Hi everyone. I just had an interview with Seibo International Preschool. I think it went ok, but I cannot find anything from former teachers on the internet. Nothing about interviews either. My impression from the interview was that they really wanted to make clear that they are a different sort of preschool and that preschool is not eikaiwa. Of course I know that, but eikaiwa is the only experience I have with preschoolers.
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Well, I got asked to a second interview that lasts four hours. It starts at 13:00 JST and I am currently in the US visiting family. I told them the time difference, so I was a bit surprised to be asked for such a long interview starting at that time. Also, has anyone ever had an interview that long? I had one for a school in Yokohama that was two and a half hours and I thought that was a bit much. Of course I am willing to put in the time and effort to secure a good job, but I wondered how normal this is. If anyone interviewed with Seibo or worked with them before I would really appreciate some input.
Thanks!
5 comments
An interview that lasts less than an hour becomes “thanks but no thanks”.
2.5 hours is either “we like you” or “let me tell you how awesome our place is, and I don’t know how to do interviews effectively”
Sadly, I know nothing about the schools you mentioned but for preschools you need to be comfortable with helping children with their basic needs. This means changing diapers, toilet training, proper holding of utensils and eating. They will expect you to be a surrogate parent and not leave it up to the Japanese staff.
You will need to learn patience. Constant repetition with activities that might be boring to you but fun for the kids. The kids will annoy you and test you and you have to take it with a smiling face. The moment you show anger, the children will think you’re scary and they will tell their parents and staff.
Another thing, don’t get attached to the children. You may know more about the child than the parents do but it’s not your job to interfere with their life outside of the classroom. Just report to the Japanese staff your concerns and they’ll tell you if that’s normal or will act on it.
I have known a few people who have worked in international preschools. Don’t expect it to have much in the way of being international. Not much English is taught. Again it’s just a glorified babysitting facility until mommy and daddy come for pick up.
If you get the job, I hope you enjoy the experience that comes with it and take the advice of others who have been in similar situations. Good luck
That is most definitely not normal, and makes me wonder if they plan to make you teach a full lesson as a “demonstration” or some other such nonsense. Never do that unless it’s fully paid.
Wow.. an interview for 4 hours? Didn’t even know such thing exists. 😳
Y’all, an update: they sent me a message at 12:49 am EST, where I am living requesting an interview for 9:30 am, which would be 7 pm for me. Now I am already struggling with the timezone stuff and scheduling, but they left me hanging for days before agreeing to change the time and requesting an interview again. But they said nothing about shortening the time cause omg why would it be four hours?
Now I am totally lost about what day it is, did I miss an interview they scheduled at the last second, and so on?
Update: the followup interview was actually less than twenty minutes. They just asked me basic questions in Japanese. After the interview they gave me an offer a couple days later, but it was quite low in my opinion so I decided to continue exploring other options.
Overall, I would say they were nice and seem a decent place to work, just not what I am looking for at the moment. They do offer a 10,000 yen housing stipend, which is nice. They also offer two bonus a year. The base salary was just a bit low.