Job Discussion Forums

[nadirmg]

Hi there, I've been reading the threads on here for months and have never posted since I found almost everything I was looking for on the eikaiwas I have been looking into. I really appreciate everyone's input and the time they take to help others out.

I've already been offered a job with ECC, but it looks like I could be waiting a while (at least until August) for placement. So I'm checking out other companies in the meantime in hopes that I might get over to Japan sooner.
However I haven't found a lot of info on ALS. I've noticed a few people have worked for them but, I hate sending PMs.

If anyone has time to answer a couple of my questions I'd be really appreciative.
-I've made it past the first screening call and I'm supposed to get a call from them next week and will then have the 'full interview' over the phone.
Seems like they asked me most of the general no brainer stuff last time, so I'm wondering what this one is going to be like.
Are they going to expect me to do a demo lesson over the phone or something crazy like that? Do I need to prepare anything for the interview or just take it easy and play it coo?

-Will I be allowed to moonlight?

-Is overtime a possibility? At what rate?

-What is the daily dress I'm expected to wear to work?

-Are there any contract completion bonuses?

-Is there a possibility of pay increase if I resign with them?

-I'll be teaching on my own and not with a Japanese English teacher, right? (I shouldn't even ask that, but I read somewhere that was the case, so I wanted to double check).

-Were those of you that worked for ALS happy with your apartment? Did you have to shell out the money for deposits and such?

-Is there anything I might be required to do outside of class and class prep (like pushing books on people, hanging out in the lounge with students etc.)?


I'm sorry for all the questions! I suppose I could have just waited until next week and asked them over the phone myself, but hey, I was bored
Thanks a bunch!

[bearcat]

ALS have both franchised schools and their own corporately. Standards withing the ones ALS runs directly are fair but the frachised owner ones can be vastly different from school to school.


Frankly, if you got accepted with ECC, I'd just wait it out til then. 29.5 working hours a week is pretty low compared to many other companies and gives you alot more time for other things.

[joncharles]

The owners of ALS and WinBe are friends ( I was told this when I went through training at WinBe) and both schools operate about the same way... look at those places carefully, a sif you end up working for a franchise, and that school suddenly closes or drops the franchise, you could get stuck. ( That's what happened to me)

[ohahakehte]

the full-on phone interview with ALS was the most intense of any schools that had interviewed me over the phone, but its not bad. if you have teaching experience they'll ask u more specific questions about how to teach this or that class than if you dont have experience. in my case, i have experience teaching children up to 15 years of age so ALS asked me how exactly i would teach three different levels of students up to adults. the hardest question was on my positive qualities and they wanted to know how and when exactly i demonstrated those qualities. i had to do more thinking than usual in that interview but the guy was friendly on the phone.