Hey, I have an interview for the JET CIR position next week, and was wondering if anyone else had been there, done that, and have any advice? I'm a bit unsure as to how to prepare really, and don't have long left. I'm currently working my way through the CIR handbook so i at least know a massive chunk about what CIR's do etc...

I don't know for sure, as I was ALT. But I think much of the same advice applies; it's a job interview so focus on what you can do for them (eg. experience guiding foreign guests etc), not on how badly you want the job because you love japan for reasons xyz. I assume CIR is more competitive so this will be doubly true. Also any overseas experience that you can use to demonstrate you can handle homesickness etc will help you. Other than that just appear to be a likeable and interesting person. I imagine CIRs are assessed on their japanese level somewhat, so do your best in that part. Good luck.

Hmm, if you Google it there's lots of info on what happens at a CIR interview. For the Japanese part, it looks like they have you read two documents aloud (one being JLPT N2 level and one being N1), and ask you questions about the contents of them, and then they ask interview questions in Japanese.

Yeah, I had a CIR interview and ended up getting an ALT post. I got through the first reading but then had trouble with the second one at which point they switched it over to an ALT interview. Make sure your reading abilities are up to snuff, I would practice by reading newspaper articles (though the test shouldn't be as hard as that) and opinion columns too (like Yomiuri online). They give you one minute to read the article and digest it and then you have to answer some questions about it. Just stay calm and read it slow doing your best to absorb everything.

I also got the question, "What kind of speech would you give to high school students about America?" "Now imagine you had to give that speech to a group of elementary school students. How would you change the content?" Other than that I just remember questions about why I wanted to study Japanese and live in Japan.

Also read a lot of stuff on http://www.cirhomepage.org

I hope that helps

Thanks guys...
I read NHK every day, and understand most of what I'm reading, though I must admit, political artlicles can tie me in knots. A minute doesn't sound very generous though.
I think that whole 'speech' type question would upset me though ... I'm not too fast at thinking on my feet like that. Maybe those types of questions will throw me the most.

it seems as though all the CIR interviews vary by region, which isn't particularly helpful haha.
I have my interview in the UK, so I'm one of the unlucky ones who needs to do the whole thing in Japanese ><

I don't know if this happens in CIR interviews, since I was an ALT. But I learned that one thing they do in ALT interviews is to purposely ask questions that make it awkward and throw you off balance. The reasoning behind that is that you will encounter those kinds of situations in Japan so they want to see how you will react. So basically stay calm and don't let them fluster you. Also, btw, in my interview there were 3 people and two of them NEVER smiled or responded to me positively in any way throughout the interview. It made me feel like I wasn't interviewing well but I did get selected.