Job Discussion Forums

[Lady0424]

Hey all, was meaning to post this up a while ago but never got a chance to....will write about my interview experiences and my impression of the schools, in case anybody is thinking of taking a position or applying...here goes:

(Phone interview in Japan)
International Education Center Universe Academy (only accepts application through fax or mail)
Pretty much it was a phone interview that consisted of him telling me about his school and not really asking me anything about my background or info from my resume. I was offered the position the next day because it seems like the school is desperate for teachers. I was indifferent to this school but I have heard that the owner is a bit sadistic and wants his teachers to be bubbly and cute all the time. No idea. Read the previous posts on ESL cafe for more info.

(Personal interview in Japan)
Matty's English School
This was probably the most frustrating "interview" I've ever had. If I can even call it an interview. So I met with the wife of the owner at the station and she took me to the main office. I sat down and she was like my husband will be here soon. All was well and she was nice, turning on the heater for me. One thing to note about this school, is that it's located in a beautiful district of Yokohama- the suburbs of rich people pretty much. So I waited...and waited..and finally this old old man with a fisherman's hat comes in. So he sits down. His wife sits down. Then they start pounding me on why I quit my most recent job in Japan. The entire hour and a half they pounded me on why I quit and yak yak yak. It was quite frustrating. Oh and they had me sing. That was strange too. One of their requirements is that you have to have a nice singing voice. I was shown the contract. The good thing about this school is that they offer homestay but it's 90,000yen which IMO is a rip off. And the work hours are crappy. They also have a ridiculous rule about how if you quit working for them, they will pretty much try to force you out of the country because they don't want you to take advantage of the visa. Also, if you DO finish your contract, you're allowed to continue work in Japan but not in their city or Yokohama area. This was all crap to me. So of course I didn't contact them again.

(Personal interview in Japan)
Jun International PreSchool
Not even an interview. Pretty much the owner had me visit the school and watch the kids play. She didn't even ask me a lot of questions about my experience or background or stuff on my resume. After watching the kids play, she had me go with them to the park. There were a lot of awkward silences and all she pretty much asked me was my age and when I planned on going back to Japan. That was it. The owner is not exactly your most friendliest person. In fact, she seemed quite hostile. I wasn't hired, because she was worried that I won't come back in April and she was looking for somebody who was 25+.

(Personal interview in Japan)
Joy to the World Intl. PreSchool/Kindergarten
So it was a personal interview. I arrived on time and the secretary led me to a different building (they have like 4-5 schools in the area). The owner shows up after 10-15 minutes and he has me fill out the application on spot. He asked me some stuff about my background and told me about his schools. The interesting thing I found about this school was that it apparently negotiates a salary with the teacher. But beware, because the owner takes the negotiation and stretches it as far as he can. I asked for a certain amount between a certain number of work hours (he even asked me if I wanted the same salary, regardless whether or not I work the high or low end of the hours) and pretty much what the owner did was he took the highest number of work hours, divided it by my requested monthly salary and multiplied that by my lowest work hours number and said if you work these hours I will pay you this much and if you work higher, I will pay you this much. Nice negotiation eh? Of course he didn't tell me that on the spot but after I was offered the position.
So all was well with this school during the interview. He took me on a tour and I left in a content mood.
The worst part came afterwards. During my entire time back at home, he never made any contact with me. I was the one doing all the contacting and I didn't even receive an official contract. All I received was my working hours, about 5 days before I was scheduled to arrive.
When I asked if I could delay my work until Feb., due to some family emergencies, he responded with "Good luck". I'm glad I didn't take this job.

(Personal interivew in Japan)
Hello Kids PreSchool
I met the guy in Shinjuku on the last holiday before the new years. He is actually one of my previous student's cousin. Really nice guy. We kind of chatted over tea and his schools sound wonderful to work for. The one concern I had was the salary, which is incredibly low (220,000 ft) for Tokyo. But apparently he only interviews and hires through connections. It would be worth it if the salary was higher.

(Phone interview outside of Japan)
Sophia

This school seems like it has many benefits. Pretty much the work days are from Mon-Sat. with 112-118 working hours per month and the housing is free. You're free to teach the lessons your own style, which is good and bad in it's own way. The guy who called was really nice. He asked a lot of questions about my history, background, and I had questions for him.
I then receive an e-mail from him, stating that he wanted me to write up a teaching statement because he received a lot of competitive applications so I spent my night writing it.
Then the communication was kind of on and off. After a few days, I politely asked him if he needed any other references. He tells me that some guy who lived in the area popped up at their school and "wowed" the employer with his experience so they are hiring him instead. Sounds like a nice school to work for though but the schedule is kind of insane.

(Phone interview outside of Japan)
Active English School
So I applied to this position and the owner immediately writes back and said she wanted to speak to me right away. So I gave her the option of a few days and she picks the earliest day and the ealiest time.
She was about 30 minutes late in calling me. She gave a lot of information on her school and positions (so thorough that I didn't even have any questions left for her). How the school works is that they usually send teachers off as AETs to local schools but you also have the option of working at her conversation school for extra pay (2500). The starting salary is 260000 with a completion bonus of 80,000 + 20,000 for perfect attendence. I will get back to the pay later.
So after my conversation with her, she e-mailed me saying she had a nice convo with me. She also said she wanted me to "speak" to one of the current teachers (more like interview with a native speaker) so I did and that went well too. That teacher seemed a bit submissive though so that didn't sound like a good sign. After that, I e-mailed her and thanked her and I was pretty much 98% sure she was going to offer me the position. Then the owner said that this teacher had a nice talk with me but the owner wanted me to speak with another foreign teacher (the one I'd be replacing) so I did and that went well. Then she calls me again and said "everything's ok with you, I would like to offer you this position". And she sent me the contract later that night. I e-mailed her right after that and said I needed more time to consider the position and then the weirdest thing happened- which was she said that she was still reviewing applicants and did not make a decision yet. But according to the teacher I interviewed with, I was the one and only interviewee she spoke with. So by that time I was already annoyed (first, because she led me on, second, because she kept calling my house which for some reason was getting on my nerves) so I politely told her ok I will wait.
The next day she said she wanted to speak to me again and at that time she "officially" offered me the position. So I'm already annoyed at this woman and so I was debating whether or not to accept. But she automatically assumed I'd take the position (because of my cheery attitude I guess) which bothered me even more.
Afterwards, she called my house a couple of times and then she e-mails me asking for a specific reference (it was strange to me that she didn't ask for this reference *before* she hired me but *after*). I said I didn't feel comfortable giving the reference to her and then I got anoter e-mail from her, demanding for the reference.
I hadn't replied to that e-mail, which was sent yesterday. Then I received another e-mail today pretty much reprimanding me, stating how they are concerned with the satisfaction and happiness of teachers and that the teachers have to be honest. Then she ends with something like we cannot offer you this position at this time and blady blady blah. Good because I was having a hard time breaking to her that I didn't want to work for her.

Btw I heard that this woman is a bit scatter-brained and absentminded, which I heard can REALLY get on your nerves. I also heard a teacher quit her school because she was apparently sexually harrassed by the principal or something. The kids there I heard can be quite a bunch, because a lot of them could care less about learning English.

-So back to the salary. Pretty much the maximum salary you can make that still considers you a human is 360,000yen (which means Mon-Fri 8:15-4PM at the elementary school and from 5-7 at her conversation school). BUT there's a catch. Life doesn't always work the way you want. The expenses are so high working for her school that you start to wonder if she's trying to make money off of rent and stuff. Rent is about 54,000yen (but we're talking about rural area near Matsumoto), utilities is about 6,000yen, car (mandatory) is about 70,000-90,000yen (but you can sell it off in the end), gas is about 8000-15000 (depending on how you use the car), insurance for car is about 5,000, food is about 30-50,000yen depending on how you eat (the school provides lunch at 260yen a meal), national health insurance is about 39,000 (of which 19,000 you can get back), and tax is from 5-8%. Do your math and you end up with anywhere between 170-190,000 yen per month. Not really worth it for 50 hours worth of work every week.

Oh and she requires an upfront 50,000yen deposit and you will only get back 35,000 (because of cleaning and replacing the tatami mats). AND if you quit your contract, you're deducted 50,000 yen for teacher replacement. It doesn't cost THAT much to make a few international phone calls.
Don't get me wrong..I have heard good things about this school and Shiojiri seems to be like a comfy area to work in (although a bit inconvenient) but the work hours that you put in doesn't seem to be worth it. Plus, there are too many hassles that come with getting a car and having it maintained.


Oh I also have experience interviewing for AEON and Nova as well as working for AEON (quit because of my psycho head teacher and the crappy tues-sat. 1-9 work hours..in fact, 2 teachers before me quit my school within a span of 6 months and 4 people from my training grp quit so that tells you something about AEON) but I won't post my experiences here. So PM me if you want to know.

Ah where are the jobs with sane employers?? *Continues searching*

[markle]

On my last job search I had a really crap interview. It was in the middle of the summer break so not only were jobs few and far between, but most hiring staff were on holiday also. So I was pretty keen to talk to one of the schools that had contacted me. So after going to the trouble of actually buying a suit I went into the school. I met the owner, a nice enough lady, then in comes the head gaijin teacher to conduct the interview. Well never have I met a more clueless moron trying to interview a potential employee. For a start, despite making it quite clear that I was after a full time position it turned out at the end of the conversation that there were only part-time positions available. I felt like turning to the owner and telling her that this joker can do the part time work and I'll have his job.

After that I was even eager to hear from Interac. Luckily later that night I got rang another school and got my present job.

[bearcat]

Good on ya for posting your experiences.

Much of what you've stated is common practice with many of the mom n pop schools.

Any school though asking you to pay deposits or payments up front should be avoided.

Also schools that up front tell you they'll withhold pay when ever you quit are to be avoided.

And finally any school telling you they wont let you work in Japan or a city / are after you quit is to be avoided. Your visa is yours and they cannot do that.

Unfortunately, as far as interviews go, many places have their own quirky interview set ups and you cannot use your western experiences to judge or bench mark them by.

Get references from current and former teachers of a school from the school if you are concerned the school is "strange" if the school balks at this then that should be a concern. Make sure its current and past and that when you speak with said teacher's that you find out what their current relationship is with said school. (I've seen a school say someone was a former teacher but the person was actually still working for them as a floating sub and was reluctant to mention anything bad about the school.

Over all, its not high season for exploitation by some schools via hiring/recruiting and it is well recommended for all to keep their wits about them.

[Lady0424]

forgot to add...i also have interview experience with interac so PM me on that if you want to know (not that there's not enough out there already on this dispatch co.)

btw pardon the terrible english....it was 2 am in the morning and i was starting to see pretty stars

::kicks myself for missing the JET deadline 2 years in a row::

[Venti]

[Lady0424]

Nah. Actually, the real schools told me that they really respected my decision to quit AEON. One even told me- good for you for quitting AEON and we had a 5 minute conversation on our thoughts of the big 4. A lot of them are aware that the big 4 are more about business than anything else.
As for the working conditions, usually they give you a ballpark during the interview as to where you'll end up. Not your exact working conditions. One teacher from my training group got the bad luck of the draw and ended up working past his 29.5 hours without extra pay. Another gets to sit around all day playing his palm piloty because he's bored to death with no classes to teach.
Why did I take the job in the first place? Truthfully, right out of college you really have no idea what's out there in the big world waiting for you. I thought my experience working in Japan would be much better than what I experienced at AEON. During the interviews, they make it sound all pretty and nice, everything wrapped up in a box and handed to you kind of thing. But it's really the luck of the draw as to whether or not you'll end up at a good or bad school.
And what they DONT tell you when they offer you the contract is the history of the school (teacher turnover rate (as I said, 2 teachers before me quit within a span of 6 months because of this new head teacher), classes you'll be teaching (I taught some classes that 1)I wasn't trained for and 2) weren't regularly offered at the schools, etc. etc.) so you have no idea what's out there waiting for ya. And they should know some things about the school or they have the resources to find out.

As for getting another job with a reputable eikaiwa, I don't plan on it. At least not any with the big 4. Oh and btw, the turnover rate for Nova I heard is 70% a year. They hardly keep their teachers working for them.

But you are right though. Western culture- we're so used to job hopping but in Japan, it's looked down upon to switch jobs in middle of a contract because Japanese people think that once you find a job, you must stick to it for a long long time. Maybe the rest of your life till you retire.

Ah hopefully I'll find something that I'm happy with but now that I have a little experience in this eikaiwa area, I now what I want and what I don't want.

[Venti]

Thanks for the candid responses, lady.

Again, good luck and keep us posted.

[Lady0424]

Here's a continuation of my interview experiences...

WinBe
(Phone interview outside of Japan)
I sent in my resume, cover letter, and photo to this corp and one of their recruiters got back to me. She kept calling me a "mr." to which I didn't really correct (didn't really know what to say to her....I'm a girl?). We arranged for a phone interview. She was pretty on time with the call but was shocked to hear a woman's voice to which she apologized. I wasn't really that concerned that she thought I was a man because I have a "feminized" version of a guy's name but the fact that I sent in my photo and that she probably didn't even bother to look at everything (cover letter, and photo. I'm sure she looked at my resume or glanced at it) was a turn off. The recruiter was very passive and that turned me off too. She sounded kind of brain-washed by the corp, which I'm not surprised. That was that.

(Phone interview outside of Japan)
Seiko Gakuen School
I sent in my resume, cover letter, and photo for this school and I got a reply almost right away. They wanted to speak to me over phone and gave me a list of times. I picked the best time and they were on the dot when they called. I got to speak with the principal (I think) and the head foreign teacher. They were both incredibly professional, sweet and friendly. They asked a lot about my background and I had a lot of questions for them. The school is based in Shikoku and 50% of classes are taught in English and 50% Japanese. I think I'd be teaching science and the classes are free-structured with comprehensive materials to back me up. This would be good for teaching experience. Also, they were delighted to know that I could speak Japanese because that way they said there'd be no communication barriers between me and the other Japanese teachers. After the interview, they said they're very interested in offering me the position but I would have to give them an answer right away (since they were originally going to offer it to another candidate). And I was offered the position the next day. The benefits to this school are that they pay for airfare, the insurance is partially paid for, and the housing is cheap (40,000). Didn't end up taking the position because I couldn't make a decision on time but the school sounds really lovely to work for.

(E-mail. I'm only posting this because it sounds way too good to be true and I'm wondering if it's a scam)
some strange English school located in Odaiba, where the lady didn't even provide the school's name
The lady's name is Ms. Motoyama and she posted on ESLCafe. The message was very very brief, stating she wanted a teacher. Being curious, I sent in my resume and photo and maybe a intro. letter (forgot). She replied back and sent me her "contract". Pretty much the lessons are paid by the hour and she pays for your airfare, apartment, utilities, transportation, etc and provides you with a motor bike. All you have to do is pack your bags and move in. She was interested in my application and asked me to wait 10 days and said she would e-mail me with more questions and have a teacher contact me. 10 days passed. no answer. About 3 weeks passed and I decided to e-mail her again. She took about 2 weeks to respond to my e-mail and said she's been speaking with a lot of teachers (she carefully considers all applicants ), and one decided to take the position. I wonder if it's a scam though, because it sounds way too good to be true also because the position is in august and not coming up.

Still have a couple of interviews along the way so I will update when I finish the interviews.