沈黙が広がった。「I always do my best」の後で。

Picture this: you're sitting across from a hiring manager at a foreign company, and they ask, "Tell me about yourself." You take a deep breath and start with, "I am a hard worker and I always do my best..." — and you can almost feel the energy in the room flatline.

Here's the thing: in many Western workplace cultures, interviews aren't just about listing your qualities. They're about making a case for yourself with concrete stories. Saying you're a hard worker means almost nothing without evidence to back it up.

The go-to framework interviewers in global companies love is called the STAR method — Situation, Task, Action, Result. Instead of saying "I'm a team player," you walk them through a real situation: what the challenge was, what you specifically did, and what changed because of it.

Another thing that trips a lot of Japanese candidates up is being too modest. In Japan, downplaying your achievements is considered humble and polite. But in a Western-style interview, if you say "it was a team effort" every single time, the interviewer genuinely can't tell what you brought to the table. Own your contribution — it's not bragging, it's clarity.

And when it comes to asking questions at the end? Don't just say "I have no questions." That can come across as disinterest. Ask something that shows you've actually done your homework about the company. Something like, "I noticed your team recently expanded into Southeast Asia — how has that shaped the team's priorities?" That one question can do more than a perfect resume.