Two more job interviews

I went to 2 more job interviews this week, but both of them didn't give me a very nice feeling.

The first interview was with an international marketing company and I applied for sales and marketing position. I went in for an interview with another guy and we took turns answering questions. It felt a bit weird to have an interview in Thai, because the interviews I've been doing so far are either in English or Japanese. I didn't like the job because it looks like it'll be a "hardcore" sales position; finding new customers, communicating with strangers and trying to persuade them, creating marketing booths and events, etc. The Thai woman who interviewed me looked really aggressive, and I was wondering if it's true that most women who work in marketing companies need to be tough and aggressive. Personally, I don't like that, you know? Why do you have to be so aggressive that it's almost rude to people? I know that marketing field requires people to be energetic and active, but why does it feel like people cross the energetic line to aggressive line so easily? I'm not sure if I'll go back to the second interview for this company, whether I'll receive the call from them or not.

The second interview was for management trainee position training in order to be a store manager with a Japanese clothing brand company. I had an interview with 2 Japanese men; the younger one being able to speak quite good English (always a nice surprise). I felt like an idiot trying to explain things in Japanese, and I knew I wouldn't feel so limited if it was either in Thai or English. Again, I don't think the position sounds right for me. It feels like the company needs a person who is really, really active, because as a store manager, you need to move around a lot and it's a hard work responsible for everything in the store, so the interviewer even asked me if I have health problems or if I exercise on a regular basis. Also, I think they are looking for people who can work for them long-term, because the training will take about 2-3 years in order to be a store manager, but for me, as for now I only want to work for a few years then plan to continue master's later. They are looking for long-term commitment, when I'm not quite ready to give them. This sounds weirdly like a relationship, huh? :P At the end of the interview, I could feel the vibe that I don't have what they are looking for and they don't have what I'm looking for, so yeah, maybe this job is not for me.

I'm not discouraged though, don't worry :-) Now I see that going for job interviews is a good practice to improve myself with thinking, summarizing my thoughts, and answering questions skill. I see job interviews as a good experience!

Oh, something I've noticed from the job interviews is that Thai kids tend to mention about their parents' opinions a lot during job interviews, like the Japanese interviewer told me that many Thai graduates he had interviewed before said that their parents prefer their children to work in a head office, rather than work in a store, because working in a head office is considered "higher" status. I was...surprised! Why would you mention something like that in a job interview!? Can't they find other reasons, THEIR own reasons, that they think working in a store is not a position for them? Maybe it's normal attitude in Thailand where all the decisions are heavily influenced by the families. But I think it sounds so immature to refer to your parents all the time in a job interview. Aren't we adults!? Can't we make decisions about OUR jobs on our own? Maybe people could never be fully adults if they grew up in Thai families...I know families who are unwilling to let their kids make their own decisions about studying/career/future. Isn't it a shame? No wonder why Thai kids can never grow up.

I also went to another recruitment company asking them to help me find the job and ended up talking to the career consultant there for almost 2 hours. My consultant really took time asking me questions about my resume and what kind of job I'm looking for and introducing me to some jobs they have available at the moment. But I guess I'll have to wait for a while until after October 31 to hear back from him because the government announced the public holiday from October 27-31 due to the serious flood situation in Bangkok.

That's also another reason why I don't feel so pressured with finding the jobs, because now the whole Bangkok is panicking about the flood and people start fleeing the city to other provinces nearby this weekend. It's not really a normal situation that companies are actively looking for new people to hire when now they have a major flood problem to deal with, you know?

Still keeping my fingers crossed that my house won't be flooded too severely, though the situation is getting worse and worse. So far we haven't had a plan to evacuate anywhere like some people. If people plan to evacuate, I think they should go away at least a month, because I don't think the whole Bangkok will be dry up quicker than that. By the way, I think it's really easy for government to tell all 9 million Bangkok residents to evacuate, but now evacuation centers are almost full, so where do they expect people to go? What about people who have no money and no relatives in the countryside? The government is so not taking responsibility in this. On the other hand, I think they are incapable of taking responsibility even if they want to.

At times like this it gives me a strong emphasis that I live in the third world country where people are expected to help themselves on their own, and we can't rely on the government because they are full of shit and incapable of managing anything. Facing with major natural disaster made it even more obvious that the rich has many more choices to survive and the poor will most likely suffer.