A word to those reJEcTed

Apparently the US interview notification came out yesterday, and before I post part ni of my paper rules, I thought I’d give those of you who didn’t make it past the interview stage this year some words of wisdom or encouragement or at least condolences.

I minored in Japanese and first learned about the JET Program in my sophomore year. I was an art major with no cash and a very strict curriculum, so JET seemed like a great alternative to taking out loans for study abroad and pushing my graduation back at least a semester. Also my Japanese professor expected all of us Japanese minors to apply. Okay, “expected” is a strong word, more like strongly encouraged us to apply, and would purse her lips in slight disappointment if you talked about going to grad school, or even worse, just going straight into a non-Japanese related career.

At the end of November, 2005, I sent in my application for the 2006 JET Programme along with several of my classmates. As I stated in my first post, I thought I was a shoe-in. Well, at least everyone else talked to me like I was a shoe-in. I’m far too critical of myself to assume I’m a shoe-in for anything, which might have been the problem. Anyway, I was reasonably confident that I would easily make it to the interview stage. December and the holidays came and went, and finally it was late January, 2006. Several of my classmates received their notifications that they would be interviewed, but my email inbox was empty despite me refreshing the page every 2 minutes.

A couple days later I was sitting at work when an email from JET arrived. Finally, I thought to myself as I clicked to open it. But instead of a “congratulations” I read this sentence:

Unfortunately, we cannot offer you an interview for this year’s program.

Rejection in general sucks, but there was something especially stinging about being rejected for the interview. On the one hand, JET’s just another job, but on the other hand the application is so lengthy and the wait to hear on an interview is so long it’s hard not to get invested emotionally. Plus the fact that I knew several other applicants and that most of them were granted interviews made me feel even more dejected. And what’s perhaps the worst thing of all is JET doesn’t tell the rejected applicants what exactly they did wrong, so I was left wonder what exactly it was that earned me a “no interview” stamp.

So to those of you rejected for an interview: I was there, and I know it sucks. I was bummed out for a while and nothing made me feel better about it. Since I can’t magically change your results, I probably can’t make you feel better, but here are a few of the “upsides” of being rejected for an interview.

The almighty piece of paper, part ichi

If you know me at all, then you know my favorite TV show is “The Office”, a mockumentary about the struggles of a paper company in Pennsylvania trying to keep afloat in an increasingly paperless world. My solution for Dunder-Mifflin’s woes are simple; move to Japan.

Japan loves paper, be it tiny bags to individually wrap every little cellphone charm you purchase at a depaato, or tickets from a machine because even at the post office you have to take a number, or just the massive number of pamplets and handouts you will get at JET orientation and subsequent conferences, paper is still king in Japan.

And since paper is king, there are two important rules to remember about it. Today we’ll cover rule one:

1. You must never throw away any piece of paper you ever get, ever.

I had forgotten all the times my Japanese professor in college who would randomly ask us to pull out worksheets that she gave us maybe 2 semesters ago, but when I arrived in Japan, I quickly remembered this unspoken rule. When I arrived at my BOE in August, they had me sign my contract, fill out my gaijin card form and gave me a few random things, one of them being my electric bill. The next week, my supervisor was going to take me to a shopping center to get me a cell phone, so I arrived at the BOE, and the following conversation occured:

Supervisor (roughly translated from Japanese): Do you have your electric bill?

Me: Um, was I suppose to have it?

Supervisor: Since it a piece of paper that you received from a Japanese person, you must be able to randomly produce it at any given time.

Me: Oh, sorry, I’m still new here, you know.

Supervisor: Daijoubu, but seriously, where’s your electric bill, it’s imperative to have it before we go get your cellphone. I can’t tell you why, it just is.

Me: I think it’s at my house. Can I bring it Monday?

Supervisor: I have a better idea, we’ll drive to your house and wait outside while you desperately search for it.

Me: Okay desu.

A couple weeks after that my supervisor came to my school one day and I had this encounter:

Supervisor: Rooren, Hello

Me: S’up, supe

Supervisor: All JETs must sign this Accident Insurance paper, from this pamplet [shows pamplet I don't remember ever getting]

Me: [swinks eyes and tries to remember] Uh, yeah, I might have that.

Supervisor: ‘Might have it’?

Me: Yeah, I mean, it’s probably at my house with the small library of info I received at the JET orientation.

Supervisor: So . . . you don’t have it with you?

Me: Nope

Supervisor: You didn’t wake up this morning and just know that I would stop by and ask for this piece of paper so maybe you should bring it with you to school today?

Me: Well, you know I’m not Japanese . . . or clairvoyant.

Supervisor: No, I suppose you’re not.

Today’s lesson: Take that piece with of paper with both hands, bow, and make sure it never leaves your person for the length of your stay in Japan.