Job Discussion Forums

[ghost]

Ghost attended the Amity recruitment day in a Canadian city recently.

There were only 5 candidates, including ghost, comprised of 4 males and 1 female ranging in age (one guesses) from early twenties to mid fortiesh....with most of the people in the mid twenties.

First there was a presentation by the two Amity recruiters, who had several years experience working for Amity in Japan. It was impressed upon us (the candidates) that the method used at Amity is the MAT method which stands for "model, action, talk." The recruiters then demonstrated how this was applied in teaching, showing that all new words in English are accompanied by a physical gesture (for example showing a hand moving toward the mouth to describe the word "eat").

We (candidates) also participated in the "mini lesson" shown by the recruiters.

Following the opening information, came a video, lasting about 20 minutes showing a video of a "typical day" in the life of an Amity teacher in Japan.

The nice thing about Amity is that the apartment deal (at 42.000 yen per month) appears to be a very good deal compared with some of the competitors. The apartments are very small (studio style) but clean and functional with all the appliances and furnishings included.

Another good thing is that most of the apartments are very close to the Amity schools, so walking to work is possible.

Following the video there was a talk about working at Amity and a breakdown of the salary (285.000 yen). 30.000 is deducted each month for the health insurance, and the other major costs are 42.0000 for the housing, and approximately 60.000 for food (this was the figure given, but we were told that can vary widely depending on the person's eating habits etc...).

When asked about how much a person can actually save at Amity per month the figure given was "around $1000 Canadian dollars" (about $850-$900 U.S.).

After all of the above, came the dreaded part (for some!) - Teaching Demonstrations.

These were actually very short (a timed 5.00 minutes).....and ghost was prepared with its stop watch...so knew how to time frame the lesson.....others were not quite so lucky. One unfortunate candidate spent the majority of the lesson arranging props. on the floor and by the time he was ready to really get into the lesson....the time was up! Advice: Come prepared to teach 5.00 minutes.....but teach the entire 5.00 minutes maximizing the time showing a real lesson. The other candidates were used as the students for the demo lessons.

The main thing about the lessons, ghost feels, is that the content is not quite as important as the general impression one creates with regard to coming across as a pleasant, communicative teacher.....and it helps to smile and establish good rapport with the other student 'props' during the mock lessons.

After the demos. were over, there was another talk by the recruiters about "5 considerations for Amity" - this talk highlighted the serious financial implications and general responsibility of signing a contract with the companay (and there is a $200 U.S./$300 Cdn deposit to pay if you accept a contract).

The financial outlay is around $3000 U.S. dollars.....which consists of the following:

Air ticket: $660 - $1200

Deposit: $300

Start up costs: $1500 - $1800 (before you get paid anything!)

Clothes: At least 2-3 good standard suits for men, and similar for women

The Amity recruiters made it clear that signing a contract with the company is a big commitment, on both sides, and this company is one that takes care of people, but you should be prepared to work hard and produce the goods. They (Amity) have a reputation to maintain, and we are there to maintain that reputation or improve upon it.

For AMITY (children's division of AEON) it becomes very clear that teaching children for the company is a labor of love, and if you do not enjoy teaching kids of all ages from infants to high schoolers....then it would be difficult.

Another thing to consider is that at AMITY, you really earn your salary, because it is an average of 25 hours of contact teaching time, and 15 hours spent lesson planning and other work for the company....one gets the impression that AMITY is not a company that would tolerate teacher employees spending their non teaching hours at work surfing the internet....a common occurence in other teaching jobs ghost has seen.....

So if you work at AMITY the salary is decent, but you work the full 40 hours and should be prepared to produce the goods....is the impression received....smiley, smiley, efficient teachers needed!

Amity are looking for dynamic teachers who enjoy using the methods described, which involve a lot of fun stuff like singing, playing games, and using the MAT method.

Last part of the day (which started at 12 noon and finished around 5 pm) was a ''grammar test" on paper, which could be quite tricky. One part involved spotting mistakes in a set of sentences and identifying those errors, and correcting them, if applicable.

Another part of the test involved a question where one had to describe the difference between two grammatical tenses... on this occasion, the difference between two different kinds of future tenses and how they could be used.

The test was a bit stressful because the time given was quite short (a clocked 20 minutes) so you had to 'get in the groove' right from the gun.

After the test was over, the candidates were invited back to the lobby, to await a sealed envelope, which would reveal whether an invitation to a second interview would take place. The candidates were told not to open the letters in the presence of the other candidates.

When the letters were handed over to the candidates, the recruiters thanked us, and wished us the 'best of luck" - giving no indication of whether we had passed or failed the first part of the recruitment process, and ghost was convinced that it had not been selected.......

We would have to be patient to find out.

Ghost later opened the letter and found it had been invited to a second interview.......

ghost

[Glenski]

[ghost]

[king kakipi]

Glenski say:-

[Canuck2112]

Ghost

How much you can send home depends on where you live. Someone living in downtown Shinjuku might have more difficulty saving than someone living in a rice field.

I myself live in a city somewhere inbetween (roughly 800,000people) and on a salary of 280,000yen can send home roughly $750 dollars a month and still have fun. This allows me about two good bar nights a week, with some money left over for movies, clothes, gym memberships and whatever else.

If you are very eager to save, you can do much, much better than 750$ on your salary. If you make a lunchbox every day, buy 50% reduced produce/meat and drink shochu out of a 3.8liter "Econo Bottle" you could easily send home over a grand on a monthly basis. I personally could never do this, as I like having fun, but to each his own.

I knew a guy here once who, I swear, lived on an average of 200yen a day. Cup Ramen was considered a treat for him. He saved a lot but I'm reasonably certain he developed scurvy and/or some other nutritional deficiency in his time here.

[Glenski]

Ok, let's see.
Salary = 285,000
Minus 30,000 and 42,000, leaving 213,000.
You probably have to deduct about 7% for tax, say 20,000. That leaves about 193,000.

Groceries will cost about 30,000-60,000 depending on your lifestyle.
Utilities could run 20,000 depending on lifestyle and season.
Phone (land line or cellular?) costs will be 3500 to 8000.

What's left is 108,000 to 138,000 per month.

What does an average person spend his/her money on?
Entertainment (bars, rental DVDs, newspaper, movies, vending machines, sightseeing)
Haircuts (anything from the cheapo 800 yen to the 40,000 perm. Let's say 2500 yen for a basic cut for men. Maybe 3000-4000 for women.)
Additional phone calls (even local ones cost money, but to include long distance calls would be hard to average).
Emergency medical bills (probably not something people get every month.)
Car costs, including parking (not something to average in for everyone)
Postage. (Fairly insignificant except around holiday season).

So, I think only the first two items above should be considered. Haircuts are pretty "cut and dried", if you pardon the pun. Average = 3000 yen.

Entertainment is a toughie to average. Younger, single people go out more. A conservative night out twice a week will run you 30,000 to 50,000 yen per month. A DVD rental once a week could be 100 to 300 yen; let's go with 1 per week at the higher cost for the sake of seeing the latest movies, so that means 300 x 4 = 1200 yen.
You might get The Japan Times at work or pick it up on the way, so let's just average twice a week that the average guy buys one --> 300 yen.
Vending machine snacks (an extra from the grocery costs I mentioned) might run 150 each, and let's figure 3 times a week, so 150 x 3 x 4 = 1800 yen per month.
So, we have 1800 + 1200 + 3000 + 40,000 = 45,000 yen in these incidental expenses, leaving us with 63,000 to 93,000 yen to play around with for other things like cable/satellite TV, expenses mentioned above that weren't included in this calculation, sightseeing, flights home perhaps once a year, and paying off any debts back home.

I dunno, but I keep coming up with the same figures time after time. If AEON says you will have CND$1000, that's about 103,000 yen at today's exchange rate. I seriously doubt that many/most people will save that much, but you will have that much for everything except basic necessities, as I have shown. Stingy people can send home a lot, and nobody is twisting your arm to go out to bars and clubs (a huge savings as you can see). I usually say people can save US$500 without much effort, and the above calculations bear this out, but it assumes you have no debts back home to pay off.

[nomadykaty]

Is this a back up plan in case the UAE doesn't work out? Is the salary/package at Aeon/Amity better than what you would get at IAT?

[Synne]

You can save if you want to save...

...but as soon as you lose that state of mind, you'll start to lose a lot of your coin.

[Asgardfox]

So what did Ghost experience on the 2nd day of the interview or did Ghost not go? Thanks for the post, Asgard is curious of the outcome. Asgard had an Aeon Interview and it went exactly as you mentioned the Amity interview go.

Asgard

[ghost]

[ghost]