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Shushoku Katsudo or Hell On Earth: Page 2
It's called Fujitsu Business Systems, an IT solutions company, fourth in Japan and the largest in the Fujitsu group of companies. I was thinking, if I can't make it to big Fujitsu then I'll go for their largest subsidiary. After the saishu mensetsu (final interview) in Tokyo, I was able to talk to a young employee in the company, a Bangladeshi girl who's got a really neat reputation (she's the smartest in her batch). Anyway, she gave me her meishi (business card). It's got the company logo on the left, and the Fujitsu logo on the right. Kind of reckless of me to join the IT sector knowing that it is suffering badly, with the bursting of the Nasdaq bubble and all, but I can't imagine working anywhere else...It never seemed to bother me much the knowledge that the so-called New Economy has come to a standstill. IT-smitten is what I am (hopeless case).
Okay, I'll start from the beginning. I did well in the first interview, a group interview--three applicants take turns answering questions from two interviewers. So the following week I went to the next round, which was the second interview, a group discussion--four of us applicants try to write a business proposal: we sit around a table with data and papers and other materials, then we talk about the given problem/demand and the issues surrounding it and outline a project and then make a proposal. Two men watch us on either end of the table, several feet away. They try to see how well we work in a group situation. I passed this also so I was allowed to take the written exam the next week, where I believe I did badly (I suspect that they mercifully ignored my math results).
A funny thing happened while I was taking the exam. So there I was, sitting on the second row, chewing on my lower lip. The exam proctor had just finished administering the tests: first language, then Math, then English. He, bored to death, rattled off the instructions before each of the sections, eyes glazed and looking over our foreheads.
Afterwards we had to take a personality test. As expected, before we began the proctor started rattling off the instructions, but this time, he looked straight at me! I was taken completely by surprise. What was that look all about? He was going "Now I want you all to answer this test as honestly as you can. Please don't choose answers according to what you believe we would like you to write, but choose because it is what best reflects your true personality." All the while looking right at me! What was he thinking? That I would try to cover up my rabid individualism and unrepentant loner's independence by pretending to be a docile team player who would live and die by the Japanese corporate mantra "Conform, Cooperate, Coordinate"? Really now. I tried not to let his look disgruntle me, and could honestly say that I tried as honestly as I could to choose the honest answers that best reflect my true personality (which is characterized by rabid individualism and unrepentant independence).
The following week they gave me a call saying I was up for the third interview (individual interview--two middle management men interviewed me). I showed them my web design portfolio, and they were quite impressed with my IT knowledge and perfect TOEIC score. Three days later, I got a call saying that I was up for the final interview in the company's Tokyo headquarters! I was very happy to go, especially because they were paying for my shinkansen (bullet train fare--round trip is 22,000 yen). The headquarters was cool! Their office in Nagoya was only one floor, but the Tokyo HQ was a large, fancy, glass-covered 10-storey building where there was a very nice exhibit room and all the works. Since the company uses up all the floors then I could safely assume that I'll work in any one of these floors someday. My final interview was with two top honchos, and it was fun, to tell you the truth. They were amazed by how fast I could speak (they said I was "hayaguchi" or motor-mouth). Well, when you ask me computer and internet stuff then I can just go on and on.
