So I got a job at a big multinational company. It’s just a part time job and it’s only until September (at the latest), but it pays and it’s not just once a week like my other job as an English teacher.
It was interesting seeing how big of a pain in the ass the Japanese employment process is. I figured as much, but you had to see it to believe it. Though my case was a little different, since I was actually being employed through a recruitment agency, which means I actually get paid from the RA, and the RA gets paid by the company based on my hours. So I had two separate interviews, and I was told that I had to wear a suit to them. So I bought a suit.
Thank $deity for mama-san. I have no fucking clue what a suit is supposed to look like and she took the time to go with me and the girlfriend to the store to pick stuff out for me. To not make this story more long-winded than it has to, I had to learn how to tie a necktie, and I had to do it on the day of the interview. It “looked” okay to me. And noone snickered at me behind my back, so I suppose I managed to get it right. The actual interview(s) took several hours each.
The first one was like a test day where I got a bunch of quizzes (like, this piece of paper… with symbols on it… and I had to say how many of a specific symbol were on each line… that paper could have come from space, it looked so stinking weird). I also got a kanji quiz, math quiz, and I can’t remember what else. The second interview was mostly consisting of me being told, for hours, the various rules I had to follow, and reminders of the various laws in place to support said rules. I applied several weeks ago in fact, but it took them over 2 weeks to figure out whether they actually wanted me or not. They had someone else from some other RA for awhile there, they claimed, but ultimately they must have seen the glory of my answers in that weird-symbol-quiz-sheet.
When I joined last Monday, I was actually doing full time because I still had summer vacation but as of today, I only work 3.5 hour in the mornings. So anyway, they have rules about clothing. A shirt with a collar and “not jeans”, which translates to pants you could wear with a suit without having eyebrows raised at you. So I went out on a shopping spree again and got two more pairs of pants, and five (yes five, as in MonTueWedThurFri-five) shirts with collars. I actually kind of like the style, at least when it’s not too formal. “With collar” as the only requirement gives you a good bit of freedom after all. I also bought shoes. Shoes that you could wear with said pants, which you could, as stated earlier, wear with a suit without being eyebrow-raised-at. Conclusively, I do look rather formal when I walk out that door. And noone would be surprised if I said I was going to work.
Which I am, actually.
But yes. Something’s been bugging me every day that I’ve walked out that door. This sudden jolt in my chest and the sudden, quite obscure sentence in my head “WAIT! WHERE’S MY HAT!?”.
… the fuck? Why do I need a hat? So I look down at my collared shirt and my would-fit-a-suit-pants and my would-fit-said-pants-shoes and I think “hm. No. I don’t need a hat with these clothes.”
Initially I thought maybe I mixed them up with my girlfriend’s uniform that she wears at her café (they have this uber-silly hat. Luckily she’s still cute even when she wears it), and maybe that somehow nestled its way into my brain. But then it struck me.
The last time I wore “clothes based on a rule” on an everyday basis was when I did military service back in 2001. And it so happens that the cap is a very important part that gets all the newbies yelled at frequently by the officers. Don’t wear it indoors. Don’t not wear it outdoors. That about sums it up but for people unused to wearing things on the head, it is a hassle. Or was for me and my group anyway.
So yeah. I’m being haunted by in-the-bones instincts to wear my cap cause I’m outdoors 8 years after I did military service, simply because I’m wearing clothes with a rule on them. The brain’s a wonderfully buggy thing isn’t it…?
Conditioning can be a scary thing! Especially when it’s something that stays with you for so so long.
Yeah. Even worse when you don’t realize it’s happening. Just the slightly panicky feeling of “o shit i forgot the hat”.
Congrats for scoring the job. That’s a great opportunity to see what the working life is like inside a Japanese company! What will you be doing role/responsibility wise?
Your intro paragraph “like my other job as an English teacher” could be taken as meaning either that this is another English teacher position or that it’s something different.
Thanks a lot, Mark! Yeah, it’s been quite interesting so far. Take this example sentence: “ちょっと怒りたいことがあるんですけど”. Said by our handler to one of the guys at work. Priceless! “Want to be angry”? So be angry! is what I think, but anyway.
The job is basically “translation” Swedish/Japanese, but it’s not as fancy as that. It’s about sort of digging up words in Swedish and analyze them in various ways. Can get a little boring, at times, I suppose, but it’s a great job I’d say.