I applied for the Associate Producer position at NHK (Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai) with their Washington, DC Bureau. NHK contacted me for a first-round interview by Zoom nearly three weeks after I applied. In early-February 2022, the first-round Zoom video interview consists of a panel of five or six people – a producer, the bureau chief, and four other Japanese reporters. I could see the cultural differences right up front as I had to rephrase or repeat my questions to people who are not from the United States and English is not their first language. NHK is a foreign media outlet based in Japan. This is not the position to do reporting and producing as you will have difficulty getting work samples, and the work samples will not help you get a journalism job or continue your career in journalism in the United States. And, everything, a person is doing in this role, is for NHK, the main Japanese channel airing in all 47 prefectures in Japan. I arrived at the NHK Washington Bureau in February 2022, the contact person who is a producer gave me a tour of the office, the company has a contractual agreement with ABC News to get video feeds, and then informed me to take an assessment. The assessment was NOT a writing test. Here is what NHK had me do in their assessment: The company had me record 10 minutes of a recent White House daily press briefing using Otter.AI mobile app. Then, asked me to create a transcript between the White House Press Secretary and the reporters (the press, the media), and to highlight newsworthy soundbites. The soundbites that were of importance to NHK was the Russia – Ukraine Crisis. After, that they asked me to send the assessment to four people by email. Then, the company told me to read two articles about the Russia-Ukraine Crisis and to go and conduct man-on-the-street interviews about that particular topic. The bureau chief even said to me, “Do not get people that look like us.” I managed to get interviews of about four people and I was required to stay at one spot near the vicinity of the office building. After I obtained the interviews, the bureau chief and 6-7 other journalists had me go into a meeting room to be interviewed. It was another panel interview and they asked me questions about my experience and skillset. I was honest to them when I told them about my career goals that are U..S-based and had to explain the journalism processes and structures here in the U.S., which NHK and their journalists know nothing about and are clueless about. They also asked me to give them my personal opinion about the Russia-Ukraine crisis, minutes after I was told to go out on the street and interview people on that same topic. I told them that journalists do not share their personal opinions. I did not share my opinions with them. When the interview concluded, the panel did not give me an opportunity on their own to ask them questions until I ask that I have some questions. The bureau chief left the meeting to take a phone call. I ask NHK a question about career advancement. The prospective employer said the entry-level job position is eligible for promotion at five years (five-year mark). They said, "After five years of working, you are eligible for a promotion." Then, when I had a few more questions about the NHK and the job, the journalists in the panel interview were apprehensive that I had questions. They asked me twice, “How many questions do you have?” “How many questions do you have?” One said to me, “Do you always interview employers like this?” “Do you really live in the city, state you say you live in?” I never had this type of encounter before. It was very weird. They also told me that the person who held the position last left because of a career change. The person told me confidentially days before I was interviewed that they left because there was no upward mobility in the position. The Glassdoor.com and Indeed.com employee reviews for that prospective employer echo the same sentiment. Please understand that I, as a job seeker, am interviewing the prospective employer just as they are interviewing me. Then, the employees ask me to send them a list of my references. At times, in the second interview, I felt I needed to clarify my questions to the hiring manager and the colleagues and/or rephrase my questions in another way several times because of their cultural differences. After the interview, I sent them my references as requested, but I knew deep down that I did not want the job. I researched the entire staff at the company and released that most of them are from Japan, have experience in China and Japan, and all of them can fluently speak Japanese. This means one's professional connections are limited. NHK said, "we have decided to move forward with a candidate whose qualifications more closely match our needs for this particular position." If you want to work in journalism in the U.S. and continue there, do not work for NHK.
