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ac949
Joined: 10 May 2006
Posts: 11
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 Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 6:05 am Post subject: Should I omit certain info from my applications? |
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Hello all,
I'm just starting the application process and feel that my career background may not fit in as maybe a typical applicant would.
Specifically, I feel that my education (undergrad/graduate degrees in business and career background (mid-level management) may do more harm than good when applying for teaching positions. The reason I say this is that my education and work history up to this point shows a stable career path that is totally unrelated to teaching english. With that, I'm concerned that may application may raise some questions with some of the recruiters. It seems that many people that go into teaching in Japan either have prior teaching experience or are fresh graduates looking to experience life abroad. I fit neither of the group and wonder if I would be looked at unfavorably.
Honestly, I decided I wasn't happy with what I was doing and want to take some time off. Although I have never taught before, I enjoy the environment of educating others around me. |
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callmesim
Joined: 27 Oct 2005
Posts: 279
Location: London, UK
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| Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 6:08 am Post subject: |
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You're worrying about nothing.
I'd been out of university for 3 years, my job history was a combination of part-time jobs, free-lance work and unemployment. And I'm here working. I had no history of teaching either. Apart from 1 month of teaching school kids drama grames when I was in university. |
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ac949
Joined: 10 May 2006
Posts: 11
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| Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 6:21 am Post subject: |
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| Thanks, can I ask what company you had started out with? |
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callmesim
Joined: 27 Oct 2005
Posts: 279
Location: London, UK
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| Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 7:26 am Post subject: |
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ECC.
First choice for the Big 4 and I got it. I had an interview lined up with AEON too but seeing as I got the ECC job I was happy. |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 10:14 am Post subject: Re: Should I omit certain info from my applications? |
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| ac949 wrote: |
Hello all,
I'm just starting the application process and feel that my career background may not fit in as maybe a typical applicant would.
Specifically, I feel that my education (undergrad/graduate degrees in business and career background (mid-level management) may do more harm than good when applying for teaching positions. The reason I say this is that my education and work history up to this point shows a stable career path that is totally unrelated to teaching english. With that, I'm concerned that may application may raise some questions with some of the recruiters. It seems that many people that go into teaching in Japan either have prior teaching experience or are fresh graduates looking to experience life abroad. I fit neither of the group and wonder if I would be looked at unfavorably.
Honestly, I decided I wasn't happy with what I was doing and want to take some time off. Although I have never taught before, I enjoy the environment of educating others around me. |
I think you want to be careful that you dont come off as wanting to be a 'manager' at a language school as well. How well will you go from hiring and firing people to be a low level grunt? How doyou feel about taking orders from someone who may be younger than you and have less formal qualifications?
Are you willing to start at the bottom of a language school as a fresh newbie? Managers etc get hired but you should leave your rank and status from your previous company at the door when you apply for NOVA and ECC. be prepared to keep your mouth shut, head down and be prepared to be on a steep learning curve when you come here.
Your management experience would be a hindrance but it could easily intimidate young recruiters if you flaunt it too much.
PS 90% of new people who start here have no formal teaching experience and no ESL teaching qualifications. Your previous job or skills wont be directly applicable in a language classroom, except your attitude and your personality. |
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kdynamic
Joined: 05 Nov 2005
Posts: 562
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 11:55 am Post subject: |
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| The key is spin: couch your management experience in terms of being organized, mature, and responsible, and make sure you talk about how youre very adaptable and flexible. |
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ac949
Joined: 10 May 2006
Posts: 11
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| Posted: Wed May 17, 2006 12:06 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
Are you willing to start at the bottom of a language school as a fresh newbie? Managers etc get hired but you should leave your rank and status from your previous company at the door when you apply for NOVA and ECC. be prepared to keep your mouth shut, head down and be prepared to be on a steep learning curve when you come here.
Your management experience would be a hindrance but it could easily intimidate young recruiters if you flaunt it too much.
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For now, I probably don't see myself as teaching for more than a year or so. I don't have a problem starting as someone new and taking orders from someone younger..As I said previously I'm just looking to take some time off and explore another culture and perhaps try my hand at teaching. Many people have asked me why I am leaving behind a career. To me, its just a change to experience something new. Is this what recruiters want to hear or do they want to hear some genuine interest someone want to teaach english? |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Wed May 17, 2006 1:01 am Post subject: |
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| ac949 wrote: |
For now, I probably don't see myself as teaching for more than a year or so. I don't have a problem starting as someone new and taking orders from someone younger..As I said previously I'm just looking to take some time off and explore another culture and perhaps try my hand at teaching. Many people have asked me why I am leaving behind a career. To me, its just a change to experience something new. Is this what recruiters want to hear or do they want to hear some genuine interest someone want to teaach english? |
At the risk of repeating myself, a lot of people say they will come for a year, get hooked on the lifestyle, the work, the food, maybe meet some pretty young thing that makes them feel special and you decide to stick around. I originally came with the intention to be here for a short term visit but that was back in the 80's.
The 'younger person' may be a manager-type who is essentially a former or current native speaker/teacher who has got himself or herself promoted and then they start pulling rank on other teachers. I wont say much more about them here but you find them in every language school. Jumped up eikaiwa 'nobodies' with a sense of self-importance and an inflated ego, usually just a couple of years out of university and teaching at NOVA or ECC is the only full time job they have ever had.
People come here for many reasons, not just to teach English but at the end of the day teaching is what most foriegners, lacking other work or professional skills, Japanese language ability, do to pay their way and pay the rent. The big schools dont expect you to make a teaching career be armed with a teaching licence and have serious professional language teaching aspirations. A language school is a business, students are customers and you are a salaried employee, more than a teacher. You are paid to speak English to paying customers and English teaching will seem like a 9-5, forty hour a week paid job.
Most expect that you will be brand new, just off the plane and have no experience. You aer interested in travel, seeing Japan, learning the langauge and doing the teaching trail as thousands have done before you. NOVA has been around since 1981 and has on average 4000 foreign employees. there are something like 60,000 former JETs in the world.
I havent worked at a language school for 17 years so Im a bit rusty but i have a good idea of what they look for and what kind of business language teaching is. (I now work in a university FWIW). What schools look for is people with a degree for the visa, easy going and personable, interested in Japan and are willing to work for a year (thats how long your visa and contract are for, what you do after that is gravy), people who are punctual, reliable. NOVA etc dont want people that are needy, need constant handholding and perhaps cant function in another language or work culture or that have emotional 'baggage' that they bring with them from home. Some teachers come to Japan to 'escape' their life back home.
Japan is not the US so you need to be adaptable in your approach and attitudes. Social and work customs will be different to what you are used to. Foreigners become a minority here and schools dont like people who might rock the boat or are somehow 'difficult' or are somewhat neurotic. teaching is a service job, and in essence you are servicing the public. You have to be presentable, non-offensive and have some degree of social skills. the ability to make small talk and chatter is important. Students here take lessons like you would take in a movie or get a hair cut, so you need to be able to humor your students and make them go away feeling sated.
Whole posts have been written on here by Glenski and myself and others about what students and schools want and i wont repeat myself too much here. "Proper" language teaching has standards, methodology, where for example you have to take students out fo their comfort zone, make them do homework, give them tests, do revision and review and even fail them once in a while. Language study takes work, and most students here dont realise that. None of this really happens at a language school, and most 'eikaiwa' teachers are more or less conversation partners, paid to speak English to the paying public or customers. Having a CELTA, teaching degrees, previous experience you can in fact come across as 'overqualified' to a NOVA recruiter and language schools prefer JOTB green newbies they can train and mold to do things their way. Innocuous, non-threatening and a willingness to be a team player are important qualities here. No delusions of grandeur or of one day running the company or telling them how students should learn or how they shoul teach their students.
To answer your question, its best to find out what particular schools ask for in the interview, see how successful candidates do. Some people with few redeeming social skills breeze through while others inexplicably bomb when applying for NOVA. My feeling is that the whole selection process is a lottery, you just do your best and hope for the best. Its an entirely subjective process based on the moods of the recruiters and their needs at that particular time. Selection can be based on your personality, age, gender, ethnicity, how you dress in the interview and your general 'charisma' that you project to the interviewers.
Sorry this answer is so long-winded but as a veteran of many job interviews including last weekend, im a bit cynical about the whole thing. Some good people have failed interviews and soured on the Japan-teaching thing, while others who would be considered 'odd' at home have squeaked through and got jobs here. Apply to schools, prepare as much as you can and dont beat yourself up because NOVA and ECC say no to you. It's not personal but you have to treat it like a numbers game in order to get hired. |
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gaijinalways
Joined: 29 Nov 2005
Posts: 2279
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| Posted: Wed May 17, 2006 4:28 am Post subject: |
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| I hate to disagree with Paul's advice (as I think almost all of it is what I would have said myself), but having a business background is helpful for teaching business clients. I teach business classes now, and some of the teachers I work with who come from liberal arts or science backgrounds sometimes have a steep learning curve when it comes to business vocabulary. Berlitz focuses quite abit on these kinds of clients, as well as Simul. ECC, NOVA, AEON, GEOS, and Shane do deal with these types of clients as well, though less so, especially ECC and Shane. |
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