When you're heading towards the home stretch in your university studies and the job market is looming large, many students begin thinking about interviews.

Under normal circumstances, getting interviewed for a job can be a nerve-racking experience. However, with the novel coronavirus pandemic in full swing, online interviews through Zoom or other videoconferencing platforms present an additional hurdle.

Now in the second half of their junior year, Doshisha University student and Twitter user sora.F (@13237sora) has clearly been thinking about the interview process. Their recent Twitter posts reveal that they've been considering ways to make the online interview process easier. To do this, they've taken a unique approach. Perhaps in part owing to their interests in advertising and modern art listed in their profile, sora.F taps into Japanese subculture to create clever visuals which serve to break the ice and promote a relaxed mood, presumably in order to allow both interviewer and interviewees to communicate better.

For example, in August, they proposed a tool for interviewees that borrows from idol culture, in which fans decorate hand-held fans known as uchiwa with photos and messages to be seen by the object(s) of their adulation.

---

Perhaps inspired and encouraged by the popularity of that Tweet, which now has over 261,000 likes and 58,000 retweets at the time of writing, sora.F put their creativity to work on another visual aid. However, instead of focusing on scoring extra points with something the interviewer can see, this time the focus was directed at helping the interviewee feel more relaxed.

In the style of a Japanese otome dating sim, sora.F imagined the interviewer as a potential love interest / company boss of the so-called oresama archetype, a very self-confident, often narcissistic, and arrogant guy who later shows a soft side to the main character behind closed doors.

Incidentally, the opening line: お前、面白い女だな omae, omoshiroi onna da na ("You're an interesting girl") is a typical starting line for a character in an otome dating sim...

With this ingenious tool, even the scariest-looking interviewer is suddenly transformed in the interviewee's eyes into an object of admiration, instantly melting away any nervous tension and perhaps even encouraging the interviewee to show off their best side in the interview.

This Tweet did even better than the previous one, with over 349,000 likes at the time of writing, and eliciting many comments, such as:

• "Very nice!!"
• "That's genius."
• "Oh my, it would make my heart flutter for different reasons (lol)"
• "I'd probably be grinning so broadly that I'd be completely useless (lol)"

With talents like this, we can't wait to see what other visual aids sora.F will come up with next. If you'd like to know, follow their Twitter account here.