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Inflames
Joined: 02 Apr 2006
Posts: 486
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 Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 6:58 am Post subject: |
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| Beckyyy wrote: |
| I know about 3 people who are based in Osaka (they've been with the company for about 4 years now) and they said a lot of people are leaving. THey didn't give the exact reasons why, but majority are leaving the company and just being hired through the BoE. Most likely its because they were offered a better pay, like I said he didn't explain in detail. |
If the same people from last year are running it this year, it might be that one of the staffers (I'm not going to say who or name their position) has driven them away. Everyone I know who interacted with this person outside of what was absolutely necessary (or even if it was necessary and this person didn't like it) ended up horribly for them (fortunately most people figured out to avoid this person for anything), and the other staff seemed OK. The teachers and one of the staffers seemed OK, I guess they were just waiting around for something else to happen.
As to the driver's license debate, I'd say to go and get it, unless it's a big hardship. It will come in handy at times and, if Interac doesn't offer you anything, you'll probably wind up regretting it. |
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OneJoelFifty
Joined: 06 Oct 2009
Posts: 463
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| Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 4:12 pm Post subject: |
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Hope everyone enjoyed their time off over the new year :>
Just wondering if anyone in this thread had had any luck with Interac for the April placement? I'm expecting to hear back in the next week or so. |
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seklarwia
Joined: 20 Jan 2009
Posts: 1546
Location: Monkey onsen, Nagano
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| Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 5:15 pm Post subject: |
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Christ! You interviewed on November 12th and I somehow forgot to mention the 10 day deadline to accept employment if it is offered.
New years/winter holiday is only just coming to an end, so yes you might be about to receive news. But if don't within the next few days, you might want to get in touch to confirm that you should still be waiting on a decision and that they hadn't sent out one before the break but to the wrong email or something.
Last year they said in the application FAQ they sent that we should hear back (regardless of whether we were accepted or not) within 3 weeks. I don't know if they changed that this year. |
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OneJoelFifty
Joined: 06 Oct 2009
Posts: 463
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| Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 5:28 pm Post subject: |
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| Haha, don't worry it's not that bad! I have been in touch with them several times. As they were only able to offer me a rural position that required driving before Christmas, we agreed to wait until January when people had signed new contracts and they had a better idea of what was available. I'm hopeful of getting a suitable placement, but if not they did mention an August start as an alternative, something I'd also be happy with. I may like to go to Australia for a month or five beforehand to get some sunshine. |
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seklarwia
Joined: 20 Jan 2009
Posts: 1546
Location: Monkey onsen, Nagano
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| Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 3:45 am Post subject: |
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Glad to hear it. With jobs (even crumby dispatch ones) being so hard to come by, it would suck if you missed out on any 'foot in the door' opportunity because of a silly office error.
Hope you get good news soon. |
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OneJoelFifty
Joined: 06 Oct 2009
Posts: 463
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| Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 11:24 am Post subject: |
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| I heard back this morning, they've offered me an August start and said that if I get in touch after May 1st they'll send out the standard offer of employment. I'm a bit hesitant to plan around this though as it all sounds a little...flimsy. |
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OneJoelFifty
Joined: 06 Oct 2009
Posts: 463
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| Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 1:13 pm Post subject: |
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| Thankfully I've been offered a March start with Heart :> |
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gwynnie86
Joined: 27 Apr 2009
Posts: 159
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| Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 3:10 pm Post subject: |
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| Ahh... well I interview with Interac back in May/June 2009 with the idea of going out in August, however they gave me the same story and told me I could go out in March 2010. So, that's what I'm doing, all being well. It does seem a bit flimsy, and I'm still using the phrase "IF I go to Japan" because I don't have 100% faith that it'll go through but... Heart? If my Interac plan falls through, would that be a good alternative? x |
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OneJoelFifty
Joined: 06 Oct 2009
Posts: 463
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| Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 4:07 pm Post subject: |
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If you've got the offer for March then I'd say you're certain to be going to Japan. My situation was different as they were only offering me an August start, which again came with the "but there's no guarentee of a non-driving position" tagline.
I can't say that there looks to be a great deal of difference, but if I was given the choice of the same situation and location but asked to choose the company, from what I've read and experienced I'd choose Heart hands down. I've been impressed with the correspondence I've had with them so far and I liked the straightforward FAQ on their website. They also say that the subsidised housing plus utilities will not come to more than 66,000 a month.
I also read everything I could recently about Interac's alleged link with the Mormons, and although I would have taken a job with them if it was the only one on offer I feel more at ease with the alternative.
So to answer, yeah I'd say Heart looks like a good option but you should do some Googling, there's probably feedback from people that have worked there before to read through. Heart are a far smaller organisation and cover a smaller area as well so your choice of locations would be more limited. |
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monchi01
Joined: 30 Dec 2009
Posts: 20
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| Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 4:51 am Post subject: big upfront cost |
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just curious but why does interact say that you need $5,000 to start off with? that's way more than other companies suggest.
also why do they want you to provide them with a criminal background check that you have to pay money for? no other company has that as a requirement, at least not in their information of what is needed when they let you know that they are interested in moving to the second round with you. |
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seklarwia
Joined: 20 Jan 2009
Posts: 1546
Location: Monkey onsen, Nagano
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| Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 10:04 am Post subject: |
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Why does it seem strange to ask for a criminal check?
Schools in the UK require one. JET eventually asks for one, too. But the JET employment process is so much more lengthier that they can afford to wait longer before asking for it.
I'd be quite shocked at any company that was putting kids in contact with people who hadn't been checked and could be potentially very dangerous.
I didn't give Interac my police check until after I had already received my offer of employment. It wasn't that I held it back intentionally; I simply didn't have it at that point due to a backlog at Disclosure Scotland.
They do ask for it before hand, but it's not really essential to have given it in before the interview. Though I'm not sure that turning around and saying that you weren't going to give in the necessary paperwork until after you heard a positive response would make you seem an attractive candidate for employment.
Why do they say you need 500,000 yen to start? Because housing set up costs can be quite high. Plus there's the fact that it will be about 2months before you receive you first pay cheque. And things like transport costs are reimbursed, so you will need to fork out to get to and from school initially. There are other reasons, too.
How much are the other companies saying you should bring? |
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monchi01
Joined: 30 Dec 2009
Posts: 20
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| Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 10:31 am Post subject: |
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| seklarwia wrote: |
Why does it seem strange to ask for a criminal check?
it doesn't seem strange, they are just asking for it upfront unlike other english teaching companies that i've been exposed to. makes perfect sense though of course. maybe they are just trying to get stuff together from the get go. i just thought that maybe the company you eventually work for would do that on their own, at their own expense.
Schools in the UK require one. JET eventually asks for one, too. But the JET employment process is so much more lengthier that they can afford to wait longer before asking for it.
I'd be quite shocked at any company that was putting kids in contact with people who hadn't been checked and could be potentially very dangerous.
I didn't give Interac my police check until after I had already received my offer of employment. It wasn't that I held it back intentionally; I simply didn't have it at that point due to a backlog at Disclosure Scotland.
They do ask for it before hand, but it's not really essential to have given it in before the interview. Though I'm not sure that turning around and saying that you weren't going to give in the necessary paperwork until after you heard a positive response would make you seem an attractive candidate for employment.
Why do they say you need 500,000 yen to start? Because housing set up costs can be quite high. Plus there's the fact that it will be about 2months before you receive you first pay cheque. And things like transport costs are reimbursed, so you will need to fork out to get to and from school initially. There are other reasons, too.
How much are the other companies saying you should bring? |
others say from 150,000 - 300,000 yen max. i guess maybe interac is being on the safe side? it just seems odd how they don't pay for the key money, realtor fee, etc. when searching for an apt. that stuff seems like such a hassle and several other companies take care of that for you.
are you currently working there? what do you think about interac? i was interested in talking with teach away which is affiliated with interac but they told me that all of their locations are in rural areas which i didn't want. |
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seklarwia
Joined: 20 Jan 2009
Posts: 1546
Location: Monkey onsen, Nagano
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| Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 11:18 am Post subject: |
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| monchi01 wrote: |
others say from 150,000 - 300,000 yen max. i guess maybe interac is being on the safe side? it just seems odd how they don't pay for the key money, realtor fee, etc. when searching for an apt. that stuff seems like such a hassle and several other companies take care of that for you. |
I'm guessing you're not a businessman by profession 
I doubt that they do. Some companies may permanantly lease or own apartments that they can simply hand from one employee to the next and thus avoid the initial set up costs each time. There's no way any company could afford to fork 200,000+ per head to set up every new employee, especially since more than a few will bail out very quickly and many more will not stay to complete the contract.
But you will often find that the rent on company housing is higher than the market value for the area (yes, companies do try to get every little bit of money they can out of the employees). Or if they did need to pay set up costs, you can guarentee they are either raising your rent just that little more or lowering your salary to get that money back and then some... possibly both.
Yes, I do work for them now, but you'll just have go and read some of my recent posts, because I don't feel like typing lengthy posts only to repeat things that I've said in the last week or so; it's not good for my nails.
If you click on my username, you should find a link to all my posts. Just read my recent posts in threads that have Interac somewhere in the title. If you then have questions I haven't answered, come back to me and I'll do my best to answer them. |
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InTheKnow
Joined: 13 Jan 2010
Posts: 20
Location: greater Japan
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| Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 1:42 am Post subject: health insurance backpay |
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| GambateBingBangBOOM wrote: |
| Keep in mind that a lot of people will likely leave starting next year when they discover that they need to pay up to $9000 in current year and back health insurance. |
That's the other big shoe that's going to drop and chaos will reign in the ESL/eikaiwa arena while it sorts itself out. Pain will come to many who had thought they had 'beaten the system'. |
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gwynnie86
Joined: 27 Apr 2009
Posts: 159
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| Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 1:41 pm Post subject: |
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| Plus there's paying �98 for a chest x-ray from what I can work out. Unless anyone knows of somewhere that will do it cheap/free?? |
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