Peak performance in a job interview
CLIMBING a mountain to get a job is not necessarily a metaphor for enormous odds in Japan.
In order to test an applicant's enthusiasm, one Tokyo-based online shop operator held job interviews on top of Mt Fuji, the country's highest mountain.
Fifteen out of the 21 university students who initially applied for the interviews gathered at the 5th station located at 2400m mark of the 3776m mountain on Tuesday, where they were met by Daiji Kanda, 33, the president of Image Net Co Ltd.
Mr Kanda's entourage included another company executive and six female models.
The six applicants who failed to appear may have been put off by forecasts of an approaching typhoon and the inclement weather.
At 2:00pm, with the temperature at 15C, they all set out for the summit, wearing their own mountain clothes and carrying their bags.
They also had to carry a table, two chairs and camera equipment.
At the 7th station, located at 3100m, Mr Kanda held his first lecture concerning the company and its business. Despite the rain and strong wind, all of the applicants, except one of the girls, reached the summit at 6am the next day.
Two of the male students and one of the female students fell ill while climbing to the top and were not interviewed. The one female who pulled out at the seventh station had to make the descent by herself.
On reaching the summit, the applicants' first assignment was to videotape the models.
After the filming session, with the temperature hovering between 0C and 2C, the task at hand began and Mr Kanda started interviewing the seven males and four females from 7.10am. Each interview took about 10 minutes.
"It was unfortunate that we were not able to worship the day's first and divine sunrise (due to the typhoon lashing Mt Fuji).
"But I am very happy that you have demonstrated your strong will that you wanted to join us by all means," Mr Kanda told his huddled group. A spokesman for the company, Sumiko Iwasaki, explained the purpose of the exercise as: "Our president wanted to know if students had determined to complete the climbing, and how they would be able to help each other."
"Our company does not need easygoing, lazy staff," Ms Iwasaki said. Image Net sells mostly women's clothing on the Internet.
The company has 40 staff and the lucky three or four applicants will know next week whether they have a career with the company.
They can look forward to being part ot Mr Kanda's team in April.
Image Mekcy was expected to announce the results of job interviews some time next week.
They will pick up three or four students from the 21 applicants. Successful candidates are expected to join the company in April next year.
One student from Nihon University, who completed the climb, said he applied out of curiosity.
"It sounded interesting," he said.
"But now, it is hard to express my feeling of satisfaction in a few words.
"While climbing, we received a lot of encouragement from the president and his staff," he said.
- The Courier-Mail, 27 Aug 2005.
I think this mountain top interview is crazy! But totally novel and exciting. Maybe more exciting than 'The Apprentice' I'm catching. At least they get a final panoramic view before they get fired and I hope they don't jump down the cliff after hearing that.
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