Job Discussion Forums

[daniel of blackmore]

Well I had my BOE meeting set up by RCS and it seemed to go pretty well. The RCS representative told me that the BOE were impressed by all three of us, made very confident assumptions about our success in securing the placement, emailed me to say and I quote "you are sure to get the placement". And asked me to wait 1 week for final confirmation. 1 week passes and sure enough they contact me, but to say I have not been chosen by the board of education in that area, and furthermore there were far fewer places available than RCS had thought. RCS were operating under the assumption that there were 9 places for them to fill in that area, but it turns out that the BOA there were actually sharing all nine places with three different ALT companies therefore just picking the cream of the crop from maybe 27 candidates and sending everyone else packing, including me. And apparently RCS had no idea this was going on until after they went around virtually promising everybody places there. So now I have to go to another BOE meeting somewhere else. Longest damn job interview I`ve ever had and it just keeps getting longer!
Is this a normal ALT BOE experience or is that paticular BOE just evil? Cause if this is gonna happen at my next meeting, that`s it for me and ALT. I`m sure alot of other candidates who travelled from other cities to attend the introduction probably threw in the towel when told that they had to do it all over again, despite having had it strongly suggested to them that they would get the position.

[fluffyhamster]

Hi DoB, sorry to hear things didn't work out for you, but this seems to be the way jobs (especially AET positions) are going in Japan (see my previous reply, on your other thread). That particular BOE is surely on crack just from the sheer number of people's time that they wasted, and they are dreaming if they think that they won't be having problems with ALL their AETs (or rather, dispatchers) at some point due to the similar appalling pay and conditions that each has to inflict to turn an exploitative profit.

[southofreality]

Get away from RCS if they're pulling that kind of shyte.

Interac will guarantee placement somewhere as an ALT once they offer you a job and you only need to interview once to get it.

[ripslyme]

Sorry to hear that. It was a pretty rotten thing for that BOE to pull, but it is totally an employer's market out there. They don't care about whose time got wasted or any potential problems with ALTs because:
1.) English education is generally not taken seriously by either the BOEs or the students (a can of worms deserving of it's own thread, btw) and that
2.) ALTs are a dime a dozen - with salaries continuing to drop as they are, that's almost a literal statement these days!

Combine the cutthroat competition between all the dispatch companies with NOVA going bust and it is a rather bleak situation out there right now.

[Glenski]

Agreed. It's not the BOE. RCS is to be avoided. Cut your losses and run away fast!

[fluffyhamster]

Yeah, RCS probably had a good idea of what was going on (the same sort of thing happens every year), but it would hardly be in their interests to not string along more than enough AETs, and even they are always hoping that they will be offered loads more positions (as a company) than actually turns out to be the case (so I think the BOEs are ultimately to blame for everything). It's all just a big game, a headless chicken race. The unfortunate result is that many AETs end up needing to relocate (or face ever longer commutes), or indeed without a "steady" job at all for potentially a whole academic year.

[daniel of blackmore]

Thanks for the advice, I am seriously considering cutting my losses. However I`ve wanted to do ALT work since I came here, and now with spring fast approaching I seem to be abit short on time to go to another ALT company who could just pull the same crap. I suppose there is no action I can take against RCS if they fail to find me a placement and waste nearly 4 months of my life. Other than smearing their name all over the EFL forums.
My next BOE "introduction" starts at 8am and is 2 hours from where I live, plus I have to give 2 lesson examples, and I suppose I`ll be pitted against 27 other teachers again. Doesn`t really sound like an introduction to me.

[fluffyhamster]

It would be funny DoB if you could go along just to ask the BOE what its policy will be when RCS starts making unreasonable deductions, relatedly denying any unpaid sick leave etc, and making it almost impossible for you to continue working (that is, being able to afford to get to work, have the energy once there to perform satisfactorily etc). Not the way to get the job, admittedly, but then, any BOE that seems to think it shouldn't ever be answerable for its shady hiring practices and work conditions probably wouldn't be worth working for anyway.

[Weezer]

[rxk22]

[OneJoelFifty]

I didn't even meet anyone from the BoE in Mito, Ibaraki until we'd been at our schools for a month or so. I'm assuming that means that in this city, Heart were trusted by the BoE to provide suitable teachers, or we'd had our CVs etc screened without face-to-face meetings. Before starting work I was driven to meet my school, but it seemed more of a meet and greet than an interview.

[flyer]

[Glenski]