What was your experience with Heart Corporation as an ALT?

24 comments

1. They offered interviews for positions in my city before they had the contract. They never got the contract, and wasted the time of everyone who applied.

2. ALT with a dispatch company is the same thing as [technical trainees.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMxIx1z6Xn4) The only difference is ALTs can return to a nation that isn’t a shithole. 60% of ALTs need financial assistance from home to survive, a luxury other migrant workers don’t have access to.

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   Heart is the worst of the national dispatch companies. That said, they are all shit. The “best” ALT dispatch pays less than McDonald’s in every G7 nation after mandatory deductions.

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   The average ALT walks away with 90,000 yen a month if they are lucky.

3. Never worked there, but they’re infamous for being the absolute bottom of the barrel and worst ALT company to work for.

   All dispatch companies are shit, but heart is on a special level.

4. Like the mold on the rotting fruit at the bottom of the barrel

5. Imagine someone with “heart.”

   Now imagine the opposite.

   That will be your manager.

6. I worked for them and decided to move when they wanted me to go back to work after a very draining (physically/mentally) doctor’s appointment. I can’t work after due to the appointment (I don’t want to explain further), but I had sick time and they wouldn’t let me use it. They disrespected me and I just didn’t want to put up with it for what I was making. This may sound like nothing, but this company screwed me over with schools (I got 5 schools while everyone else in my group had 2 or less). They barely paid me for my gas too!

   They made me work for another school after they told a sick girl to *walk home in the rain* instead of letting a school employee drive her home when she was sick. I loved my schools and my kids, but I hated the upper management. They treated us like cattle.

   Oh, and we weren’t supposed to do tutoring jobs on the side. Jokes on them because I *definitely* did, since they paid me nothing.

   EDIT: Yes, downvote me for having a crappy experience, someone is a Heart worker here lol.

   EDIT 2: I should add that I asked for the day off TWO months in advance lol.

7. My wife has a friend that works for them, currently on her second year. She seems happy but so far she’s asked us twice to borrow money for food.

8. Heart is the mistake you make to get you *in* Japan, then promptly spend every waking moment trying to find other employment. Heart is afaik the only one that pays by the hour, and is *not* salaried; there were months I made less than $900 for an entire month, and that also means you get *no* pay for time off like…say…August itself. Keep in mind that Japanese companies pay a month behind; you get paid for the last month worked, not the current one. That means at Heart, you have to survive on July’s half-paycheck til October. Another fun fact while I think on it, is that the minimum wage in Japan is 250,000 yen a month. US equivalency is $2500 a month; when you work with most companies fresh off the boat there, you have to take company housing, transport, etc. That is how their supposed minimum wage drops to $900 a month. Heart also charges you Tokyo rents for inaka living, in case you make the mistake of trying to cheapen life by going rural before getting a better company first.

9. Never heard anything positive about them. I knew two people who worked for them and they jumped ship as soon as they were able

10. They lie to you, management uses an innocent employee’s email address to email you if there’s conflict, if they’re your guarantor they’ll barge right in your place anytime they want to even if you call in sick, etc.

11. Didn’t work there, but my interview was terrible. The guy conducting the interview was terribly rude and definitely didn’t want to work there after that.

12. I was offered a full-time ALT job by Heart when I was trying to organize a move to Japan in 2015. At some point, they gave me the specifics and it turned into a part-time position that would not pay enough to live in the most boring town I could imagine. I ended up turning them down and getting a wonderful job in Kyoto a year later instead. I have heard nothing good about Heart in the years since.

13. Borderlink isn’t much better, but they set up an interview with me almost immediately, a day after I set up one with Heart. From what I can tell anything is better than heart. If you are looking for an (almost)surefire alternative, they might be worth a try.

14. I interviewed a guy he worked for heart and was looking. He was laid off in February and would be rehired in mid April. Seems like you will be on the brink of homelessness with them

15. Add to the blacklist. NPO GLAD was the worst I’ve seen, but what I’ve heard of Heart isn’t much better.

16. To give you an idea of the turnover rate at Heart, I ran into some former students after I changed employment. Heart had managed to get the contract instead of the usual dispatch company, but fortunately I had already moved on. Anyway, I ran into my former students in early July, so only 3 months after Heart took over. I asked what was the new ALT’s name, and they looked at each other, clearly puzzled. Turns out they’d had FOUR different ALTs in the space of only three months! Because the newbies fresh off the boat in Japan quickly realized what a sh**y deal they’d gotten, and found better jobs. So be warned. Use them to get INTO Japan, but do not feel guilty for leaving them!

17. They were ran out of Kanagawa for doing all sorts of illegal and shady shit. The BOEs won’t even touch them any more.

    Don’t bother. I know you’re desperate to get to Japan and have been pushed back because of Covid. But just wait. This country isn’t gonna sink into the ocean any time soon.

18. They wanted me to show up in Japan before processing my visa. Also they did not return my diploma.

19. I’ve been offered an interview by two different people at heart school now. Haven’t responded yet. Doesn’t look like I should go through with the interview at all.

20. Town I was working in many years back (not gonna drop names here) had an influx of former Heart alts the spring before COVID.

    Granted, take what anyone whose worked ESL in Japan says (including me) with a rock of salt but they brought with them stories of prejudice, sexual harassment, sketch business practices like lying, list goes on. Pretty standard fair for alt nomikai night

    IMHO most of the dispatch companies are clans of lizard people cosplaying as humans. If you really want to jump into the thick of it you just pick which faction you’d play for for a bit until you figure out a way out lol

21. I got a provisional contract (got told I still need to do a demo) from them. They also asked me to upload documents for them to start processing my CoE, so I can process my visa where I am. With all the comments that I’ve read, I’m not sure if I should continue with my application.

22. I know this post is old, but just want to give my experience.
    I worked for them just to get a job while I tried finding other work. In the short time I was there, they managed to hire 2 sexual predators to the same city, in a group meeting they told a distressed ALT talking about being bullied by teachers to basically “Shut up and do better.” I was constantly told that my school was not happy with me despite my students test scores greatly increasing, and they routinely tried to trap me into some kind of lie before telling why I was being called for a meeting. That and the barely livable wage is just awful. DO NOT take the company apartment because it will be 3 times more expensive than any apartment in your area.

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24. I worked for Heart. The coordinators and trainers are the worst.