Job Discussion Forums

[g_li_n]

one for wisdom 21 tomorrow, another one on thursday, and another one for a kindergarten position on friday.

i've been in osaka for two weeks and these upcoming interviews will be my first ever for english teacher positions. any tips would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

edit: oh, and the other two companies are nichibei english service and elc kohgakushga. if you've worked for wisdom21 or those other two places, i'd love to hear about your experiences, as well. thanks again.

[Glenski]

My only advice is not to interview at Wisdom at all. Look at www.gaijinpot.com for the bad reports on it.

[PAULH]

[GreenDestiny]

[g_li_n]

[g_li_n]

[sethness]

Dress conservatively.
For men, this means 1940s accountant Mormon, with long sleeves, dark trousers, necktie, loafer-shoes, and a short haircut. No earrings, no heavy metal jewelry.

For women, this means conservative makeup, stockings, loafers or conservative pumps, skirt, and general your-mom-at-an-office kinda clothes....though this might be a bit too stiff and cold for the kindergarten interview.

Wear shoes that you can easily slip into and out of !!! Almost guaranteed, you'll have to slip out of them and into slippers that the place provides, when you enter. The smootehr you look when you do that, the more impressive you'll look. If you've got boat-sized feet, even consider bringing your own slippers. WHen I work at a kindergarten, I always bring my own slippers in the shape of big soft Godzilla feet, and it's caused a lot of warm praise. (I take a size 11 men's shoe... average for foreigners, but bigger than most offices' supply of borrowable slippers.)

If you're bringing a resume, amke it short, with copies of certificates, and include a conservative photo of yourself. Make sure that you include a fax number, phone number, and e-mail-- the fax is IMPORTANT as almost everyone has fax, but a lot of the older generation don't understand e-mail yet.

Stress that you speak in a vanilla standard accent, preferably North American or English. They may not be able to perceive that your accent IS that ordinary, so you should mention it yourself and accept any offer to be interviewed by someone who'll judge your accent. I, for example, come from New YOrk City, and I was asked to submit to an "accent interview" because some New Yorkers have a very powerful slang and accent.

Expect sexism. It's part of the culture in Japan.
It's also sometimes not so much sexism, as the eikaiwa trying to balance its numbers-- there aer about 17 male foreigners in Japan for every female foreigner, so if an English school has a lot of male teachers, they may consciously try to get women instead.

If you're a guy, consider getting rid of moustache or beard or long sideburns, as the older generation may heavily associate these things with mafia and wild gangsters. Unfair stereotyping but true.

SMILE. This is a service industry. Laugh at their jokes.

[kimo]

[canuck]

That Darryl guy is a scientologist. It's really a weird school. I've heard stories from different people. The demo lesson thing isn't surprising. Stay away!