Job Discussion Forums

Jizzo T. Clown

I have a telephone interview with American Language School soon and was wondering if anyone could enlighten me with their experience. Do they tend to grill you over the phone? I received a weird kind of triangle worksheet to complete prior to the interview...it looks something like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

Any info/advice you could offer is tremendously appreciated.

uticsperkins2004 · Joined: 12 Apr 2004 Posts: 30 Location: Moriya, Ibaraki-ken

Hello!

I currently work for ALS and had an interview with Corey back in June. I didn't complete the triangle but it is definately a good idea to look over the interview guide. I don't mean to worry you but it is a pretty intense interview. It took about 45min to 1hr. Just be honest and take your time answering Corey's questions. Take the time to think of a good answer, don't just blurt something out. Good luck! Where are you being hired for?

Steve in Moriya, Ibaraki-ken

Jizzo T. Clown · Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 10:13 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the info. It was a bit intense! I noticed they asked many of the questions that MIL asks in its pre-interview packet.
Not sure where I'm being hired for (or if I'm even being hired at all) at this point. I guess it normally takes a week or so to hear back from them.

He said that some schools have only one teacher?? Not sure if that would be an ideal situation or not. I like small schools and all, but that seems potentially depressing.

ginneyl · Joined: 21 Jun 2005 Posts: 9 Location: Hong Kong

the triangle diagram thing was supposed to help you answer the interview questions. i don't think i answered the questions very well but was offered some positions. i was told before that even though i'm offered positions, a director or someone above would have to approve of me again - basically to me it meant, if i got the position, i could also be turned down again if the director guy didn't like me.

nomadder · Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 1:04 pm Post subject:

Gotta love hierarchies. Laughing

DNK · Joined: 22 Jan 2007 Posts: 236 Location: the South

I just finished with them. For the record, there's no triangle thing that I'm aware of anymore. There was a first interview, which was maybe 30min, fairly standard. Half asking me general Q's, half giving information.

The main interview was about 1:30, so expect it to be longer than the 30-60min they say, even though I was a bit long-winded with some of my answers, so maybe that might have added a bit.

It's 3 parts: employment history (customer service, taking complaints, job duties, etc); teaching history and general approaches (working with age groups, how to address difficulties understanding speech, altering for lower abilities, etc); and information. Maybe 30/40/20min for each at most.

I didn't feel "grilled", but it did require a bit of thinking. If it goes well, they'll offer to give your CV to the prospective branch for final okaying. If you're out of country, they apparently will ask you to come and start on a tourist visa, and will begin the work visa process once you've arrived. On this last point I've been having problems working it around. They claim it takes too long to get the work visa in order before arriving, even though I am potentially coming in about a month. They're fairly obstinate about the visa thing.

They hire about two months or two weeks in advance, apparently, but you can push for a longer time window if the two weeks thing doesn't go well for you. I got up to four, but the visa thing, as I said, is another matter. I'll report back on how that goes.

nomadder · Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 2:42 pm Post subject:

This visa thing amounts to probation. If they don't like you they can easily send you packing. A proper company should be able to hire early enough to get you a working visa. Contracts generally specify you have to give a certain number of months' notice. The only way around this would be to do a runner which doesn't make this sound like a good place to work.
My guess is they just hire last minute to keep all the power in their hands. It's a big investment to go there on only a tourist visa unless you have enough time to find something else before it expires. I think it still is illegal to work this way and immigration may be suspicious upon your arrival and not even let you in or at least it used to be that way.

Khyron · Joined: 10 Mar 2006 Posts: 291 Location: Tokyo Metro City

I've interviewed for them before. I just sat down in one of the classrooms with the franchise school's owner, and we had a nice little chit-chat. I didn't take the job, but it did seem okay. He was a nice guy.

popcorn! · Joined: 07 Jun 2007 Posts: 2

I have interviewed for them as well. The first one was about half an hour, and the second one was closer to 1.5-2 hours. There were a lot of questions about the ESL job I'm in right now, and jobs I've had in the past. I got a good impression from the school based on the information that I got from the interviewer during the last part of the interview. Does anyone reading this currently work for them? Any tips, or FYIs??