msaj career-fair 2008 (T_T)

I meant to post this earlier but laziness and lack of idea to write has resulted in this delay. Whatever. So a couple of weeks ago I went to the jobfair that msaj conducted in Tokyo, and surprisingly, I thought it was well worth the long trip to get there; although it almost drained all of my energy and animalistic sexual desires. Just right after returning home, I booted up my PC and watched a video of yoshizawa akiho in a Japanese subway train on youtube, and I felt nothing. Proof that I’m very tired.

The 6 of us (zarul, bentong, sherrrrr, shazi, tipah and me) started our long journey at 1200 hours in a rented mazda premacy; the car was not small, but I would prefer it to be bigger though. I can’t feel my ass after sitting in there for hours and hours.

Uish, tulis dalam bahasa melayu pon ok gak nih!

Sampai kat Tokyo, terus cari tempat bermalam. Pusing punya pusing, last2 jumpa satu capsule hotel kat asakusa, dekat aje ngan tempat jobfair tu dianjurkan. What’s a capsule hotel, you might ask? Wikipedia it!

Capsule hotel kat Asakusa tuh lebih kurang mcam capsule hotel kat Osaka yg aku penah stay dulu. Cuma kat sini, ada 露天風呂(rotenburo – outdoor hot spring bath). Lokasi plak kat tingkat atas sekali pulak tuh! So sambil mandi hot spring bogel ramai2 ngan customer2 lain, aku bole sempat menikmati keindahan malam asakusa dari tempat tinggi. Mintak2 la takde org ambik gamba daripada jalan raya kat bawah. Feels good to be bare-ass naked, on top of a tall building, overseeing a culturally-rich Japanese town like Asakusa.

Badan pon jadi panas lepas mandi, terus pegi nak tido. Hmm… capsule hotel nih memang la kecik, tapi ok la kalo setakat nak buat tido. Tapi sebab capsule2 nih dia letak padat + rapat2, memang susah gak la nak tido kalo tak tahan bunyi. Mcam situation aku, pakcik sebelah depan capsule aku dengkur kuat gila, pastu siap mengigau apa ntah. Org sebelah aku ni plak tengah layan Japanese AV (brapa yen ntah sejam, lupa) dengar sampai capsule aku. Kalo skill meneka aku hebat, kalo tak silap aku, dia mesti tengah layan Aoi Sora punya video; kali ni dia jadi nurse rajin yg ingin berbakti untuk keselesaan pesakit2 di bawah jagaan nya. I mean, no one mourns like Aoi Sora! That’s why I know! Hmmm….. Tapi sedar tak sedar, aku tertido gak. Bunyi alarm handphone membuka mata di awal pagi.

Bukak mata, rasa malas gila nak mandi. Lagipon sebelum tido semalam dah mandi dah. So aku ambik keputusan untuk sembur deodorant aje. 5 saat. Lebih daripada itu, ketiak bole beku! Pastu pegi siap2 pakai suit sumer. It’s time to go job hunting!

Sampai2 kat lokasi, dapat jumpa ngan memba2 lama. Memba2 time kat skolah bahasa dulu. Gilak ah dah lama gila tak jumpa. 懐かしい。。。 tapi yg paling aku terkejut ialah perubahan mendadak si razmi. Weh slim gila ko skang! Pastu, mentang2 dah slim, sedap2 aje kutuk aku dah jadi bulat ek? Takpe. Nanti aku ganbaru diet! Karu plak stay boroi. Yanti plak... 綺麗になったな！Good to see you guys!

Anyways, masuk2 aje dewan jobfair tuh, kepala pening sekejap. Ada banyak gila booth with too many people. Tak tau aku nak cuba company apa. Pusing punya pusing punya pusing, aku ambik giliran kat perodua. Ramai gila org yg mintak perodua nih. Tunggu lama gila nak sampai giliran aku. Perodua punya interview ni pelik gak. Ada 3 org interviewer. Kebanyakan org kena dalam english, tapi time aku duduk kat situ, aku bole dengar gak kenkadang diaorg cakap melayu. Ada jugak yg kena cakap bahasa jepun. woot berdebar2 gak la. Mana tau time aku, dia suruh cakap melayu, english, japanese selang seli? Woo pening!

tunggu punya tunggu, last2 masuk lunch time! So diaorg suruh org yg tunggu belakang aku pegi makan dulu, tinggal aku ngan paklan aje last. Fuuh. Pastu kena panggil. Hmm... nasib baik interviewer aku nih cool aje. Takde nak pressure2 sangat. Soalan nya bukan nya soalan2 yg berbentuk akademik ke apa ke. Dia cuma tanya kenapa nak masuk perodua, nak kerja bahagian mana (aku cakap quality control ataupon production), pasal life kat jepun etc. It was a pretty controlled and relaxed mood. He asked me a short question, so I gave him a long, detailed answer. At the end of the interview, the interviewer asked me : "So kamu nih memang betul2 berminat la ngan perodua nih? Kita tengok la macam mana ye…"

The interview lasted about 30 minutes when everybody took about 20. I talk too much. Anyways, perut dah berkeroncong so cepat2 aku minta diri pastu pegi ke kaunter ambik makanan. Beratur sekejap pastu sampai la giliran aku. Aku tengok org depan2 aku sumer dapat bento tempura. Oh sedap nya. Tapi sampai2 giliran aku, diaorg cakap bento dah habis, sedangkan aku bole nampak banyak lagi bento tempura yg sama, dalam kotak yg diaorg letak belakang counter tuh. Hmm... pelik gak, asal diaorg stop bagi bento nih?

Mula2 org kat counter tu cakap ada masalah sket. Masalah apa pulak, bagi aje la kan? So tanya punya tanya, baru la aku tau masalah nya. Rupa2 nya bento tempura yg diaorg edarkan selama tuh, ada masuk bahan2 yg diperbuat daripada BABI. Muhahaha nasib baik aku tak makan, tapi nasib malang la kepada yg dah makan. Harap2 diaorg mulakan makan ngan bismillah dan habiskan makan ngan alhamdulillah. Burp.

Aha lupa nak cakap. aku sebenarnya dah janji ngan org msaj untuk rahsiakan perkara nih, tapi aku janji untuk tak cakap kot mulut aje. Aku tak janji yg aku takkan tulis dalam blog nih hehehe so I don't break any promises ok?

Tapi kenapa la msaj bole buat kesilapan besar mcam ni? Sebenarnya msaj dah buat siap2 bento (yg confirm halal) sendiri untuk diedarkan. Tapi silap budget, org yg datang lagi ramai drpd bento yg disediakan. Attendance was unexpectedly high. So dia org menggelabah la nak pegi beli bento tambahan, dan time diaorg pegi beli tu la yg diaorg lalai nak check, ada BABI ke tak. Memang tak patut… so aku minum air C.C. Lemon aje nak alas perut. Pastu pow roti drpd Arip. ありがとう！マジ助かった！

Lepas waktu rehat, aku pegi cuba Konica-Minolta plak. Mula2 kena ambik IQ test. Aduih leceh tul la IQ test. Pastu dlm jam 1430, kena pegi interview. Masuk2 bilik, ada 2 org interviewer tgh interview seorg gadis melayu. Haha. And at the waiting seat, there's another girl sitting with her face down. She looked pretty nervous. She kept rubbing her hands, left and right.

If I were in a vacation right now, I'd sure think of something to help this girl with her nervousness, talk to her, make a dumb joke to make her smile. Unfortunately, I'm having my job interview so I walk silently to sit next to her, thinking and creating stories that I could use during the interview.

Sambil tunggu giliran kena panggil tu, aku fikir la mcam2 jenis idea dan cerita yg bole dipakai time interview nanti. Kenapa aku tertarik ngan camera. Pengetahuan aku pasal teknologi camera. Pasal Konica-Minolta punya introduction to internal lens into the camera world. Macam2 la. Buah fikiran.

Tapi time aku tengah reka2 idea2 nih, aku terdengar interviewer tu cakap kat girl yg tgh kena interview tu: No, you have been mistaken. We don’t make cameras; we make HARD-DISKs!

EEE!!! Company ni buat hard disk ke?! Terus aku menoleh kat girl sebelah aku; tanya dia. She answered with a nervous smile saying yes. Alamak! Idea pasal camera tak bole pakai la kalo mcam nih! Kena fikir idea baru pasal HARD-DISK plak! Dan time tu jugak la dia panggil aku ke depan. Interview bermula.

Interviewer ada dua orang. One Chinese-Malaysian lady on the left and a Japanese men, probably in his 50’s on the right. The lady interviewer looked very bored and tired; then as soon as I took the seat, she looked at me with her sleepy eyes and asked: What is your weakness?

At first, I was thinking about jokingly telling her that my weakness is that I don’t know what my weaknesses is; so that she could wake up and actually hear what I want was saying. Thank God, my reasonings hit my head with a red brick, telling me to be serious; this is not a time to tell your stupid jokes!

As I was answering all these questions, I could see that both of the interviewers are already tired and worned out. Only the lady interviewer is doing the questioning though, the Japanese interviewer just listens. I have to do something to grab their intention and try to be different. Then she asked me if I have a question.

So I asked them: I believe that the era of the traditional hard disks with a spinning physical component is almost over. I believe that the future of digital storage lies in the development of flash based memory or other types of media. Like IBM, they just abandoned their hard disk development to focus on next-generation flash memory technology. So how does Konica-Minolta deal with this change to stay alive in the market? (Well, that is not EXACTLY what I asked, of course, but the meanings are the same, it’s just shorter as I don’t remember it word by word!)

Aku tanya dia, Konica=Minolta ni bole hidup lama ke dengan teknologi hard disk yg ketinggalan nih? Aduih, mulut aku ni memang patut kena cili. Kenapa la bole ter’kutuk’ company tu masa interview plak. Siot tul.

The lady interviewer looked at me like she didn’t understand what I was asking. The Japanese interviewer took a long hmmmmmmm and then started to open his mouth, explaining to me (in Japanese) that the future of hard disks is here to stay, and it’s far superior to any flash memory technology out there.

Adoih, kenapa la aku bole ter’kutuk’ company ni plak. Mulut aku ni memang la, banyak cakap sangat. Pastu time dia tengah bengang gila nak defend company dia punya future, I know I have to nod in agreement with what ever he is saying IF I want to save this interview-gone-bad. Then he stood up and started to draw bar graphs and pie charts, to help with his explanations. Hmm… I think I’ve pissed him off pretty good. I mean, who wouldn’t? When a mere student is dissing your own company, you have to defend it.

As I nod in agreement, I knew I fucked the interview up; why do I have to make the interviewer angry? Then at that point, I don’t care about the interview any more. I just wanna talk about hard disks with the Japanese interviewer. I complained that the hard disk sucks because it could break easily because of its moving parts, the reading speed is slow etc. What ever point that made me annoyed with the current hard disk technology, I brought it up, just to make my point about the failing future of the hard disk even stronger. I don’t care, if I fall down, at least I’d fall down with pride. Or perhaps that was just sheer arrogance and childishness. So we talked and talked. Eventually, the interview ended, 45 minutes, when it took 10 minutes for others.

When I’m finished, there were about 8-10 interviewees waiting at the back; I made them wait because I’ve been using more time than a normal interview would. When I walk out of the interview room, the Japanese interviewer went out also, to light a cigarette. Maybe he’s as tired as I am after our small talk. Then I remember him telling me: すごく良かった。後、日本語で説明出来て、良かった。

Is this guy for real? I just dissed his company, and he’s telling me it was good? This must be a trick or something. I don’t believe him, I’m sure to fail the interview.

One month has passed since that dreadful interview, and I was surprised that I was wrong.

Last week, I got an email from Konica-Minolta: I passed the first interview and were asked to attend the second interview this August! Aku kutuk syarikat tu time interview, dan aku lepas! Memang tak logic langsung. This must be a trick! Perodua punya interview, yg aku rasa ok sket, tak dengar apa2 berita plak.

Anyways, my job hunting is not over yet. Tomorrow, I’m going to Sendai (Miyagi Prefecture) to take SPI and IQ tests, as a part of an interview with this Japanese audio-visual and car navigational system company. Wish me luck, I need it.