that stings me was for a space startup in Tokyo. It was an app developer position and I felt I nailed it. It got on well with their other devs and was obviously well suited to their requirements. But I found out later that while the tech guys loved me the HR woman vetoed me. She said I didn’t have enough excitement for space…
Which is absurd as half my life is reading space operas and I guarantee that of those interviewing me I was the most excited and knowledgeable about space. I just didn’t want to show it too much as I wanted them to know I wanted the job because I could do it well rather than just wanting to work there. And for that reason I didn’t get the job as HR prefered someone who just showed/faked excitement to work there over qualifications for the position.
Sounds like they genuinely did like you as a candidate, but you didn’t come out on top. Could have been somebody else’s decision even if they preferred you. Don’t worry about it. Good job on getting that far, and consider this a positive experience for the next interview!
I’ve been on both sides (person getting interviewed, and person doing the interviewing) in interviews that had that result (great interview, no job offer). There are a lot of factors that can lead to this, none of which reflect poorly on you:
1. The person interviewing you might not be the one with the final say, and even if they like you and recommend you, the final decision maker might have someone else in mind;
2. There could be a crowded field of great candidates and not enough positions. These are really hard from an interviewers’ perspective since you have to agonize over which one to give the offer to and it might be just up to luck of the draw, or who in the hiring committee has more power to get their preferred one chosen.
3. There could be some minor arbitrary factor that you had no way of knowing about which worked against you. “The desk the new hire is going to sit at is ergonomically better suited to left-handed people so if we’ve got two great candidates and one is left handed, go for that one” type of stuff.
These are just some off the top of my head, there are tons of others things. Its discouraging, but don’t beat yourself up over it.
Anything can happen, I had similar experience like you before I came to Japan.
Turns out my friend who’s working in that company telling me the position was gone due to company budget cut down (so no one got that job)
That’s the trick, you didn’t wear the mask that’s why you got rejected
I’ve been through a whole interview cycle where it was down to me and another person, and the CEO had already decided that guy after the second interview (out of 6) but needed to go through the whole interview process with multiple people to not seem too favorable.
I’ve also conducted interviews with the worse people for the job imaginable, and treated them well and seen them off with good hope in my voice and words–to immediately reject them. Or had people I really liked be rejected after my interview because the next guy in the interview chain didn’t agree without speaking to the interviewee.
Take it all as a learning experience. First interviews in any situation tends to have growing pains. Focus on what you did well, improve what you can, do the next one.
Worst is when you go for an interview to a far away location, stay there overnight and pay train tickets and hotel out of you own pocket. The interview is hosted by someone who knows you personally and has invited you there. It all goes very well and they ask if you are interested in taking the job one hour later via email. You reply yes, and then you never hear back from them. Complete ghosting. Not even a courtesy email saying sorry but we can’t take you.
I never assume even when I think I’ve done brilliantly in the interview. Lesson learned after years of experience.