tips about plain old arubaito?

[Kanchou]

Since I have little interesting in teaching English I figured I would just look for a plain old job in a game center or something.

Well, my first mistake was not having a curriculum vitae (rirekisho), not knowing I needed one (or even knowing what the hell a rirekisho is, nor remembering what exactly a curriculum vitae is) when I showed up for the interview I scheduled... that's my fault I suppose.

Well, I get one, and head back to see if I could schedule another appointment, and apparently something was "dame," I assume since they have to be scheduled days in advance (this one was scehduled 5 days beforehand), they wouldn't be accepting any more by then... or something... Or maybe they had somehow managed to fill the positions within the 3 hours I was gone? (as if)

Second, I try another store down the street (First Club Sega in Akihabara, than Sega Gigo) since I hear they were still "boshu chuu." Well, I talk to one of the guys there and he says I have to call Sega's main office, and that they're still hiring... so I go home and do so...

And now two people basically seem to try to get rid of my by saying that a foreign person can't perform the job of a damn game center floor staff and that the Sega Gigo positions had been filled... (riiight... I figure they might have confused it with Club Sega though) Something about "teinei" and getting angry (although like I told him I'm not much of a person to get angry)... After about 30 "moshiwake arimasens" (from the guy on the phone of course, and actually I'd been hearing it all day from basically every person I interacted with) the conversation ends and I'm left without so much as an interview set up...

And to think that I hadn't even word the word foreigner the entire time I'd been looking into this (not on the phone before, not in person)... (they were apparently also hiring phone staff.... I assume they didn't think I was applying for that.) This guy even asked if I was IN Japan. Why the hell would I call them about a part-time job if I wasn't in Japan? Strangely, he asked if I was Japanese instead of asking if I was a foreigner... maybe I should have just lied to get an interview... buahaha.

Why do I get the feeling that 'they' always try to give you the run around and try to tell you that you're not quailified for the job without knowing a damn thing about you as polite as possible?

yappari killing spree da na... soreshikanai!

ahh screw it... anyone know if the yakuza are hiring? I hear their memberships are pretty low these days.

In semi-seriousness: Does anyone know exactly what goes through the heads of Japanese people when a foreigner is trying to get even a fairly menial job in their establishment? Or anyway to keep them from just mentally shutting you out? Besides a foot in the face or something.

[Ptyx]

Keep trying until you find a potential employer who will hire you because you're a foreigner. It'll happen, probably not in the big companies like sega though. They're probably nervous enough about keeping a good image as it is not to risk it with a foreigner. They don't need you, they need the most common looking people, they want their crew to make one with the walls of the game center.
I have this theory about gaming. It's like going to a sex shop, people don't like to be watched by strangers while playing unless they're very good at it.
What kind of arubaito do you want to do ?
I did an arubaito job at the company i'm working at, but it's an office kind of work, i had next to no interaction with the clients.
They hired me mostly because they thought it would be fun to have a gaijin running around the office. Plus when the clients get a glimpse of me behind my computer they're probably thinking "this company is great, they even have a gaijin !"
My advice would be, stay away from akihabara, and generally from "japanese" places, game centers, tech shop, japanese restaurants, pink salon...
Foreigners who are not clients make people nervous there.
Go to harajuku or ginza, go to fashion shops, italian restaurants, international hotels, design companies...
To sum it up, the kind of place where you can play the gaijin card.

What's going through their head is the same thing that would go through the head of a pizza place owner in Napoli when asked by a japanese for a waiter position. Imagine a sushi place in Tsukiji with an american guy holding the cash register.
Of course the guy can do his job, and most of the clients won't care or find it amusing. But from the owner's perspective it's plain obvious that he should get a japanese to do the job.

[Kanchou]

Hmm... true... thanks for the advice.

It just happened to be that Akihabara can be reached by my student trainpass... hehe.

I met a guy who Hawaii who now works in an airgun shop in Akihabara as well... and he seems to get along fine in a Japanese workplace environment.

My only other choice right now would be the Tsutaya near my station but my chances of going well there are even lower.

Oh well... I signed up for Find a Teacher and maybe that will get me enough to buy a new toy pistol or something

[Ptyx]

Getting along once you get the job is not a problem. Of course it's a case by case thing, but generally arubaito work is pretty straightforward.
Getting the job is more difficult. Then again an arubaito can get hired as easily as he is fired.
If you try at a lot of different places you'll find a job. The pay will be shit but it might prove more fun than teaching.

[Charles]

...Well, my first mistake was not having a curriculum vitae (rirekisho), not knowing I needed one (or even knowing what the hell a rirekisho is, nor remembering what exactly a curriculum vitae is) when I showed up for the interview I scheduled... that's my fault I suppose...

Charles' Rirekisho Kit

PDF format, 1.7Mb, contains printable high-resolution rirkekisho forms, and instructions in English and Japanese for producing a properly formatted resume and accompanying letter of introduction. Includes a handy rirekisho grammar and vocabulary guide in English/Japanese. This was the handout I made for the final delivery of a full-semester job-hunting research project in my 4th year Japanese class. I used this kit to produce my own rirekisho, which produced gasps of astonishment from Japanese HR people, "omigod a gaijin can do a rirekisho!" Fill one out in advance of an interview, you will probably be expected to fill out one of the company's forms, but I saw plenty of nihonjin at a job fair copying from their pre-prepared rirekisho into the company's forms. You may even get bonus FG points for being able to write kanji on the spot, even if you're copying from a form you've already written.

[Mulboyne]

Charles' Rirekisho Kit

Excellent. Nice link.

[oyajikun]

Thanks for the link!

[Kanchou]

Neato. I did already get one made with the help of some office staff at my university though.

[nullpointer]

Charles' Rirekisho Kit

Charles, this is neat. Thanks.

[ichigo partygirl]

that is soo great charles. Thanks very much.

[kotatsuneko]

very nicely laid out indeed. maybe it should be job-ware? [if it helps get you a job, send charlie a food box from jpn?]

[IkemenTommy]