Just graduated with a MS in Mechanical Engineering and interviewed with this japanese company with a small office in the U.S.
The job description listed many things that an ME is qualified for, such as motors, electromechanical, CAD, and failure analysis. Primarily the job was to interact with clients, write proposals and performance assessments.
The 1st interview consisted of 1 on 1 talks with 4 people. The first guy tells me this is a software engineer position, which briefly caught me off guard. Furthermore, I really don't understand WHY it was not clearly written in the job description. HR literally didn't know much about the position when I was initially contacted. Just gave me like a 2-4 word description. When I was confirmed for the interview weeks later, they sent me the job description.
Anyway, the 1st interviewer quickly told me they just wanted a person with a mechanical background to help write software code for their products. Well it wasn't a problem, since I've had much programming experience in the past where I needed to learn a new language (basic, matlab, c++ etc). Overall the interview lasted 2 hrs.
I felt that talking to 2 of the 4 interviewers was difficult, because english was their 2nd language (they were japanese). Therefore, they had difficulty understanding my responses, answering my questions, and asking a question. However they were probably the most important people to talk to since they were directors, and senior managers.
A couple of days go by and they wanted me in for a 2nd interview. Overall they liked me and were interested; however, one of the managers felt that I was too serious in the interview and needed to relax. Another thing was difficult to explain in english, but HR gave me an example by saying if we asked you out for a drink, would you go? I somewhat understand, which might be regarding if I would get along/ be a teamplayer with others. Personally, I thought their overall feedback was ridiculous. But regardless of that, they still wanted me in for a 2nd interview. The interviewer probably felt intimidated by me since he had trouble understanding clear english or maybe I was being too professional. Too professional?
SO i go in for a 2nd interview expecting to be bombarded with behavioral interview type questions, since they said it would be a chance for them to get to know me better and them as well. This time 2 different people interviewed me at the same time, which was another japanese manager and a software engineer who had been with the company for 3 years.
The interviewed turned out to be the same as the first. Although it was 2 people, the software engineer seemed to do most of the talking by asking me question about my resume and qualifications. Since the manager was japanese, communication was difficult just as the 1st interview. To me they both looked very inexperienced at interviewing.
After that the initial question about my qualifications, they give me tour of the facility and back to the office for me to ask questions. HR calls me back and tells me the company is going to pass on me. The reason being that it seemed i didn't look too interested in the job, because I asked about moving around to different positions. I remember asking the japanese manager if I would be able to move around within the company to gain more experience from different departments. I've always felt that it is good to put more tools in your toolbox by gaining more experience from different departments. I gave a slightly similar response during the 1st interview, when I was asked," where do you see yourself in 5 years." After thinking about, the manager must have misunderstood. Seriously, I really thought that was a good question to see how the position would evolve.
It still somewhat bothers me on the reason for not being hired. I decided to contact one of japanese friends, who works with a company with a similar history to get an opinion about my interview. He said that my question was bad, because japanese co don't want you to move around. Especially considering that this was a small office 20-30 people and most if not all the managers were japanese. Also I might have been better off not working there since I do not speak japanese. In his experience, I would regularly run into a situation... did that manager understand me at all? He just nodded his head and smiled... which is what a typical asian who immigrated to the U.S. does.
The job description listed many things that an ME is qualified for, such as motors, electromechanical, CAD, and failure analysis. Primarily the job was to interact with clients, write proposals and performance assessments.
The 1st interview consisted of 1 on 1 talks with 4 people. The first guy tells me this is a software engineer position, which briefly caught me off guard. Furthermore, I really don't understand WHY it was not clearly written in the job description. HR literally didn't know much about the position when I was initially contacted. Just gave me like a 2-4 word description. When I was confirmed for the interview weeks later, they sent me the job description.
Anyway, the 1st interviewer quickly told me they just wanted a person with a mechanical background to help write software code for their products. Well it wasn't a problem, since I've had much programming experience in the past where I needed to learn a new language (basic, matlab, c++ etc). Overall the interview lasted 2 hrs.
I felt that talking to 2 of the 4 interviewers was difficult, because english was their 2nd language (they were japanese). Therefore, they had difficulty understanding my responses, answering my questions, and asking a question. However they were probably the most important people to talk to since they were directors, and senior managers.
A couple of days go by and they wanted me in for a 2nd interview. Overall they liked me and were interested; however, one of the managers felt that I was too serious in the interview and needed to relax. Another thing was difficult to explain in english, but HR gave me an example by saying if we asked you out for a drink, would you go? I somewhat understand, which might be regarding if I would get along/ be a teamplayer with others. Personally, I thought their overall feedback was ridiculous. But regardless of that, they still wanted me in for a 2nd interview. The interviewer probably felt intimidated by me since he had trouble understanding clear english or maybe I was being too professional. Too professional?
SO i go in for a 2nd interview expecting to be bombarded with behavioral interview type questions, since they said it would be a chance for them to get to know me better and them as well. This time 2 different people interviewed me at the same time, which was another japanese manager and a software engineer who had been with the company for 3 years.
The interviewed turned out to be the same as the first. Although it was 2 people, the software engineer seemed to do most of the talking by asking me question about my resume and qualifications. Since the manager was japanese, communication was difficult just as the 1st interview. To me they both looked very inexperienced at interviewing.
After that the initial question about my qualifications, they give me tour of the facility and back to the office for me to ask questions. HR calls me back and tells me the company is going to pass on me. The reason being that it seemed i didn't look too interested in the job, because I asked about moving around to different positions. I remember asking the japanese manager if I would be able to move around within the company to gain more experience from different departments. I've always felt that it is good to put more tools in your toolbox by gaining more experience from different departments. I gave a slightly similar response during the 1st interview, when I was asked," where do you see yourself in 5 years." After thinking about, the manager must have misunderstood. Seriously, I really thought that was a good question to see how the position would evolve.
It still somewhat bothers me on the reason for not being hired. I decided to contact one of japanese friends, who works with a company with a similar history to get an opinion about my interview. He said that my question was bad, because japanese co don't want you to move around. Especially considering that this was a small office 20-30 people and most if not all the managers were japanese. Also I might have been better off not working there since I do not speak japanese. In his experience, I would regularly run into a situation... did that manager understand me at all? He just nodded his head and smiled... which is what a typical asian who immigrated to the U.S. does.
