I walked into the marketing interview, nervous but excited. They asked about my favorite campaign, and I shared a story about a local brand I helped grow online. We laughed about creative ideas, discussed trends, and by the end, it felt more like a brainstorm session than an interview.

I met the Tesla reps during a job event in Tokyo. Everybody who had an interest got a personal one-on-one interview. You were even allowed to chose if you wanted to do it in Japanese or English. This was a farcry from all other companies present who just use 'global' as a buzzword while still doing everything in a tradtional Japanese way. The interview itself was very pleasant. It felt more like a talk on what drives you, what interests you and how you could compliment their company. This is not a one-directional examination where the interviewer asks you to answer all these questions in some exact wordings. Instead, you both just converse and discover together whether there's a mutual benefit. You really feel at ease. In the end, I had a very good connection with them. I was even told that my personality would do well at companies like Tesla, Apple, etc but I also felt I wasn't what they were looking for right now. At the moment (June 2015) they are only a small division in Japan. During their growth they mainly have a need for Japanese native speakers (even if your Japanese is good). Nonetheless, worth checking out now and then. My first contact was very positive!