Job Discussion Forums

[Xanato]

After a phone interview with Interac, I learned that I would not be going on to one of their seminars. Last winter, I was rejected at the first stage by JET. Before I apply elsewhere, I want to know what I need to do to have a good shot at an ALT position. Here's where I stand thus far:

Qualifications:

- BA in Psychology.
- Took Basic Japanese I and II classes.
- Volunteered as an ESL tutor at a college for two months and was taken on as a part-time tutor months later.
- Two-week study abroad trip to China in 2010.
- Focused on the psychological aspects of Japan's culture for my senior seminar project.

As for how I was during the phone interview, I spoke in a normal tone. The recruiter I spoke with was serious and down-to-business, so it was a bit difficult to sound happy/"genki". I managed to answer about 3/4 of the questions smoothly, but choked when he asked me about working with children. Unfortunately, I haven't had any jobs that deal with teaching or supervising kids, so I pulled a lackluster answer out of left field after some hesitation. Another thing I got concerned about was the fact that he asked me if I had any questions twice and I said that I didn't have any at the time. I know that inquiring about the company can give you bonus points, but I was planning on thinking of and asking such questions during the face-to-face interview.

Last but not least, I'm curious as to how I should approach the location preference form. For this last application, I listed a "medium" preference for the urban areas of Hokkaido. Should I deliberately pick rural areas next time in order to improve my chances or will it not make much of a difference?

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

If you do a search on bigdaikon (the incoming section), then you can find a lot of information about applying. Basically, if your Statement of Purpose doesn't focus on what you hope to give JET (and not on what JET can give you, or where you can go from JET), then you'll be out.

Next, from your post it doesn't look like you have any teaching qualifications. There's a Batsu.

You don't seem to have any academic background in your own culture (like if you're from the US, you might want to have studied American Literature, Or American History or maybe American Post-Modernism in the Arts or something). There's another Batsu.

"choked when he asked me about working with children" Batsu! Batsu! Batsu! JETs work with children!

Other than having studied the language at a basic level and having focused on the 'psychological aspects of Japan's culture' for your senior seminar project, you don't seem to have any particular interest in Japan. No karate, no ikebana, no buddhism or green tea ceremony. Batsu. ('Psychological aspects of Japan's culture' sounds like it could have been kinda critical or negative... Batsu! {and definitely a bit confusing- they want you to be able to describe to people the type of thing you studied, so the average guy at a bar can understand it- or at least school children.})

Since most JETs are in rural areas, it may help *a little* if you include rural placements, but if there's anything in there that gives even a hint that you would turn down ANY placement, then you get DENIED. Not just Batsu. But DENIED.

What you want to be able to do at the paper application is to be able to fill in every single section fully. Follow the order of what they want in the Statement of Purpose. If the application information says 'interest in Japan' and then 'teaching experience', then you write about your interest in Japan first, and THEN your teaching experience. (if you get to the interview stage, then be warned that if you look nervous - and it's deliberately setup to make you nervous- that it will go against you, and everybody who makes it to the interview stage is starting over. Once you've got an interview the paper application is over. Be prepared to talk about it {and a raft of other questions about your own country and Japan, too} though).

If, for example, there is a karate dojo near where you live and there is a significant Japanese population in the area, then just by joining it, you may be able to get not only Japanese culture (karate) but working with small kids (helping the small kids learn karate- even if all you're doing is practising lunge punches with them (or more accurately, you act like a human sand-bag that they can pummel- yes, that's personal experience, but from both Korean kids in TaeKwonDo and both Japanese and Canadian kids in Karate) from that.

Maybe you're not into martial arts. That's fine. Maybe you can go to a museum or art gallery and look at Japanese art. And then read about it (or if you have time, and access to one, take a half course on Japanese [or East Asian, if there isn't anything Japan-specific] art or at least read about it from books). Music and musical instruments would be good too (I'd been involved in a showing of traditional Japanese music played on koto, shamisen and shakuhachi at university and had played a little koto and shakuhachi at the venue- it was an educational show- audience members got to try out instruments and talk to the performers. Oh! I'd also won an award for a haiku in English that I wrote and then had to read at a Japanese culture night my last year in Canada. maybe you could become an avid reader of haiku in English- and maybe even Japanese). I would advise against anime and video games, but I'm sure some people have said exactly that and become JETs.

[seklarwia]

Being turned down by JET is one thing. Many JETs didn't get accepted on their first or second applications. And whilst Gambate's criteria makes sense, unfortunately part of it is down to pure luck as well. According to that criteria I should have at least got an interview and one particularly annoying former JET from my uni who came here right after graduation in 2009 should have had his app shredded. Alas, such is life.

But not even being offered an interview with Interac... You must have said something or had a tone or attitude that you didn't realise. The joke is that dispatchers will hire any one with a pulse. Whlist I would argue that these days, Interac (at least), is slightly more discerning. But from some of the "interesting" people in my seminar, quite clearly a pulse is all that is needed to pass the phone interview.

[Xanato]

What would be an example of a good answer to the kids question if you've never worked with them before?

I guess mine would be: "While I haven't worked with children before, I think that being in a classroom with young students will offer a great opportunity to learn the values, interests, and beliefs of Japanese youths and instill in them an interest in and understanding of America culture that will strengthen as they get older."

Yay or Batsu? :/

Also, what are some important questions that I should ask them?

[deadzenpoet]

[Glenski]

Your chances of getting an ALT job don't depend on your qualifications at this point. You are qualified. It's going to depend on how you appear face to face to the employer, whether in an interview or doing a demo lesson.

Personally, I find it rather difficult to give interview advice in your situation simply because I wasn't there to see your performance and hear the questions.

Any hesitation to answer is negative. You should realize that.
So, the interviewer was "serious and down-to-business". Did you expect anything else? Also, regardless of that, they are gauging your personality, so speaking in a "normal tone" (whatever that means) can also affect your chances negatively.

So, you "choked when he asked me about working with children". Uh, just exactly what did he ask?

Do you like working with children?
What age children do you like working with?
What experience do you have working with children?
How do you imagine teaching to the very young?
Etc.

You see? Very hard to give you advice.

About the location preference, think about it. Have you made any decision at all? Rural vs. urban? Northern vs. southern Japan? Certain cities or prefectures? My advice on location always starts with climate, and whether you have close friends here already. But, in the end you just go where they have the openings anyway, so just have some sort of reason for your choice and let it go at that. With the glut of teachers here, you aren't really in a position to demand where to go.

You had no questions? Very bad, IMO. It has nothing to do with "bonus points". This shows you are just shotgunning resumes and/or have not thought through the whole process at all. Some employers will even take this as a sign that you might be a risk for various reasons:

woman hunter
partier
pedophile
disinterested in teaching altogether

You asked what are some important questions to ask. Well, what is it about the company that you don't know? Have you learned everything so far?

housing
commuting
how many sites you will work at
lesson support
and much more

[Rooster_2006]

Not sure if this is helpful, but when I interviewed candidates for my previous job(s), things that did not impress me (besides not showing up or not wearing a suit):

- Being overconfident (like someone who has never taught children before exclaiming "I will have no problems teaching the children!") in a way that shows me total naivete

- Referring to "experience" that is insignificant/not worth mentioning ("I have two weeks' of experience substitute teaching children in Taiwan" -- not only does this show me that she is utterly inexperienced, it also shows me that she is naive to believe that two weeks of part-time experience is worth ANYTHING, and it is also a confession to working illegally)

In your case, OP, I think you need to be more specific about your "ESL experience." How many hours a week was it? What ages did you teach? How many months in total did you end up doing this? Because otherwise, I, as the interviewer, am going to assume the worst, that it is not a significant amount of English teaching.

- Giving an idiotic answer, especially one that makes the candidate look like a naive hippie. For example:

Me: Do you know about culture shock? What stage of culture shock would you say you're in right now? How do you plan to cope with culture shock?

Her: Culture shock?

Me: Yes. When someone moves to a new country, that person experiences "the love it," "hate it," and "accept it" phases, in that order.

Her: Oh! Well, I didn't come to Taiwan with the agenda of loving it or hating it. I just came to accept it.

(this answer sucks because it both ignores the questions and shows a complete ignorance of a phenomenon common to virtually all expats, "Culture Shock," which anyone planning to live overseas should be familiar with)

- Trying to pass oneself off as a native speaker when actually not a native speaker (believe me, I can tell, and that "Australian" guy did not get the job)

- Using "ol' timer/hipster" terms (like calling the Philippines "The Flips" or calling Kaohsiung "K-Town" without having done the requisite time there). I cannot emphasize enough how annoying it is. Calling "South Korea "SoKo" is another example. Look, if you haven't lived there yet, don't use these terms.

- Referring to a "visa" at any time, during the interview process or in e-mails, as a "VISA." Look, it's not a credit card. Don't use all caps. Spelling it like that shows utter ignorance about overseas living affairs.

- Hitting on female students, particularly upper elementary school girls, during the lesson demo

[seklarwia]

[Rooster_2006]

[seklarwia]

[Glenski]

Good points by Rooster. Have seen some of them in interviews that I conducted, too. I even had an interview for a job myself with a younger guy at the same time! Yes, the interviewer asked us questions as we sat next to each other. Quite the eye-opener to hear some of his answers.

As far as the culture shock thing goes, I think Rooster's point was well-made in that the person skirted the issue completely. Poor answer.

seklarwia's experience with preparing for culture shock is something everyone should go through, but in reality very few have the opportunity.

[nightsintodreams]

This guy has already posted this question on the Interac 2011 Facebook group. Everyone gave him plenty of good advice and it seems he didnt bother listening to any of it.
I think his real motive is to find an excuse for himself. I imagine you wont be able to find the answer you are looking for, because the real reason is your personality is not what theyre looking for.
Interac and JET dont care if you studied Japanese or Asian culture (or whatever micky mouse course you did). If i heard about a Japanese guy who had studied the Psycology of British people without ever being to the country I wouldn't take him seriously.
I believe the only things they care about are if you have a pulse and if you are seem like a nice, fun, confident guy to be around. I dont know why im bothering to be honest, you clearly wont listen anyway. How many more forums will you visit to ask this question? How many people's time do you intend to waste? What was wrong with the answers from Interac employees? surely they know better than anyone else what it takes to get a job with Interac.

[nightsintodreams]

PS look at his History and you'll get a pretty good idea of what this guy is like. Every post is him asking about what to do in an interview or how to right a CV or what to do if you've had no experience with kids. Seriously mate, just calm down, dont worry so much, act calm and genki and you'll be OK.

[Xanato]

By asking the same question here, I am not insinuating that the advice I got from the Facebook page was worthless or that I won't heed it. I asked here because it's better to get feedback from multiple sources instead of just one. Do you just ask one person about jobs or internships when you're close to graduating college? No. You ask several established people who have slightly different jobs/backgrounds. I'm looking to get a job with a dispatch company, not with Interac in particular.

I gave a poor answer to the question about kids because none of the sites or people who I referred to said that that would be a question on the phone and because I don't have prior experience working with children. That doesn't mean I want to go there to try to get Japanese women in bed; have no interest in the culture/job; or want to get drunk in exotic, new locations every night. I thought talking about my experience as a tutor would suffice for the interview. I was wrong. However, I don't feel that I should be getting bashed for that. I did prepare answers for virtually every other question. Also, I posted a sample answer for that inquiry here, but no one has given input so far.

I never thought that the two-week China trip or paper I typed up would make my application, but I felt that it's better to show at least some effort towards those factors than no effort at all.

[seklarwia]