APN-GCR

I received an email from a friend, i followed the link and found out a vacancy to work in Kobe, Japan. It was such a challenging job because i will have to deal with researchers, policy makers and governmental agencies in Asia Pacific.

So i decided to try and send my CV through email, and the response as follows:

"Dear Ms. Maylina,

"Thank you very much for your interest in the APN and the position of theProgramme Fellow for scientific affairs. Please find attached some moreinformation on the position, which I hope is useful for you.If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact me."

Best regards,
Yukihiro IMANARI, Mr.
Executive Manager
APN Secretariat
1-5-1 Wakinohama Kaigan Dori
Chuo-ku, Kobe
651-0073 JAPAN
Tel.: +81-78-230-8017
Fax: +81-78-230-8018

Then i response by telling him thank you for the response and i await for the interview. And, two weeks later another email coming from the same address:

"Dear Ms. Maylina,"

"Thank you very much once again for your interest in the position of APN Programme Fellow for Scientific Affairs. I am pleased to inform you that after careful consideration you have been short-listed for a telephone interview."

"Could you please let me know, by email, your availability for an interview for about 15 minutes on Thursday, 06 March 2008, at 14:00h, Japanese Standard Time (Please remember that the time in Japan is two hours ahead of Western Indonesia Time)?"

"If this time should not be convenient to you I could offer 13:00h Japanese Standard Time on Friday, 07 March 2008. Please advise us your availability as soon as possible."

"Based on the agreed time we will give you a phone call for the interview. Our Scientific Officer, Dr. Linda Stevenson, will lead the interview, but some of the APN Secretariat staff, including myself, will listen to the conversation via a speaker phone. Please also confirm the number we should dial: +62812-878-1912 or +6221-848-4561?Looking forward to hearing from you as soon as possible."

I was excited and quickly answered the email that i would be available on Friday, March 7, 13.00 (Japan Time), would mean 11.00 Western Indonesia Time. I prepared all the things, open the APN website (www.apn-gcr.org) to find out more about the institution.

I was more than ready to receive the phone interview. And i think, it run smoothly. We enjoyed the time of the interview........I do hope and pray for it. The interviewer promised to announce the result on Tuesday (March 11).

Tuesday morning, i open my email with all questions inside my head, and this is what i received:

"Dear Ms. Maylina,"

" I regret to inform you that, after a great deal of due care and consideration, you have not been selected for the position of APN ProgrammeFellow for Scientific Affairs."

"We realize that this news must be of great disappointment to you, but please note that we were extremely impressed with your credentials. Moreover, we will keep your application on record should a suitable position with the APN become available. We would also encourage you to have a look at other global change programmes' websites, as other opportunities may exist."

"In the meantime, we would like to thank you again for your interest in and application to the APN. We also wish you the very best of success with your
future endeavours."

With best regards,
Yukihiro IMANARI, Mr.
Executive Manager
APN Secretariat
1-5-1 Wakinohama Kaigan Dori
Chuo-ku, Kobe
651-0073 JAPAN
Tel.: +81-78-230-8017
Fax: +81-78-230-8018


Tadaaaaa.........

In one hand, i am dissappointed because i want this job so much to escape from this current job, and i think i impressed the interviewer as well at that time. I was so curious to know why they don't take me. And to fulfill my curiousity, i reply the rejection email:

"Dear Mr. Imanari,"

"Thank you for the consideration."

"It is a dissapointment for me, indeed. But i am sure the decision made by very careful consideration of APN. For my information and improvement in the future, i would really appreciate if you could tell me the reason that i failed in this selection."

"Hope APN get the best candidates for the Programme Fellow for the year ahead."

"I also highly appreciate for keeping my application on record. "

"Again, thank you for the opportunity and success for APN."

Best Regards,

Maylina

I'm not sure whether it's a common thing in Japan that interviewee is asking for the reasons why he/ she is rejected. But, my curiousity makes me forget about it and bravely send the email.

Mr. Imanari doesn't make me to wait for hours, i receive the answer just after doing some administrative tasks in my office.

"Dear Maylina,"

"Many thanks for your email. As you can imagine I was one of the secretariat staff who was sitting in the phone interview, while Linda was leading it asshe is the supervisor the new Programme Fellow would have to work under."

"We all thought that your credentials are really impressive. So in our view you haven't failed at all, but simply applied for a job which we thought would not make you happy with: while all of us had the feeling that you would be a great person in communicating with our members and applicants,researchers, government officials, etc. the job we was offering is very muchdesk work, especially managing and filing (by using ACCESS, for instance)the data of applicants and their proposals."

"Would we be offering a position related to public relations, membership development and communications you would be one of the most suitable candidates we could think of. "

"These are my personal view and I am writing these lines without having askedmy colleagues for their opinions. But I am more than sure that they arebasically feeling the same way. I thank you again for your interest in and application to the APN. "

"As said before, we would like to keep your CV on record for any vacancy we may beable to offer at our office in the future."

All the best,
Yuki Imanari
APN Secretariat

He seemed to be very friendly by answering me like that, and i feel we're friends already. I really appreciate he would wrote to me like that, so i replied:

"Hi Mr. Imanari,"

"Thanks a million for the response. I really appreciate it. "

"You are adding the list of people telling me that i am very much into communicating. Now, i am very sure that it is my talent. I am not sure how many times i have said thanks to you but i want to say it again, thank you."

"Ok, we can keep in touch."

Cheers,

Maylina


Oh my GOD....Thanks for everything.....
In my dissappointment, i find a blessing........