Job Discussion Forums

[april]

I've come across a vacancy with Interact, and I know all about their company from their website, but until today, I had never heard of them before. Has anyone else?

Interact don't arrange accommodation but say they provide a 'helper' to assist their new teachers organise an apartment, open bank account, connect gas & electricity etc - just how helpful is this 'helper'? Is Interact good at providing support when first arriving in Japan, or are you basically left up to your own devices? Do they provide ongoing support throughout your contract or do they basically find you a position at a school and you�re left on your own? They say the working hours is 40 hours a week. Generally, in junior high schools, are you expected to work regular unpaid overtime (say for example, staff meetings)?

I�d appreciate anything anybody could tell me about their experience. Up until this point, I had never considered working as an ALT, only with large language companies so I�m a bit hesitant.

[azarashi sushi]

The company's name is actually Interac

I've never worked for them but they don't have a great reputation.

Do a search and you'll find alot of information about them.

A.S.

[Glenski]

April,
Look at this site's Job Information Journal for 2-3 postings on Interac. Some are totally negative, and one is fair (in my opinion).

[lajzar]

Well, I worked for them last year. I woudl not recomend them to a prospective employer. If they were an eikaiwa, I wouldnt feel badly about suggesting using them for a visa and jumping ship, but their contracts are with local schools, and I dont believe in disrupting childrens' education for the sake aof a visa.

Anyhow, the reasons for my views...

The 'helper' will contact estate agents on your behalf. In my case, she did not tell me about certain penalty clauses in the housing contract, clauses which ended up costing me quite a bit, and which would have made me reconsider had I been informed.

No problems starting the bank account and utilities.

At the start, I had a week long training session, and this was, to be fair, quite good. Unfortunately, further support through the year consisted solely of exhortations to be genki. At the schools, I was pretty much left to my own devices, with no support or feedback from Interac.

Over the year, I was paid late three times. Late for Interac means more than 4 weeks in arears. Assuming you start on April 1st, your first pay cheque won't be until May 30th, assuming it is on time.

At the end of the contract, they arbitrarily made some deductions from my pay for items which they claim I had borrowed from them and not returned. The total amount is small enough that I couldn't hope to recoup my losses in any formal claims procedure, but big enough to be obnoxious.

[april]

Thanks for the info. The spelling error explains why I never found anything on searches! (a job as an English teacher...oh the irony...)

Lajzar - aside from the dodgy tactics of Interac itself, how did you find working as an ALT? Is it a satisfying job? Would you recommend it? I'm just wondering if I should venture outside of the comfort zone of an eikaiwa when applying for jobs in Japan.

[lajzar]

I heartily recomend working within the state school system. Of course, a lot depends both on your schools themselves and on the company you are with (unless of course you are employed directly by the BoE). In most cases, the company will usually stay away from the school, except for a visit every month or two. This has been my experience with my present employer (Altia).

The work at the school was great, but stress over pay and lack of support from Interac meant that I wasn't working effectively. However, I don't have experience within the Japanese eikaiwa system. I'd also be cautious about taking anyone's personal views too - different people enjoy different work environments.

[april]

Cool, thanks for that. Yeah I know what you mean about people's personal opinion - I worked for Nova for 18 months and despite the reputation it has, I really enjoyed it!

[As Das Fads]

well, aside from the Interac thing (which I have posted on before) the life of an ALT is dependent entirely on the school you are positioned at.

My BoE is great, but one of my schools are I am consistently underutilised (3 classes in one week) and one school I am run into the ground (at least 5 classes per day plus lunch with the kids and sometimes marking). The thing that I was never told about is dealing with the boredom. Sometimes there is nothing to do, and no amount of Japanese study can distract you. You get a lot of time to observe the other teachers, who also have nothing to do and yet manage to look very busy. You'll get tired of being treated as a nobody, with nothing valuable to say even if you are fluent in Japanese.

Teaching is great. The kids are great. The school system bites. Pray for a good school and some non-psycho JTEs to make it worthwhile.