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Interviews

 
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substanceisnothing



Joined: 13 Jul 2009
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Fri Sep 04, 2009 2:36 pm    Post subject: Interviews Reply with quote

Hello there,

A quick question for the more experienced about interviews. Basically I get them, which is encouraging, but they not at all like anything I've encountered in the Anglo-Saxon world.

The pattern seems to be I arrive and am seated upon which there follows an hour long discourse from the interviewer about rates of pay, the details of the contract, criticism of other schools. This ends with an invitation for questions, which I take as an opportunity to confirm some pedagogical matter which might be inferred from the monologue, adding that I feel that I have hardly contributed to the "conversation". We part with encouraging smiles and promises to call which never materialize.

Is this normal? Or am I just being too polite? Should I actually interrupt the interviewer with some point about my experience. When I have done this though interest seems scant. Should I drop piles of 50� notes on the table?
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riverboat



Joined: 22 May 2009
Posts: 117
Location: Paris, France

PostPosted: Sat Sep 05, 2009 9:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hmm...I'm not very experienced, but I recently had a few interviews with language schools in Paris and they sounded quite similar to yours. In that they weren't "interviews" as I knew them, they were mostly the interviewer telling me about the school and the clients and the contract etc. And then when I was asked questions, they were more about why I'd come to Paris and whether I had a place to live etc, than about my experience / teaching skills.

I got two job offers out of my interviews. I get the feeling that what counts is: the "general" impression you make, basically in terms of whether the interviewer likes you (seeing as both times I was told 'we like you, we'd be happy to have you work for us', as opposed to 'you have great experience and relevant skills, we'd be happy to have you work for us') and also whether you've convinced them that you're here in Paris for good and aren't going to run away back to your home country after a few weeks (I definitely got the impression this was a concern for my interviewers so I went overboard 'proving' I was here to stay).

Anyway...good luck!
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substanceisnothing



Joined: 13 Jul 2009
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Sat Sep 05, 2009 1:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the reply, riverboat. It's good to know that I'm not going mad. I have five interviews between now and Thursday and will be making a point of showing that I here for a decent stretch. After all, I've just signed a lease on a colloc so there's a year's worth of rent to pay!
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riverboat



Joined: 22 May 2009
Posts: 117
Location: Paris, France

PostPosted: Sat Sep 05, 2009 1:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

No problem! By the way, how did you find your colloc? Am looking for one at the moment, and wondered if there are any good sources out there other than appartager.com?
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katers



Joined: 19 Jun 2008
Posts: 31

PostPosted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 6:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

www.colocation.fr found me my flat in paris in 2005.
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substanceisnothing



Joined: 13 Jul 2009
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 11:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi there,

I was very lucky. After spening hours on seloger.com and appartager.com, which I think are now the same, in the UK, I pitched up early one morning at the American Church and answered an ad for a room. This turned out to be for a landlady looking with four rooms in a flat. This meant that I didn't get to choose my flatmates, but did mean that I got somewhere decent and affordable (just!).

My advice: American Church. Early!
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