Job Discussion Forums

[johncanada24]

I applied to Nova during the weekend and literally monday morning i was called for an interview Nov 23rd in my City as the will be accepting applicants in halifax Canada. It almost seems as if they are desperate for applicants..? Anyways I'm excited so anybody who has any suggestions to be prepared I'm all ears ! Anyone here leaving for Japan around March?

[callmesim]

My advice:

Have you applied for anyone else? Research the Big 4 and make sure you're getting the best deal for your wants.

You don't want to be one of the people who come here, talk with other teachers and say "Damn! I came with the wrong school!"

By all means apply with Nova but don't make them you're only option.

[johncanada24]

[seastarr]

Hey,
I am also from Halifax and I interviewed there too. When I went to Japan, I went with Nova and I also interviewed with Aeon. Despite what most people say, if you want to go to Japan, Nova is not the worst thing in the world. Anyone that I worked with that HATED Nova hadn't worked for some of the places that I had worked for. By all means, shop around of course, but dont write them off because of all the bad things you may read. Its like anything, the people that had ok experiences dont take the time to write about them usually, the people who had awful ones are the ones that take the time to bash.

[hentaigaijin]

yeah, bash the bishop. there are a lot of bishop bashers on internet forums.

can't you just take a job with one of these companies, get a work visa sorted, and then jib them for somebody else? the only risk i see involved then is on the part of the company.

[LoTan]

i also applied over the weekend and got a call first thing monday morning. my interview is next week in the toronto.. ^___^ seems like nova is doing a hiring blitz at the moment for the first quarter of 2007. guess lots of ppl are applying too.. competition could be tough. all i have is a college diploma and no teaching experience what so ever.. so my chances of gettin in are kinda slim.

as well... with just the college diploma, i can only apply for a working holiday visa... AND.. i can only work as a FLEXI SCHEDULED position @ nova. does nova hire a lot of flexi position ppl????

and CURIOUS... for those who work as a flexi .... how hard is it to live in japan making a minimum of 160,000 yen a month???

should i start saving up the dollars now???

any input would be greatly appreciated! thx in advance and good luck to those who applied as well!

[canuck]

[seastarr]

you could teach private students....most areas have a international center where you can post ads. 160 000 before rent and bills is going to be slim, unless Nova is still begging for people to do OT, which they may still be. When I was there, there were lots of Aussies on the WHV and they had a pretty slim time without doing any overtime. Nova will reduce your rent a little bit if you are on flexi though, maybe about 10,000 a month.

[LoTan]

[Apsara]

I worked for 9 months on the old version of the flexi- I also got about 160,000 a month. Most of that time I taught at a kindergarten 2 hours a week which gave me an extra 40,000 a month, plus a couple of private students. I wouldn't really like to live on that amount now, but at the time I was fresh out of university and used to living on a tight budget. My rent was low as I lived in a gaijin house room with my boyfriend, and I managed to save enough to travel for 6 months afterwards.

You will need to have some money saved to set yourself up until you get your first full pay.I started work for Nova having worked 3 months at a ski resort in Nagano, I had about 500,000 yen saved which was plenty to keep me going while I waited for my first full pay, which comes up to about 2 months after you start work there because of the pay system they use.

[yamanote senbei]

John, Nova is very desperate for teachers right now.

[LoTan]

do sponsored positions have a better chance than a flexi position??

if you get hired as a flexi, how much overtime would you be allowed to do??? does it always have to stay within the limits of your WHV??? what is that limit anyways? hour wise?

and going back to the whole 160,000yen per month as a flexi, anyone here with experience as one who had problems living financially?

[johncanada24]

[LoTan]

I had my Nova interview this morning in the toronto office.
seven ppl including myself were present at the info session. 3 ppl showed up late... one about 20 mins late. not too sure how much that affected nova's decision on hiring them.

we basically did the exact same as this post

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?t=31813&highlight=nova+interview

didn't do the japanese customs activity but we played a BINGO type game where you ask your fellow interviewees certain question that are in each box on your game sheet.. ie. have u owned a japanese car? goal is to get a person to say yes to the questions.. but u can't have the same person answer consecutively beside each box.

the lesson activity was very interesting. just gotta remember to be very positive and outgoing... always show eyecontact.

the slide presentation... dont say a lot of Ummms... be creative.. exaggerate if u have to. pretend as if you took the picture yourself. tell a story if you like. remember.. use up that 45secs.

the 15 min test goes by REALLY fast. many of us didn't even finish it.
be prepared ahead of time to write the two essay form questions.

overall.. my tip.. be very outgoing... participate.. and do some research about NOVA on their website or here before u go in.

i think my interview went well... we'll see how it turns out.

thx again to all those who've posted tips! helped me a lot! and good luck to those who are soon applying!

[ironopolis]