hello internet dyce quirk here and today i want to say congratulations
if you're watching this video you more than likely were selected by JET to come in for an interview
and if you weren't selected or you're just not sure yet still kudos to you because you're taking
that extra step to help prep yourself so that you have the best chances possible of being selected
if you go in for an interview now in this video i want to try to prep you as best as i possibly can
for the interview process by giving you 10 awesome tips that really helped me when i
was in the interview process because i remember scouring the internet looking for anything i
could use to help prep me for it it was full of a lot of anxiety waiting for it to happen
but ultimately it all paid off when i was accepted into the 2020 JET programme so
let's not waste time and let's get to it tip number one make a list of practice questions
now i don't know if i can personally tell you exactly what i was asked during my interview
yeah totally censored but you can find tons of lists of different questions that they'll ask
during the gen interview online and i would just take a lot of those questions put them
into one document and if you happen to find a list that has pre-made answers i would just
not use them in fact get rid of the answers and then make answers for yourself tip number two
look over your sop and your application and make questions from those documents now honestly this
should be a tip all in itself but if they invited you in for an interview that means they love your
application they think that you are perfect on paper for their program and so they're inviting
you in to check and make sure that everything they love on paper is you in person so you're going to
want to make sure that you look over both of those documents and make sure that you can answer any
questions they may have about those documents and in addition if you wrote down a location that you
would prefer to be placed in then make sure you know why you like each one of those areas that way
if they ask a question about it you're ready on the spot to answer it tip number three categorize
your questions now you don't have to do this but it definitely helped me out when i was practicing
because i would take my questions and i would put them into different categories like
family education goals etc and i practiced not only answering each individual question
but i also practice taking other answers from other questions and tying them in to each other
that way when i was answering questions i answered multiple questions at once and it gave them more
time to ask me questions that they didn't know about me instead of hitting every individual
question and it also gave them a very full answer that showed them what kind of person i was so
let's say for example they ask a question about your goals you could answer the one question and
then you if you practiced enough can seamlessly tie in more goals that you want to share with
the interviewer so that you are a better choice for the program so this is a really pro tip that
you're probably not going to hear from everywhere so categorize those questions tip number four
practice with others this is not only going to help you randomize the questions so that
you're more able to answer a question on the fly but also if you ask them to reword
the questions then it's going to train your brain to look for the core of the question
instead of looking for a very specific question that you've been practicing and honestly this goes
incredibly well with the categorizing tip that i have for number three because if you know the core
of each question then you'll have a really easy time tying different answers together to give
better more full answers to these questions and honestly it's also going to help you up
so that if the interviewers ask you a question in a way that you're not expecting you don't get
tripped up as bad because you're already used to somebody else changing the wording or asking it
in a slightly different way so tip number four is really important as well tip number five if you're
married like me then you're definitely going to want to talk through the entire program with your
spouse you're going to want to know what their goals are for this time period and you're going
to want to know how they feel about the entire program as well and that's because jet they really
do want this to be an excellent program not only for the people in japan that get to experience
you but also for you and your family because your spouse is a part of that and so i honestly think
that like half of my questions had to do with my spouse in japan so you're going to want to make
sure that you not only look into everything on your side of it but also on theirs again
they want the best for you and your family so make sure that you know what those details include tip
number six prep two to three questions for your jet interviewees uh basically when you go into the
interview you're going to be interviewed by three separate people one will be a consulate member
or an embassy member depending on where you're at the second will be a professional japanese
educator and the third will be a former jet alumni and basically whenever you go into an interview
you want to make sure you give each person eye contact and attention so make sure you do that
but knowing who these people are may help you in directing your questions to the right person
and so just make sure of one thing uh don't try to come up with these questions on the spot
i would definitely make sure you have two to three questions prepped prior to
the interview tip number seven if you wrote that you know some japanese on your application
then just make sure you brush up on it before the interview and that's because although the japanese
test portion of the interview isn't going to dock you any points it still gives you bonus points and
those are really really helpful so just make sure that you practice that you don't have to overdo it
just as long as you didn't lie on your application about how good your japanese was so make sure you
brush up on that before you get started tip number eight try to remain as calm as you can going into
your interview now naturally you've worked really hard for this and so there's gonna be some nerves
that come along with it and a little bit of nerves can actually be really helpful
but too much nerves can result in paralysis and you don't want that so you have to make sure
that you're doing what you can to be as confident and calm walking into the process as possible and
the first thing you should do to accomplish that is remember that they selected you
to come in for the interview they think that you are an awesome candidate for this program so that
should be bolstering your confidence a little bit already and secondly you should make sure that you
do whatever you have to to be confident and calm uh for me i think that when i look sharp i feel
more confident so here's a picture of me before the interview i made sure i dressed professionally
i made sure i got a haircut beforehand it made me pretty confident walking in and again if you're
like me when i was driving to the interview i listened to music that got me pumped so i
was listening to like some axle f crazy frog or something like that and you should do the same
not to mention you should also make sure you arrive 30 minutes early uh not only does this help
prevent you from being tardy or from being late it also just gives you an awesome amount of time
to calm down um i mean on the day of my interview there was actually a blizzard and that 30 minutes
helped me tremendously uh but in addition to that arriving 30 minutes early is gonna help
you with our next tip which is tip number nine talk with others inside of the waiting room
now when you arrive you're going to be placed inside of a separate room with other jet
applicants a jet alumni and possibly one member of the japanese consulate or embassy that you're at
and there's a lot of people that believe that when you're inside this room it's actually a part of
the jet interview process it's not proven but if it is then just like i mentioned inside my video
what is the jet program which i'll put a card to right up here above the jet program is interested
in people who are going to engage with others that they don't know and so when you're inside
this room you can take a really awesome piece of advice from andrew carnegie in his book how to win
friends and influence people and don't be focused on yourself instead focus on others this is a huge
boost in emotional intelligence because it just shows that first off you're not self-absorbed
instead you're focusing on others it shows you're self-aware and it also means that
you're really good at engaging in conversations because you're not talking about yourself the
whole time instead you're getting other people to talk with you you're showing interest in what
their interests are you're interested in what their goals are and that gets people talking
because everyone likes to talk about their goals so that extra 30 minutes that you show up early
that's really going to help you shine in this area and it also gives you time to calm down
so show up 30 minutes early talk with the other guests and also make sure that you focus on their
goals and not your own don't worry they'll ask you about yours you'll have your time to share
and finally tip number 10 if you're still feeling uneasy or maybe you're not in the
interview portion of the jet application process then why not check out some of our other videos i
try to make sure that i include tips in every video about the jet program and i also try to
make sure that i include a few tips that are multiple use tips like they can be used in
different portions of the application process uh for example in my what is the jet program
video that i mentioned earlier uh i talk about what the core of the jet program is and trying
to use those core elements of the jet program and tying them into questions maybe for a jet
interview would be really really good on your part so uh if you want to check those out first off
the one that i mentioned earlier is inside this little dot up here um you just have to click that
and it's a card that i put up so you can check that out and i also have all of my jet videos for
the application process in the description so if you like this video or you found it
informative please remember to like and subscribe so that we can continue to give you great content
and also if you have any other questions about any part of the jet application process just
make sure you put it in a comment below i try to make sure i check those all the time and finally
if you know somebody else applying for the jet program i know it's competitive but honestly don't
be stingy please make sure you share these videos with them if you think it'll be helpful for them
if you don't think it'll be helpful don't worry about it but uh honestly we all love
japan and we want them to experience the best ambassadors possible because of what the goals
of this program are and so just make sure you're sharing it so that we can make sure we send the
best people over that we possibly can having said that thank you so much for watching this video i
wish you the best of luck and ganbatte good luck uh do your best i'll see you later Dyce Quirk out