Kaonashi Ga Suki

Sorry I haven’t written much this week. I’ve got a job interview this Friday. It’s for a part time research assistant position. It’s the first interview I’ll have had in a long time, so I’m really nervous and have been spending this week preparing for it.

A colleague of mine who used to work at that company mentioned that they do behavioral interviews, to which I thought, “Wha?” I didn’t quite know what that meant.

After looking it up on the internet, I found that behavioral interviews involve questions that often start with the phrase, “Tell me a time when…”. Interviewers want you to describe past experiences you’ve had with your past jobs or at school in certain situations. The idea is that your actual behaviors are much more revealing about the type of person you are than any response you make in hypothetical situations. So I’ve printed out several behavioral interview questions and wrote out responses to them. I’ve also written out responses to these questions.

I’ve found so far that during my practicing, the hardest questions to answer are the “simple” ones. The ones like, “Tell me about yourself,” or “Why do you want to work for this company?” and especially, “What do you think are your weaknesses?” Man, these are tough questions!

Anyway, I really hope I get this position. Not only is it within a few minutes’ drive from my apartment (sweet!), but it’ll be the first job that actually has something to do with what I’m studying.

job interview, research, behavioral interview