Job Discussion Forums

[auckies]

I have 1 year teaching experience. But i just barely held on and took a few more sick days than i should have and slept with a co worker who was my directors neice. I worry he wont give a good reference for me.. I do enjoy teaching life though..

DO SCHOOLS IN JAPAN CHECK OVERSEAS REFERENCES??

[ryuro]

Hey auckies- sent this to your private mailbox by accident, meant to post it as a reply- oops!

I'm a recruiter and I check. However, I can honestly say I'm the ONLY person I know of who's actually checked references over here. If you're going with an eikaiwa (conversation shool) chances are slim to none that they'll check.

cheers,
ryuro

[shmooj]

I'm not so sure they wouldn't check. We thoroughly check references out. We are too small to take the risk of NOT checking. We couldn't afford to make the mistake of hiring the wrong person.

Quite often too, an eikaiwa will have one of their foreign staff do the recruiting if they cannot speak great English themselves. In that case, the person would definitely check references to cover their own back.

Basically, if the school doesn't bother checking references, it might not be such a great place to work at anyway. I'd avoid it for sure but then you might not have the luxury of being so choosy.

[ryuro]

Hey shmooj,

Sorry, I did mis-speak a bit. I actually meant to say that if you went with one of the BIG eikaiwas, they proabably wouldn't check- I've had experience with a couple of the biggies over here and they didn't do ANY checking.

However, the outfit I work for now is quite small- probably same as yours, so like you we can't afford NOT TO check.

And I totally agree, those places that can't be bothered to check, might not be worth working for anyway.

cheers,
ryuro

[3rdEye]

Auckies,

As they say around here: "case by case". Some check, some don't. Though I would tend to agree with the "mostly don't" side, based on my experiences and the accounts of other people I know who've mentioned it.

If applying within Japan, generally speaking, "jukus", "eikawa" or private companies generally don't check overseas references. Overall, it might be considered as too much of a hassle, long distance, etc. There is a higher chance they would check local references, after all, its easier to do so. But all in all, in my case, I've found that they usually take your word, or what ever you have written in your resume for face value. This might lead some to the possibility of lying about your past... (but I leave that topic to another thread). When curious about your history, employers usually ask you questions about your resume, regarding previous employment and past experiences, during the interview. However, that said, I did have a couple of experiences where I had to provide upfront some names and references for checking. These were required by a private company and a private school. Although when I asked some of those references (both local and overses) if they'd ever been contacted by the private company, they said no. But some were contacted by the private school, although these were all local references. It seems in my case, none of the overseas references were contacted by private employers within Japan.

If applying from outside Japan, through a recruiter or branch that exists in your home country, through a government agency, or some situation where you have to go through a very formalised screening process, it might be a different story. I would say, from my experience, that they usually do check your references. After all, they are already there in your home country, so its quite easy to do some reference checking. About your past adventures, interesting. You might want to give an academic reference, a volunteer reference, or other employment reference, to keep attention away from your previous activities. You could do some "creative" talking . Or you might take a chance, go right to the heart of it all and have an honest "chat" with your past director?

Either way, hope it works out in the end. Good luck.
Cheers!

[merc007]

The Eikaiwa's I applied to checked my references So it would be a good idea to make sure your referees know. I think they usually check your references if you get an interview.

[BenJ]

lol - nice work auckies

[denise]

I applied to three places. I know for a fact that one of them did check (my current supervisor at the time & a professor both told me that they had been contacted), one I'm guessing didn't, and one I am guessing did check. So two out of three?

d

[Gordon]

My employer went over my resume with a fine tooth comb, contacted all references and asked me personally about every job listed. They had my resume translated too so everyone could have a good look at it.

[J-Pop]

Well, I didn't post a reply to this thread since, for me, it was 1999 when I returned from Japan. So I couldn't remember, at first.

Now, after thinking about, I do remember. They definitely checked all my references.

Also, during the interview process, which lasted about an hour maybe 2 hours? they had me explain pretty much in detail what I did at each of my previous jobs. I thought this kind of close checking was because I was being hired by a City government, to teach in the public schools & that was why they checked so close.

But, then, after going to Japan & making friends with several of the English teachers at some of the language schools they all said the same. References are checked pretty close usually. With some exceptions, like someone mentioned, like maybe the BIG Language schools, like ryuro wrote, in his second post in this thread. The big ones, the ones that recruit from overseas, you might luck out without them checking your references--if that's a possible problem for you, I mean.