I wanted anyone looking for jobs to steer clear of the International School of English (ISE) located in Yokohama near Aobadai station. They have no intention of hiring and won’t actually go through with the hiring process.
I was offered a teaching position mid-September with the agreement that we start the visa processing paperwork asap, and I was told I would be sent a contract to sign the next week. After two weeks I sent an reminder e-mail (because we all get busy) and was met with a vague response but no paperwork.
After two months of sending over-polite e-mails and the owner changing his timeline but not telling me anything concrete I became more firm and asked for hard dates. He then said he can’t hire anyone at this time and asked me to wait for the spring, but hinted I should find other work. I said I could wait for the spring but that I do need the contract and that we set out an updated timeline (so I can plan my year and move overseas). He said he didn’t like my tone (which was still firm but polite) and that he would be rescinding my job offer. The moment I stood up for myself he dropped his act and admitted he wasn’t going to hire me.
I have no way to report this company and their shady practices, but I can at least warn others who google ISE. Stay away and don’t be scammed like I was. I wasted months thinking I had a job and was prepping to move overseas. No one deserves this treatment and I hope you can avoid this situation.
Edit: I won’t be returning to this post as I’ve received some vile hate mail due to it, and I need to move on with my life. Thank you to those who gave me some insights into that company, and I hope it helps someone down the line.
19 comments
Just wondering, do social security cards or your identity get stolen if these kind of things happen? Has that happened to anyone here?
I’m worried about this the most, I give them my information and next thing you know they ghost you and later on you owe thousands of dollars or a new house you don’t know about
I was considering them. Good thing I saw this. Thanks for the warning OP!
This isn’t a scam or a nefarious scheme to waste the time of unwitting wanna-be teachers. More likely they had planned on hiring someone, but either realized they didn’t have the budget or else found someone local (perhaps for less money and trouble than bringing someone in from overseas; but it’s hard to tell.
You should always keep in mind that in Japan, no offer, no matter how firm, even if put in writing, is considered complete without signing a contract. And if a company doesn’t reply to emails within a few business days and doesn’t send a contract on the original timeline they promised, you should just move on.
Don’t ever put all your eggs in one basket by only applying to one job at a time, and don’t trust that you have a job until the contract is signed.
Lesson learned, I guess. Good luck in your next application.
I have friends that work there. Let’s just say you dodged a major bullet.
I fully support posts like this that name and shame shitty companies.
Sounds like nova and their tricks.
I LOVE it when people name and shame on here. Please continue to report these shitty companies. These terrible english teaching businesses only continue to exist because of how they take advantage of foreigners.
Are you an American? If so, you could consider working for the US government to be hired in Japan. If you are a certified teacher, Dodea hires teachers (schools on military bases). USAjobs.gov has openings for positions, though Dodea hires through a separate system.
You should make sure to post this info in detail on glassdoor.com
Thanks for the heads up, I actually live in the Yokohama area right now and have a few friends who are putting out applications actively. I’ll pass this along.
Sadly, I have yet to hear of any company in this industry that treats their workers with even a basic level of decency. Best of luck in your search.
Thank you for posting. I am currently looking for jobs and I always research here and elsewhere about schools before accepting anything.
I think I actually interviewed there! Got a bad vibe
I had similar experience many years ago here in Japan with a dispatch company that outsources teachers to private schools. I won’t directly name the company since I live in Japan, but let’s just call the company “Carl Talks”.
I went for an interview (one of the weirdest interviews I’ve ever had) and was offered a job on the spot to teach at a suburban Tokyo junior and senior high. However, the interviewer/part owner of the company wouldn’t name the school or its exact location. He told me I would soon find out all the particulars when we went to the school for my introduction to the principal and vice principal, but he assured me the job was mine.
Basically after a couple follow up emails about the position which I sent within the first week or two after being “hired” trying to get more concrete information, I was ghosted by the company. I, in the meantime, had found another job when after almost two months of being ghosted by “Carl Talks”, they contacted me to say they were ready to take me to the school for my introduction. I informed them that there was no longer any need to do so.
The only thing I can guess happened is “Carl Talks” hired me for a job for which they hadn’t yet officially won the contract. They were perhaps assuming they would get the contract and wanted to make sure they had someone hired when/if they did, but nonetheless, whatever the true situation was, it was pretty manipulative. Thank god I didn’t let myself get strung along for two months in case it never panned out.
What does the owner stand to gain?
You are making the world better! Extra points if you name that “I don’t like your tone” asshole.
> He said he didn’t like my tone (which was still firm but polite) and that he would be rescinding my job offer.
…
> After two months of sending over-polite e-mails and the owner changing his timeline but not telling me anything concrete I became more firm
—
Sounds like I’m an outlier in this thread but the chronology sounds like OP’s lacked the cultural nous and has just kept pushing a guy who’s already subtly said ‘mate I’m no longer interested in you because you’re too impatient and I’m getting bad vibes from you’.
My reading is that…
– OP got offered a gig and they started processing the visa paperwork.
– While processing the paperwork, the OP was too pushy/forward and kept saying ‘I WANT TO SIGN A CONTRACT!!! SEND IT… NOW!!! GIVE ME DATES!!! WHEN WILL YOU HAVE IT FOR ME?!?’
– Borders opened up, the boss had more options available and they were like ‘meh… I can’t be fucked dealing with this pushy American dude. He e-mails me for updates every fucking day, completely misses my nuances and is a royal pain in the butthole!!! I’m just gonna keep saying ‘be patient dude’ until he goes away’
– After being subtly/politely rejected the OP AGAIN asked for a piece of paper to sign. The boss then had to spell it out for him in lay terms… ‘THERE IS NO JOB OFFER YOU FUCKING IDIOT!!! HOW CLEARLY DO I NEED TO SPELL IT OUT FOR YOU BEFORE YOU WILL GO AWAY?!?’
– OP’s come online saying they’re the worst school in the world, they’ve ‘scammed’ him and everybody should avoid them. IMO confirming the boss’ suspicions about them being a little bit pushy/immature for the job.
—
OP – my advice is to be PATIENT! I’m Australian/Italian and I find Americans loud/rude/pushy. This dude’s Japanese… they’ll say a lot of things indirectly and expect you to pickup various nuances (which I can relate to). By the sound of it this isn’t gonna be the first or last time that somebody thinks you’re impatient/pushy/aggressive. Take it as a learning experience rather than venting online. Welcome to Japan!
Yeah it sounds like they were stringing you along in case they couldn’t find someone more appropriate. You are applying from out the country right? They probably found someone in country. It’s not a big school, few positions. People in country always have the advantage. It’s not good that they were stringing you along like that.
I had similar for different positions. Did the application and interview and then they turn around and say well if you can find a way to get to Japan, we have some work for you. They knew full well I was looking for a visa but I guess they want to build up their list of stand bys.
I used to work in this shitty company. I can tell you, you dodged machine-gun fire of bullets. Please please please stay away from it
Aobadai is quite an upmarket area, i used to teach kindergarten there and all the fathers and mothers had quite a big age gap.