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PolishZeus
Joined: 27 Feb 2006
Posts: 6
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 Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 2:59 am Post subject: Let this post drop |
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Is there a way to delete a topic?
I regret ever having mentioned my experience and posting on here. You are welcome to post more if you feel that you are not repeating what others have said.....
The unfortunate part is that forums have the tendency to mirror a short stories english class where everyone feels compelled to illicit the same comments using different words.......
Just click the back button on your browser and look at different posts
Last edited by PolishZeus on Sun Jun 11, 2006 3:40 am; edited 1 time in total |
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guest of Japan
Joined: 28 Feb 2003
Posts: 1601
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 3:13 am Post subject: |
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| In Japan, the company is doing employees a favor by employing them. This may not really be true in the grander scheme of things, but this is the Japanese mindset. You will not receive better treatment unless your qualification are off the hook, and you are applying for a position that requires higher qualifications. You were applying for a bottom level position, and the only thing lower to them was you. |
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canuck
Joined: 11 May 2003
Posts: 1921
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 3:34 am Post subject: |
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Did they force you to buy an extra plane ticket?  |
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JimDunlop2
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Posts: 2286
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 4:14 am Post subject: |
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I don't want to sound unsympathetic here, but I fail to see how AEON wronged you -- especially to the point of you writing them a letter explaining why you didn't want to work for them. Is it because of the way that they scheduled the interview? The fact that they didn't acknlowedge you having to buy a plane ticket to attend the interview?
Whether it's a large or small company you choose to work for (or even a BoE) being poorly informed, a lack of communication and inconsideration for personal issues are commonplace... You have to develop a thick hide and put up with this brand of (mis)management every single day... Otherwise, if you can't deal with it, you may want to reconsider coming to teach in Japan at all. Hardly a day goes by that I don't get told something, or get informed that I must do something MUCH too late or they fail to acknowledge the sacrifices I've made in order to comply with their demands. That's the nature of the beast.
That is largely why, when I read your post, I had to re-read it at least twice to be sure that I understood exactly what the problem was. Think of your experience as: Introduction to Japanese Employers 101. This is common. |
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stillnosheep
Joined: 01 Mar 2004
Posts: 2068
Location: eslcafe
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| Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:31 am Post subject: Good luck with youre NOVA application |
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This is a joke. Right?
| PolishZeus wrote: |
I saw threads about AEON and I wanted to warn you (as many will do) to steer clear of them. This is also a chance to vent about my experience. 
I too have been looking for a job in Japan and my girlfriend and I applied to AEON. I had applied in December knowing that they were coming to my area for interviews during spring break.
On the website, it listed the entire week for interviews. It was very vague so I took a chance in buying a plane ticket to Mexico to visit my dad.
5 DAYS before the interview (when I was in Mexico), the contacted me via e-mail and told me that I MUST be at the interviews on Sunday or else I would not be considered for hire (I was due back on Tuesday).
While that may seem like it was my fault, this was only the first instance to get a bad taste in my mouth. When I was at the interview, the recruiters gave me and my girlfriend the distinct impression that they did not care about us as people....only as employees.
Now many people would say that this should be expected since they are a business afterall. In fact, they will be the first to tell you this. However, if you truly want to enjoy your year, you do not want to be overworked and treated like a piece of meat. During the entire process, they gave no indication that they cared about me. For example, when I went into my personal interview, I mentioned that I had bought an EXTRA plane ticket to see them. The recuiters response was simply to smile and bob her head up and down.......no 'wow, that was very nice of you' or even 'thank you for telling me that'....a simple blank stare with a grin.
After all of the process, they offered me a job in which I wrote back giving them explicit reasons why I did not want to work for them. I told them that they could have at least, upon my initial request to move the interview to when I would be back, gave an indication that they were partially to blame for waiting until the last minute to tell me. Their response was an ultimatum!!
Who wants to work for that!?!?!? And if you don't believe me, I continued to ask other people who had taught in Japan (or worked for AEON) and looked more at these forums.......many voices are quick to pipe up to agree.
I also understand that there are many people who will disagree as they have had pleastant experiences. However, their success seems (from what I've read) due to the luck of the draw of a placement. With my aweful experience, I didn't even want to chance it for a company that didn't care about their employees.
Whew.....that felt good!  |
You apply for a job with Aeon.
Aeon's website tells you that they are sending interviewers to your area to conduct holding group interviews, possibly for hundreds of candidates, in a certain week. You subsequently buy a plane ticket out of the country to visit your father for the first three days of that week.
Aeon contact you in Mexico to remind you have applied for a position and that they are sending interviews to your area conduct group interviews on the Sunday.
You request that Aeon move the interview to when [you] would be back (this is a group interview remember - presumably Aeon are now expected to change the interview dates of the other 100 or so peopl, just to allow you a few more days vacation which you had booked despite knowing that Aeon were conducting interviews that week). Aeon remind you that the grtoup interview is scheduled for Sunday and that if you miss it you will have to wait until the recruiters call again or fly to a different city for interview.
You fly back. Aeon interview you.
You expect some kind of reaction from your interviewers to the news that you had left the country knowing that group interviews were being conducted in that week and had flown back for the interview. You do not get one.
The Japanese eikaiwa offering the highest pay, best benefits, lowest average working hours and most professional set-up of any of the big 4 or 5 - with the possible exception of ECC - offer you a position. You throw a tantrum, turn down a job and post here wanting applause, or possibly sympathy. You receive neither.
Good luck with your application for a position in Japan - if you found Aeon unsympathetic you're going to just love NOVA. |
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wabreaker
Joined: 21 May 2006
Posts: 2
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| Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:41 am Post subject: |
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reconsider coming at all if this is what it takes to set you off
not trying to be harsh, so i'll just say that you likely did both you and aeon both a big favor by not accepting the offer |
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dbooster
Joined: 24 Feb 2005
Posts: 33
Location: Okazaki
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| Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 9:14 pm Post subject: Re: Good luck with youre NOVA application |
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| stillnosheep wrote: |
This is a joke. Right?
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I'm afraid I have to agree. I fail to see where exactly they wronged you. The only thing I can come up with is you were upset they didn't thank you for buying an extra plane ticket. But why should they thank you? They were doing you a favor by interviewing you. If you want to get into social etiquette, you should have been the one thanking them for interviewing you, not vice virsa. |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 10:04 pm Post subject: Re: An AEON vent-session |
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| PolishZeus wrote: |
I also understand that there are many people who will disagree as they have had pleastant experiences. However, their success seems (from what I've read) due to the luck of the draw of a placement. With my aweful experience, I didn't even want to chance it for a company that didn't care about their employees.
Whew.....that felt good! |
You are not even an employee but a job applicant, one among many hundreds that happened to walk in off the street.
Dont think the world owes you any special favors because you deign to bring yourself off your cloud to apply for a job with them. AEON cares about their employees but you simply bit the hand that was feeding you because you had better things to do by going on holiday during the interview period. It shows you weren't that serious about applying for a job with them and blaming them for interfering with your vacation.
You got more than you actually deserved in this case. |
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jc1977
Joined: 21 Apr 2006
Posts: 29
Location: Nerima
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| Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 10:29 pm Post subject: |
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| Get over it. I was hired by AEON and the process was fine. It's a job. They're not travel agents, and most of the people I saw get invited back again for another interview were excited for the opportunity. The company is providing employment in a cool country -- as employess you have to meet them halfway. |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 11:15 pm Post subject: Re: An AEON vent-session |
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| PolishZeus wrote: |
| I too have been looking for a job in Japan and my girlfriend and I applied to AEON. I had applied in December knowing that they were coming to my area for interviews during spring break. |
College student? Can't have a job interview interfere with your having a good time can we?
| Quote: |
| On the website, it listed the entire week for interviews. It was very vague so I took a chance in buying a plane ticket to Mexico to visit my dad. |
A week is not vague, its clearly stated when they will hold interviews. One week out of a whole year wont kill you.
| Quote: |
| While that may seem like it was my fault, this was only the first instance to get a bad taste in my mouth. When I was at the interview, the recruiters gave me and my girlfriend the distinct impression that they did not care about us as people....only as employees. |
Did they put a gun to your head and make you fly to Mexico? we all make choices, you learn to live with them.
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| Now many people would say that this should be expected since they are a business afterall. In fact, they will be the first to tell you this. However, if you truly want to enjoy your year, you do not want to be overworked and treated like a piece of meat. |
AEOn is a business, its a salary-paying 9-5 JOB. They are not there to entertain you or provide you with a cultural experience overseas. Any job is what you make it and you work for them, they dont work for you. Don't like it? Start your own language school. As for overworked, the standard is a 40 hour work week according to japanese labor laws. Overwork is making you do 20 hours overtime in addition to an 8-hour day or working 7 days a week. You dont even know what real WORK means as a college student. Sure an 8-hour day at AEON is hard work, thats what they are paying you for, not so you can be on Club Med in Japan. AEON is a full time paying JOB and you are not back at school anymore. Don't be so self-absorbed and spoilt, and think the whole world revolves around you.
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| During the entire process, they gave no indication that they cared about me. For example, when I went into my personal interview, I mentioned that I had bought an EXTRA plane ticket to see them. The recuiters response was simply to smile and bob her head up and down.......no 'wow, that was very nice of you' or even 'thank you for telling me that'....a simple blank stare with a grin. |
Why should they care about you? You werent required to buy an extra ticket except because YOU decided to go off on vacation during interviews. Even if you get hired you are expected to pay your own plane fare to Japan anyway, AEON won't pay for you to come here.
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| After all of the process, they offered me a job in which I wrote back giving them explicit reasons why I did not want to work for them. I told them that they could have at least, upon my initial request to move the interview to when I would be back, gave an indication that they were partially to blame for waiting until the last minute to tell me. Their response was an ultimatum!! |
Who are you to be giving ultimatums? You need them more than they need you. They must have thought you did them a favor by turning them down. No need to deal with testy and difficult people.
| Quote: |
| Who wants to work for that!?!?!? And if you don't believe me, I continued to ask other people who had taught in Japan (or worked for AEON) and looked more at these forums.......many voices are quick to pipe up to agree. |
Not many as far as I can see and this is the most popular Japan forum on the internet frequented by teachers in Japan.
Last edited by PAULH on Fri Jun 02, 2006 12:09 am; edited 3 times in total |
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Hoser
Joined: 19 Mar 2005
Posts: 694
Location: Toronto, Canada
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| Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 11:22 pm Post subject: |
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| The Japanese eikaiwa offering the highest pay, best benefits, lowest average working hours and most professional set-up of any of the big 4 or 5 |
I believe that's the lowest average teaching hours not working hours. It's still basically a 40-hour working week. I'd honestly rather be teaching than cleaning the toilet. |
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Apsara
Joined: 20 Sep 2005
Posts: 2142
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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| Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 12:04 am Post subject: |
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I remembered when reading the OP that many years back I somehow scheduled a trip to Thailand during the same week as I was supposed to be doing a Nova interview in my area. I had actually already booked the trip some time before I was contacted by Nova however.
I ended up using some frequent flyer miles that were about to expire to fly to another city in NZ for a day so I could do the interview- looking back I can't believe I went to all that trouble for Nova!
But anyway I certainly didn't expect them to thank me for having flown to another city, since it was my decision to be away when they had interviews in my area, and having already been in Japan on a WHV I knew that I would be just another number, Japanese companies tend not to be all that caring and sharing towards their employees.
OP, good luck in finding a job in Japan, but you might have to lower your expectations a bit I'm afraid |
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unclealex
Joined: 22 Apr 2003
Posts: 38
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| Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 1:22 am Post subject: An Impersonal World |
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We live in an impersonal world, which becomes more obvious once we
enter the workforce. As suggested, you've got to slip into thicker hide
and try to be less sensitive. I get blank stares and silly grins everywhere
I go and from a lot of people almost everyday. But I have no intention of
running away from our indifferent world and sitting on top of a mountain.
Try not to take it so personally when you find people you associate with
lacking in solicitude. Bite the bullet and get a job. 
'Don't let the basta'ds grind you down.' |
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wolfman
Joined: 18 Jan 2006
Posts: 189
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| Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 1:38 am Post subject: |
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| From the perspective of an AEON applicant, the OP really pisses me off. Right now I feel like I would be completely blessed to have AEON offer me a job. And this guy is bragging about turning one down. |
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guitarcries
Joined: 13 Jun 2005
Posts: 21
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 1:43 am Post subject: |
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| While I have to say that I agree with what everyone said about how you probably shouldn't have gone to Mexico that week, I will also say that I have heard many similar things about AEON when it comes to them being impersonal and unfriendly. That was one of the things I really liked about GEOS at the interview, and still like now as one of their employees: everyone is always super friendly and personable, and not in a fake way. Of course GEOS has it's own problems. |
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