Job Discussion Forums

[Quibby84]

I have been trying to figure this out for a long time, well since I started to research schools.
How can you tell if a school is a good school or not? Some of the schools that I find have absolutley no information anywhere about them. We have two phone interviews next week and anyone can sound like they have a good job offer on the phone.
One of the schools that we have a phone interview with has NO information. It sounds like a good deal, close to tokyo, 240,000 yen a month, free car to use for work, 50,000 yen rent, blah blah But I have no clue as to what makes a good school.
So if you were to make a list of what to look for in a good school and what to look for in a bad, that would be SO nice.
:smiles thanks:


oh, and I have done millions of searches with the search function

[guest of Japan]

Honestly, at this point most of the schools are bad schools.

[Quibby84]

ok, so what is the "least bad"?

[Squire22]

I'm sure some of the more experienced people will add their comments at some point, but for now, here would be mine I guess.

This would be my approximate list of stuff:
- appropriate level of pay taking into account your experience and ability
- how much holiday do you get? (If an ALT gig, what's the summer pay?)
- how much sick pay do you get?
- does the company do anything for you if you're just arriving in country? help with accomodation, setting up a postal account, ability to answer general questions about bills/mobile phones etc., even just picking you up at the airport, that kind of thing.
- if there's no info out there, are they willing to provide contact with previous or current employees by e-mail or otherwise?
- what's the deal with the visa? are they going to sort your certificate of eligibility to process your visa or do they want you to turn up on a tourist visa and then do a visa-run to south korea? (I have been asked to do this before)
- what kind of support do they offer both living and teaching? Any resources? Any kind of syllabus or training? Is training paid? How about transport to training?
- what time frame are you working in? Did they call you a day after you applied or two months after you applied? Both can be potential indicators..
- do they have an ethos? What do they think about language education? What methods do they use to teach the English language? How many students do they have? How many would be in your class? What levels/ages will you be teaching?

- I have to say that an aweful lot does come down to feel/trust in the end. Did you meet them in person or just over the phone? How important is it to you to meet face to face with someone? How did they sound, did you make a connection, did you feel you could trust them? Did they sound sincere? Did they sound desperate or casual? Were they vague in their answers or clear and concise? If they didn't know the answer to a question did they say so and get back to you or try and blag it?

You mention a free car for work, do they pay petrol, insurance, and parking too? If not, why can't you use it for personal use as well, if you're paying for it...

Just how close to Tokyo is it? Is there a shinkansen stop? You can be an hour away by shinkansen which is also anywhere between 2 and 3 hours by local train.

Is it your own apartment or are you sharing? How big is the apartment? Does it come with any furniture/amenities?

I probably haven't covered nearly enough here, but i'm sure many people will fill in the gaps and correct as necessary. My main advice would be to ask questions, as many as you can think of that they should be able to answer because if you can think of them, they should have been able to already before any kind interview/phone interview.

Good luck,

Regards

[bornslippy1981]

Lots of good stuff from Squire.

Some other things:

-Government Health Insurance? Are you going to be enrolled in Shakai Hoken?

-Fines for being late? If the train is running late, the train station will give you something apologizing for it. I've never been late, so I'm not sure what it's called. But, if there's a delay, are you fined if you're 10 minutes late?

-What is the average time employees work there. Don't expect an accurate answer. If it's 3 months, they'll tell you a year.

-If it's a company apartment, can you move out? How much notice must you give them? Will they pro-rate the rent, or do you have to pay a full month?


I interviewed for a job in July knowing I would never take it, but was practicing as I hadn't been to an interview in 2 years, and wanted to be prepared for the interview for the job I wanted, which is where I work now.

Anyway, I asked if for any reason I had to end the contract early, how much notice must I give. They said 30 days. They also knew I had a job at the time, and had to give 30 days notice, but asked me to start the following week. I said it's more of a courtesy to give your employer notice, and they wouldn't want the same thing to happen to them. They called me about a month later to see if I was still interested in the job. Not sure why though. As Squire22 said, how quickly did they call you back? This company I'm speaking of called me back about 20 minutes after I applied through gaijinpot.com, and I didn't have a cover letter or most of the resume information posted at the time.

Good luck. Let us know what you think of the various companies you speak with.

[Glenski]

I'm going to write a little about what others have written first.

Shakai hoken (corporate health insurance). Just because an employer doesn't offer it, that doesn't necessarily make him a bad employer. He may be using the legal loophole of number of classroom hours to categorize you as part-time to the government, so he can avoid making copayments.

Appropriate level of pay. For the last 20 years or so, 250,000 yen/month was the standard eikaiwa salary. In the past couple of years some employers have offered anywhere from 180K to 220K. Those figures alone should be your concern, not whether you have experience and ability. Why? Most employers just want a warm body and have for many years. Very few, as far as I know, have offered a salary compensate with experience and ability.

Holiday time. While you are supposed to be guaranteed a certain number of days off per week and per year, that's about all the legal it gets. People rant, for example, about NOVA = NOVAcation simply because it offers the least number of holidays, but it's still not a terrible place to work for some.

Sick pay. I don't believe you get sick pay in Japan. Just paid days off, whether for vacationing or being sick.

Training. I wouldn't worry if none is offered. Many training "programs" are just a few days and are only specific for the school's format anyhow.

Ethos? I am surprised by this point. Eikaiwas are businesses, interested primarily in making money, not educating people. Eikaiwa classes are aimed mostly at conversational English anyway, not hardcore grammar instruction.

Sharing an apartment doesn't necessarily indicate a bad school. Sharing with the boss certainly conjures up a red flag to me!! As does teaching out of your apartment.

Squibby and bornslippy have contributed many good notions in their posts. Heed them.

Ok, my personal views on what how to identify a good school (sort of in reverse):
1. If they want you to come in a flash without a visa (something they will sort out later), that's a red flag, especially if they don't explain the hurry as being due to a sudden loss of a teacher. Even that is worrisome because you have to know why he/she left.

2. If the contract has lots of legalese and certainly if it has lots of clauses listing penalties and restrictions, look out. This suggests a micromanager in action, or the fact that the school has been burned before by teachers. Why were they burned? Well, could be for good or bad reasons.

Off the top of my head, these are things to watch out for. If the school is so small that it has no reputation known, then look at the contract for a reasonable description, get a feeling of the staff from your interview, and come here or to other forums to ask around.

[womblingfree]

[luckbox]

[Quibby84]

Thanks! this is great, we are talking to two schools this week, I am going to write down all of these questions and ask them.
Thanks so much!
(you can keep it coming if youd like)

[luckyloser700]

I'd like to add something, but I don't know how useful it will be.

You might be wondering what Japanese people who are studying, or have studied, at some of these schools think. There are some Japanese websites that are devoted to eikaiwa school ratings, but I know that may be of little use to those who don't understand Japanese. There are interesting graph charts, however.

My point is, go into some J friend chat rooms and see what you can learn there. If you have time, of course. A friend showed me a ratings homepage once last year and it seemed that AEON edged the others out just a bit.

Anyway, hope I'm not wasting your time with this, Quibby, BrytSyde, et al..

[bornslippy1981]

What did you find out Quibby? Did you have the phone interview yet?

At first I thought you were already in Japan, maybe doing the "Sweetpea Homestay."

Anyway, let us know.

[Quibby84]

Well we have the interview/question session tonight, I have made a list of questions from this post to ask (all great questions) and we will see what happens. For some reason we have a lot of faith in this school (oh and I think that it is for an ALT position). They emailed us back about a day or so after I sent in a cover letter, resume, and picture from both of us.
I will post their responses and see what you think.

[Quibby84]

Well we have both talked to the school individually and we are shocked at how much this was exactly what we were looking for (small school, ALT, close to Tokyo, except couples) but the negative side of me tells me that it is to good to be true. The guy seemed very honest (and when I asked him about how long people stay he said that some who are not ready stay only a few weeks but others may stay for years, he has been there 19 years) and sincere, but is that normal?
Should I be positive and except that this is the best job ever of should I be negative and worry that it is all a big scam?

[furiousmilksheikali]

[Quibby84]

yes I meant accept couples, it is Fifthwings, a small school in ashikaga...an ALT position.