Getting a job in Japan - part 2

Mission accomplished! I got the job. It really was a cruel experience though. A harsh, nerve-racking experience.

As mentioned in the previous post, three of us were invited to an interview knowing full well that only two of us would walk away with a job. It was cruel. The other two gentlemen were nice guys and... it was just cruel. We were directed to a waiting room before we were individually invited in to the boardroom for an interview. The room was massive, probably a 50 seat boardroom table and waiting for me were the principal of the Tokyo campus, the principal of the Saitama campus, the head of the English department and also one other English teacher. Joining them was an HR department member and also one of the consultants I dealt with in the previous two interviews. Their questions were standard, good interview questions (How would you teach a class of mixed ability? What advice can you give to non-native teachers of English? What is your opinion of English as a 2nd language teaching in Japan?) and we switched from English to Japanese throughout. It was a comfortable interview actually and I was happy with the way it unfolded. One interesting comment arose though. Halfway through they started mentioning in Japanese that my English pronunciation was really clear - "Have you lost your Australian accent? Are you purposely making it clear and like a British accent?" We all had a good laugh about that one. Anyway, that was that. I was shown back to the waiting room and the next candidate was brought through.

After we had all been interviewed, the panel deliberated about who and where they wanted us to work. Myself and one other candidate were chosen, which meant that the other poor fella was the unlucky one not to be chosen. That was a tough way to find out and we all felt awkward about it.

I'm pretty relieved and definitely looking forward to the challenges that lay ahead. One of the consultants mentioned that they may want me to teach Science in English as a pioneer in CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning). That would be a serious challenge. Awesome.