Job Discussion Forums

brokenarm22 · Joined: 15 Aug 2010 Posts: 35

What should I expect when I interview with Interac? Any tips you guys want to share?

seklarwia · Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2011 10:22 pm Post subject:

Yes: run a forum search or two.

That has been discussed to death on this forum by many people (myself included). And before you argue about wanting up to date threads; I know there were threads discussing this in the summer for people interviewing for the last intake.

brokenarm22 · Joined: 15 Aug 2010 Posts: 35

brokenarm22 · Joined: 15 Aug 2010 Posts: 35

I searched through old posts and didn't find too much about the actual interview. I did find something about the interview from 2010, but that seems like quite a long time ago.

Does anyone have something to offer about a more recent interview?

nightsintodreams · Joined: 18 May 2010 Posts: 558

The Interac newbies for this year came in March. So they would have done the interview in 2010. A few people join in August, theyre the only people who will have experience of an interview in 2011, and even some of those people may have still been interviewed in 2010.

brokenarm22 · Joined: 15 Aug 2010 Posts: 35

I have been reading all over on the net and somewhat on this site. Read about some good info. If any one else has anything at all to say I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

nightsintodreams · Joined: 18 May 2010 Posts: 558

The interview is made up of four sections:

grammar test
You can leave the test site to do this test Wink

myers briggs personality test
read up about this online

lesson
Most important thing is to be confident and show that you have lots of energy. I would advise you to sing!

interview
Again, the most important thing is to show you have lots of energy, confidence and would be easy to work with.

Other tips:
Give a preference location but make it known you are prepared to go ANYWHERE if you have to.
Don't make it seem like the only reason you want to go to Japan is to learn Japanese.
Don't go on about how you are a big shounen jump fan.

brokenarm22 · Joined: 15 Aug 2010 Posts: 35

seklarwia · Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2011 11:28 am Post subject:

We had things like commonly misspelled words and passive tense. It took me all of 5 mins. Shouldn't be all that difficult to flunk if you have a decent grasp of basic grammar and can spot common spelling mistakes (stuff like missing double letters in words like 'embarrassed' or spelling 'probably' with an 'e' or 'er' due to the similar sound). As it happened, I'd been looking at a list of commonly misspelled words on the back page of a reporter's jotter that I'd picked up for a quid from a stationer's on the way... most of the words in the test had appeared on that so they were fresh in my mind as I sat in the hotel lobby doing the test whilst waiting for my personal interview slot.

I didn't sing, but brought some colour splodges (and some masking tape... that earnt me some brownie points) to stick to the flip pad that was in the room (don't come in with magnetic aids assuming there will be a board to stick them on - the interviewer was impressed that I'd chosen an easy to remove tape just in case I was forced to stick them on the wall) to demonstrate a quick and silly flyswat team game. I'd chosen to teach colours to my imaginary ES class. I even demonstrated a response when neither of the two invisible kids currently at the board slapped the right colour.

Don't forget to use lots of understandable gestures (especially if you have an ES task), really simple instructions accompanied with visual demonstrations and lots of praise (or positive reinforcement when a wrong answer is given)... probably praise and enthusiam are the most important things to remember in any demo for a potential employer in Japan.

BTW, we also had to do a short greeting/self intro (using Japanese if we were able to) and read from a short script during the taped part of the personal interview.

And to add to nightsintodreams' other tips: know at least a little about Japanese culture and etiquette. We were asked about faux pas behaviour that westerners might not realise amongst other culture related questions.

brokenarm22 · Joined: 15 Aug 2010 Posts: 35

seklarwia · Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2011 10:15 pm Post subject: Re: Nice!

brokenarm22 · Joined: 15 Aug 2010 Posts: 35

Thanks man, I appreciate it!

Pitarou · Joined: 16 Nov 2009 Posts: 1116 Location: Narita, Japan

surendra · Joined: 09 Feb 2012 Posts: 82

Hey All,
I am currently accepted and (still) awaiting placement with Interac. I took the interview in April in D.C. The interview is not hard at all, but I think that depends on the recruiter. I believe it was before we took the grammar/language test that the recruiter said that we all 99% passed which put at least me at ease. Now this could mean that they had a big need for ALTs now or we were just a small group (15 or so) but hopefully others get a good recruiter like her.

Just a fyi.

-Mark

stumptowny · Joined: 29 May 2011 Posts: 310

grammar test..

know passive voice vs. active. they have a section about this.. 5 sentences and you mark passive or active..

another section is spell checking. asks to find any mistakes and respell: the words I can remember in this section are:

liaise, tomato, personnel, accommodation, tomorrow... don't remember the others.

another section is "what is not acceptable in standard english" or something and you choose the mistake in the sentence out of two or three underlined choices..