Job Discussion Forums

[peyton]

Hello,

First timer here...I have an interview on July 14th in Toronto for ECC. I have been reading all of the posts so far and they have really helped me learn more about the interview process. I just have a question about the dress code for the interview. I was hoping I could wear a shirt, tie, pants, and a sportcoat. I know that I will be there for 7 hours and that I will have to teach a mini-lesson so I would rather not wear a suit. Is that okay? What have you or what have you seen people wear there? I'm also planning on creating a mini-lesson like some of the people on the forum have talked about as part of the interview. Any advice? Also, do you know of any good hotels nearby?

I would greatly appreciate any advice you could offer me.

Thank you very much!

Peyton

[Glenski]

Wear a suit.

[bearcat]

Depends on how importantly you want to get the job. If you don't care, then wear what you want. If you want to add one more possibility to getting hired, then wear a suit. They -will- notice if you aren't.

[PAULH]

Once you get a job teaching at a university or a high school then you can wear chino's and loafers or whatever you want. Until then its business dress all the way. It doesnt have to be Armani but a clean suit is a good idea. People have been known to turn up to job interviews in shorts and sandals and aloha shirts. Not a good first impression. You will likely have to wear a suit to work anyway.

I havent been really been through an interview with a big school overseas, but they dont necessarily look for 'teaching ability' but they will judge you on your attitude, your enthusiasm, ability to connect with students and your presentation. I would prepare 3 or 4 short 5-minute exercises or tasks as they may ask you to do a demo lesson teaching a class, using one of the interviewers as a model student. I think Glenski has a link somewhere on the kinds of things they ask you to do.

[Raniken]

I had an interview with ECC last month in Toronto as well. I wore a suit but two of the other guys there just wore a dress shirt and tie (actually one guy didn�t even wear the tie) I don�t think its a problem as long as u look presentable. I wouldn�t worry about the teaching too much, I had no prior experience and although it definitely wasn�t a stellar performance I did get the job (I think its more about attitude then anything). Id try to go 1st or 2nd, if u cant do that make sure you try to pick up on bad/good points of other peoples presentations to help make yours better.
If you have any other questions let me know.

[peyton]

Hello everyone,

Thank you for all of your advice everyone. I greatly appreciate it. I will be wearing a suit. Raniken, first of all, congratulations! Great job. Yeah, I'll be in Toronto next week.
Could you tell me a little more about your interview? Do you start with an info. meeting followed by a group interview, etc.? You also have a big grammar test too, right? I read some of the other posts so I know a little bit about the interview. Is there anything I should watch out for? Did something happen that you didn't expect, etc.? When did they let you know that you got the job? Did you also find out where you will be placed? I really want to go to Osaka. Did they give you any options besides allowing you to write down your preference on the application sheet they emailed to the applicants? Thank you again for your advice.

Peyton

[Raniken]

Peyton,

Most of the interview stuff was a breeze the only things you might be a little worried about are the teaching demo and the grammar test. My interview started with a group info session (read some handouts and were told about ECC in more detail), it�s a good chance to ask some questions. For the most part it was a really relaxed environment.

Teaching Demo: You�ll get an envelope with some words you�re supposed to teach and a short question to go along with it. Ex: Animals: Mouse, Horse, Chicken etc and a question like: Do you have a cat? (they have to learn to answer yes I do have a cat or no I don�t). It�s not too bad, just keep it really simple and try to make it fun.

Grammar Test: I�d brush up on your grammar before the test. The hardest part of the test was near the end where we were given a passage with underlined words/sentence fragments and needed to match the underlined sections to a listing of terms. If your spelling isn�t the greatest it might be a good idea to make sure you know some commonly misspelled words since a few of those will be there too.

It took a fairly long time for me to find out I got it, maybe about a month after the interview (they�ll let you know what kind of time frame your looking at following the interview). I didn�t find out where I will be placed yet (like you im hoping for Osaka but I don�t know how much influence I�ll have), they say 2 months before the departure date they�ll let me know where im going. If you get the position let me know, maybe we�ll be in the same area, if you need anything else let me know.

Randy

[peyton]

Randy,

Thank you so much for the response. That really helps. I will certainly have to brush up on my grammar and spelling. I will also be going to the library to look for some ESL games and/or ideas. ECC seems like a nice place to work. I have heard some pretty good things about the place. Thank you again. I will talk to ya later,

Peyton

[Glenski]

Here are some previous opinions/posts about the ECC interview. Helps if you do a search here.

One opinion
The test is 100 questions multiple choice. I think there were 10 questions at the end dealing with teaching terms. I didn't know any of them but still passed the test. Part of the grammar section was given in passages with words and phrases underlined and you had to know the term for it. Just study basic grammar and parts of speech for that.

For the presentation part, we went around the room and selected topics like: colors, numbers, animals, etc. We had about 7 minutes to come up with a plan and were given blank sheets of paper for props which we could draw on and which left little time for really thinking about what to do. They want to see lots of energy and a naturally outgoing personality. The interview process was a piece of cake.

Another experience
just got back from my ECC interview... it was a pretty long day (11 am till about 6:30pm). Everything went pretty well I think. Had to teach a kids lesson for 7 mins... the way he introduced the task and explained his expectations made it pretty stressful during the 15 minute prep time... seemed like he was going to be expecting a lot, but we realized later that that wasn't really the case. The demo was ok, aside from the fact that I had to go first (since I was the only one with previous eikawa experience). The grammar test was right at the end, as were the personal interviews (which were only 9 mins each). The test was a lot more difficult than I expected, but I think I did ok

Another experience
Ok, I'm back from the interview!

First thing to say is relax. It's not at all scary or horrible!

The grammar test is 100 questions and the pass rate is 70 so there's a big margin for error. It's broken up into 5 sections. The first consists of sentences with different parts underlined. You have to say which of the underlined parts is incorrect or needs changing. Even if you don't know why, it's instinctive. It's just things like a verb in the wrong tense, or a word spelt incorrectly. The second section consists of typical problem words spelt two different ways - eg vaccum / vacuum. You say which is the correct spelling, a or b. The third section consists of a word followed by five definitions. You have to choose which one goes with the word. The fourth section is the most difficult. A paragraph has about 15 words / groups of words underlined. There are an equal number of terms at the bottom (adverb, past progressive tense, preposition etc.). Just match the terms to the right parts of the paragraph. Even if you only know a few, it's basically a process of sensible deduction.

The final part consists of about 10 teaching terms like 'introducing a roleplay' and 'realia' and there are 10 different examples of things a teacher might say to a class. You just match the two up. It's common sense, even if you're not familiar with the terms, you'll work it out!

The teaching demo was relaxed - you got 15 mins to prepare a 5 minute lesson and were given guidance. The skill level was complete beginners so you just need to teach 6 or so words of vocab. Topics chosen were colour, animals, fruit, numbers etc. I did body parts and taught 'head, shoulders, knees. toes'. I think it was a good choice - the interviewer complimented the choice and said my demo had been good during the interview itself so I was pretty pleased. Just have a quick think about it beforehand if you're worried.

The interview was brief and friendly with the usual questions.

Another person (referring to the demo lesson)
The idea for the presentation is to act as if the audience understands ZERO English. So practice using short, catchy phrases. If you can sing or say things lyrically, it will come off well. Keep it very simple but try to fit in 2 or 3 little activities. Get the group to talk, with you only talking a little bit. Get them to stand up and wave or jump or walk around. That is what they'll advise you.

More on the demo lesson
Always try to go first. It shows confidence and you tend to be scored higher for doing it without seeing other models. I've never worked for ECC, but this is a pretty universal truth. Of course don't appear to be too over-eager.

Also a benefit of going first is that you don't get the opportunity to over-think your lesson. If you are not well prepared, don't go first.


A view of the test and demo
Just got back from mine. The English Test was pretty hard, I think you guys lulled me into a false sense of security. Exactly half the people there failed the test (8 people), and were asked to leave before the teaching demo. My demo was a bit rubbish, I was quite disappointed with it. The other people (pretending to be 7 year old Japanese kids) were not genki at all, so it was a bit of a struggle to get them to do anything. I was assigned "Actions", so I did stand up, sit down, clap, jump, spin. I can't really blame the other people for not liking me getting them to stand up and sit down again 5 times in a row...

We'll see. It wasn't a disaster (I got through the test..), but it wasn't great either.

More demo experience
as for the demonstration , its a piece of cake. they put you in a children�s class room and ask you to demonstrate a lesson to kiddies. You pull a card out of the interviewers hand. You have 5 minutes too think about what your going to do.
basic 10 minute demo, make sure they know exactly what your trying to achieve in teaching the lesson. EG > fruits, big things little things, colors, numbers or whatever it may be

just to clarify
they put you into a REAL KIDDIES classroom to teach to PRETEND kiddies (which are the other applicants on the day)

Just ECC experience
I posted in another thread that I worked for ECC for a few years. It's a solid company. Most complaints about ECC are minor compared to those about other conversation schools. At ECC, the teachers rooms in some of the schools are very small (in newer schools, you get a small section of counter space in the staff's office). Free Time Lessons bore you out of your mind after a few months. Actually, it's not so much the lessons, but the students. To be fair to them, most of them don't like the Free Time Lesson books. The trainers will tell you it's the lackluster way that lessons are too often taught, but that's crap. The book is old, and the repetition is mind-numbing for the students and the teachers. Other than that, it's a good place to work. Out of the Big 4, ECC is the one I'd recommend. But, as with any other language school, don't put all your eggs in their basket. If TEFL appeals to you, do some formal schooling in the field and move up to better things as soon as possible.

More ECC experience
I've been with ECC for almost two months, and it's been a great experience so far. They are one of the big 4, but only have schools in Nagoya, Tokyo, and Osaka. They give you almost 3 weeks of training which prepares you fully. Most teachers have between 5 and 10 kids classes/week, and the rest adults. Everything is already planned - you just follow the manual. You work at 2-3 schools, which gives you a nice variety, and the opportunity to meet many more people than you would at just one school. You do have two non-consecutive days off, a Sunday and another weekday. However, I have Mondays off, so it's like having a weekend off. Most don't mind the non-consecutive days off as it breaks up the week. If you stay for another year, you can can give a preference for your other day off. And 7 weeks of vacation is a lot more than the competition. 30 hours/week from 3:30-9:30. Can't complain!

[peyton]

Glenski,

Thank you so much for all of those posts. That was great to see them. Glenski, Randy, and anyone else who can help me, for the interview, did interviewers ask you any reasons why you chose Osaka, Nagoya, or Tokyo to work in? I really only want to work in Osaka because I have lived near there before in Wakayama City and I really like the Osaka area. Also, I have a girlfriend living there now. I would rather not mention that I have a girlfriend living in Osaka b/c I believe ECC wouldn't want to place me there because of that reason. Am I just paranoid? But, if they ask the reasons for my Osaka preference, what should I tell them? I think that I will tell them that I like the region and that I have a girlfriend living there.

See ya later,

Peyton

[Raniken]

Peyton,

I wouldn�t worry about it too much, I said I would prefer Osaka as well (they never asked why I wanted to go there). They sent me an e-mail offering me a placement in Tokyo but I declined saying that I was waiting for a position in Osaka. They didn�t seem upset that I didn�t take the position and said that I will still be considered for future positions. Hope that helps

Randy

[Glenski]

[peyton]

Hey folks,

Thank you for all of your help. I greatly appreciate it! I'm off to my interview in Toronto now. I'll talk to ya'll later,

Peyton