Have any of you worked with or know someone who has worked with Amity before? I have been invited to do the second live interview with them.
I have done research on this company and have read plenty of reviews. Many of which are very poor. I worked in Beijing with Disney English and based on the two companies’ reviews and my own experience with DE, it seems they are similar.
DE worked its staff extemely hard. We didn’t have much prep time, let alone breaks. Managers made the experience a hit or miss for most. Parents could be intimidating.
Amity stands out because they provide housing at a set (?) price, lots of paid vacation (3 weeks?) and a higher salary (275,000 yen/month) than most eikaiwas. Though, it isn’t much more than I received at Disney.
Since I’ve done a similar job, I feel I am more or less prepared for Amity. I have even visited Japan before.
But I just want to hear some real life experiences. I am also applying for JET and I think I have a good shot, but don’t want to wait on it incase I don’t get in (I can always apply again.)
4 comments
Generally speaking you should look at online job review sites such as Glassdoor.
Friend worked there. 2/10. Does not recommend.
It’s a super mixed bag that is almost entirely dependent on your manager.
I had a good manager when I worked there and although I was teaching on average 32-33 lessons a week I was still able to get planning and stuff like that done because of the support at that school.
Another school had a manager that made one of my friends turn to alcohol to get through his days and forced a Japanese teacher to commit suicide years earlier than that. That manager is still there I believe.
To go through each of the things that you have asked about. From what I remember the accommodation they give you is set at 40k a month but the apartment quality varies quite widely depending on where you live as the difference between what you pay and what the school pays the landlord comes out of the school’s budget.
You get all of the standard Japanese holidays plus 5 days to start with. However, trying to take those days off is a massive ballache as they say you cannot take days off during the standard “loop week” and then try to pressure you into not taking days off in the (non loop week) seminar seasons because the school loses money when you do that.
Salary is pretty good for eikaiwa. Upper limit for non corporate and non trainer positions is somewhere like 355k a month after 5 years. After that they start giving you extra holidays. You also get bonuses per a month if you teach more than 32 lessons a week for a month as well as summer bonuses during seminar season.
Finally, for parents. Tbh, they let the native English teachers off easy most of the time. The Japanese teachers are the ones who take most of the brunt unless the native English teacher does something really fucking dumb.
Tbh, if you have JET lined up. Do JET.
I also worked in Beijing for Disney English! 2018-2019. I’m currently at amity and it is a very different vibe. I had so much fun at Disney and made many friends with my coworkers. Here, it’s all about work, it’s all about sales. There is so much pressure to perform and there is absolutely no down time. The kids are great and I like teaching. And even though at Disney I felt like a dancing monkey at times, I still had fun and enjoyed my day. Here, they really don’t care about their employees. They add on more work for you all the time with no prep time. Not every branch school is the same. Honestly, if you want a ticket to Japan, I’d take the job and then once you’re here find something else pronto.