I submitted my resume and cover letter through a job hunting website and got an invite to interview at their head office in Shibuya. The job posting was all in English and requested English-speakers, saying the position was in a mostly English speaking environment. However all of their responses were in Japanese and the first interview was all in Japanese as well. The woman I met took me to a conference room and had me fill out a 4 page application that included my contact details and had short questions such as “how do you handle stress?” And “share an episode that exemplifies one of your strengths.” It also asked for salary expectations, potential starting date, as well as to rank my preferences for store locations and brands. Then she asked me standard interview questions like “why do you want to work here,” and had me describe my current job in detail. She also asked about my salary expectations again and asked if I still wanted the job if they didn’t offer as much money as if asked—I said I would have to think about it. She gave me the chance to ask questions and described a bit about the company culture. This whole process took about 90 minutes. I got another email one or two days later inviting me to a second interview. This interview was with a different woman, was a mix of both English and Japanese, and took 2 hours even though it was supposed to take only 1. She asked me even more in depth questions about my current job, including how I handled problems such as under performing staff. She asked if I’d visited a Zara store recently, and obviously I had because I wanted to be prepared. She asked for my impressions of the store so I went into detail about good points and points to improve. She then asked for my strategies on how to improve those points. We talked about salary in a bit more detail, and she explained the compensation packages and bonuses. We talked about potential start dates as well, since they were specifically hiring someone for a new store opening in a few months. Afterward she told me they’d get back to me within a week with their final decision. Got an email two days later saying I’d been rejected.