Job Discussion Forums

[worlddiva]

Hello all! I see that you've all been very busy...with some pretty heavy discussions.

Well, I haven't posted in sometime as I've been too busy applying for jobs with, yes, you guessed it... the big 4!!! I know some of you are thinking AGH! Don't do it...save yourself while you still can.LOL

Anyways, the point of my post is that I have interviews lined up with AEON, ECC, and GEOS. My budget is rather limited for me to get to the interview location...so it looks like I need to pick 2 out of 3 to go to. Based on what you know or have heard which ones would you go to?

My main criteria in selection are:
1. pay and apt which are all about the same.
2. vacation: ECC says 5 weeks vs. AEON with 3 weeks.
3. i want to live in a small town/village and stay away from Tokyo and other large urban congested nightmares.(sorry!)
4. offer decent training
5. possibility of getting CELTA while I'm there
6. and, of course, after all the horror stories I've read here, I want to work for someone who will treat me with respect.

Any input, advice or info you can give is greatly appreciated. Personally, I think I'm opting for ECC and AEON.

Thanks a bunch,
WD

[Willy_In_Japan]

I interviewed for both GEOS and AEON during the same week, and there were a few people who were at both interviews. I talked to one of them, and he said that if he had to go with GEOS, that he would not bother going to Japan.

In my opinion, GEOS was much more up front about what they wanted from their employees, whereas, AEON wanted the same thing but really downplayed it.

I knew what it was all about before I went to the interviews, so I could see how they were glossing over things like selling contracts and doing model lessons. For example, at the AEON interview, they said 'from time to time, your manager may ask you to do an interview with a prospective student' or something to that effect. GEOS, on the other hand, was not implying that this would be a rare thing.

I never got past the first day of AEON interviews, but after 3 days of gruelling GEOS interviews, I didn't care. GEOS offered me a job so I went with them.

If I recall correctly, AEON had a couple of pluses in that they seemed to have a set fee for their apartment costs. GEOS offers stipends for various areas, such as Kanto, but the high and variable cost of Apartments seemed to take that away. I was paying much more than I should have for my cockroach infested LEO Palace.

I think that AEON tries to balance out holidays where as in GEOS, if your day off is Monday (most all of the native teachers have sunday monday off) you don't get too many national holidays. So, you might get more time off with AEON.

GEOS has extra payment but they have been continually cut, and I found personally that it was never more than a few thousand yen a month. It used to be a lot, and in the interview, GEOS implied it could be upwards of 50,000 a month. Fantasy.

I think AEON doesnt offer extra payments but I seem to recall they might pay 5,000 more a month.

All in all, I think they are two similar companies, and I heard at one time they were one company.

Take that for what its worth.

Willy

[Willy_In_Japan]

I just re read your post and you said something about AEON having 3 weeks holidays......hmmmm

GEOS had when I was there in 2003 2 weeks (10 days) holidays, PLUS Golden week, PLUS a week off at Christmas. They advertise that they give national holidays, but since most of them are on mondays, you don't really get them, but if they fall on a tuesday-saturday, you do indeed get the holiday at GEOS.

The thing about GEOS holidays, is that you CANNOT put your 10 days together into two straight weeks of time off, nor can you put a week beside Golden week. You are able to take off however, a week before your new years holiday which begins about December 28th, and go home for almost two weeks at Christmas time. Other times of the year, forget going home for more than a week at a time, which hardly makes it worth the plane ticket.

Willy

[Joannda]

Hi Worlddiva,

I think Willy has given a pretty good report of Geos vs Aeon, but I'll give you my 2 cents worth on Aeon, as they are actually the only ones I ended up interviewing with.

I did a lot of research on the big 4 before applying, and Aeon definitely came out on top for me. As many have said before on this forum, you have to remember that these big language schools operate as a business, rather than a school, and so you have to accept that if you are choosing to go with one of them, you will be expected to act as if you are part of that business. That means, selling books and so on.

The big bonus with Aeon is that you pay 42,000 yen rent no matter where you live, and from what I can tell, most apartments are of comparable standard. You save a lot because of this subsidy in rent, which you need to weigh up against possible higher wages at other schools.

Vacation: Yes, with Aeon you get 3 weeks, which are at designated times (golden week, summer and new year), but on top of that you get national holidays plus 5 personal days per year. These personal days you can take at any time, but usually only 2 or maybe 3 at a time (not all 5 in one go). You either get a Monday-Friday or Tuesday-Saturday schedule, and you don't have a say in this, and won't find out until much closer to your departure day (so you have to accept without knowing your exact schedule). so, if you're 'unlucky' and get the Tuesday-Saturday schedule, you may miss out on some national holidays which fall on mondays but by the sounds of things this is very similar accross all schools.

Aeon has most demand for smaller areas. Tokyo and Osaka are highly requested areas to live in, and so I'm sure they'll be jumping with excitement if you request a small town/village, no worries there!

You get one week's worth of initial training when you get to Japan. This is all paid for by the company, and from what I've heard it sets you up well for being able to teach (any comments?) I know some others offer more training, others offer less... You get ongoing training throughout your stay with Aeon too.

Don't think they help you with CELTA or similar.

The reason I chose Aeon is because they do seem to be the one with the best reputation for treating their teachers with respect...

So that is my input... I'm actually not working for Aeon yet, so this is only what I've heard/read/been told etc by others/internet/Aeon, but hope it helps anyway!

Oh, and overtime is very unlikely with Aeon, they were quite up-front about that. They offer 3000 yen for any teaching over 25 hrs a week, but aparantly this is very rare, as they usually try to balance work evenly among teachers.

[PAULH]

[Joannda]

Sorry, I should have been clearer in my post.

Yes, if you rent the appartment AEON organises for you (they have several that they rent on an on-going basis, and then 'sublet' so to speak, to the foreign teacher), then your rent is 42,000 yen. Any rent above this amount that would usually be charged, AEON pays for. That is, they pay the difference between the actual rent and the 42,000yen they charge all their foreign teachers for these apartments.

I guess you could chose to find your own apartment, although I"m really not sure why you would do this as it is likely to be 60,000+ and yes, I think you then do still pay the 42,000 to AEON (according to other posters on other threads) as they do take this rent amount straight out of your salary...

The apartment AEON offers is in most cases the same apartment your pre-decessor had. (that is, the teacher you are replacing) So I'm guessing, if it was good enough for them, why not for me?

Hope that clarifies it...
Has anyone that works for AEON not used the apartment organised by AEON? Maybe they could share their experience? What was your reason for not going with the provided apartment?
It seems like a pretty good deal to me though... I mean, it's cheaper than anywhere else I could find, even with Nove, where you share accomodation with 3 or so others, you pay more rent which seems odd to me?

[BenJ]

wow, all those rules for holidays! What a joke. Go with ECC then mate - they give you Golden Week, week in winter, 2 weeks summer plus another week you take as you like (yes 5 in a row if you like) and ALL national holidays.

Yes they are a business, no you don't have to do anything like selling books (seriously, what?!).

Downside/Upside depending on your inclinations is you teach kids, up to a half of your schedule but more likely a third. You do get a week's kids' training and another week's adults' training though. Paid at a terrible 1000 Yen an hour though.

6 hour days.

Locations unlikely to be in smaller areas though I guess.

Man, ECC should be paying me for this stuff.

[guest of Japan]

What PaulH said about AEON apartments is correct basically. AEON rents apartments and sublets them to the teachers. Schools are unlikely to give up an apartment if the foreigner or Japanese teacher wants to live in their own place. AEON does not take risks on your happiness.

I'm sorry, I know I'm not expressing myself well tonight. I haven't gotten much sleep recently. If someone wants more info give a post and I'll respond when I'm more alive.