I currently have an English teaching job, but my info is still on a few sites for anyone to contact me with job offers. I’m satisfied where I’m at but open to new opportunities to make some extra money. I’m wondering if there are any scams or red flags I should be aware of when answering messages with interview offers.
Just an extra FYI, I’m here on a spouse visa, if that makes a difference.
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Job description: “English teacher” would be a pretty big red flag.
>_Just an extra FYI, I’m here on a spouse visa, if that makes a difference._
Instead of looking for more english teaching work, take advantage of your visa status and look for extra part time work. Plenty of truck driving, bar work and other stuff you can do that wont feel as soul destroying as eikaiwa.
Drop in and register at HelloWork.
“you’re *passionate* about” = “you will not get paid very much for”
I’ve seen a few times where they add indemnity clauses in the contract, which is illegal but can be phrased as gray area. Making you pay for abstract “damages” is the one to watch out for
Always double-check that you’re fully reimbursed for your commute. Most do, but there are some that have a flat monthly limit like, anything over 15,000円 is not reimbursed, etc.
3 month notice required for quitting.
One big one is “Foreign teachers always go back to their home countries.” Now of course some teachers aren’t reliable, but if an interviewer is complaining about this, it’s likely that the *school itself* is doing the firing or has terrible conditions, and refuses to look in the mirror. The one eikaiwa gig that fired me without notice said this in their interview.
Lack of support in terms of guidance and materials is another. For part time jobs, excessive documentation, reporting or planning outside of class time is another red flag.
semi-full time
“We’re like a family” = “We will treat you like a red-headed stepchild.”
Less than 300k a month and no shakai hoken.
My first job teaching in aichi prefecture asked me some really odd questions in the interview – weird things like “do you have a boyfriend?” “do you have any diagnoses that would affect your work?” (this might be normal but I think its strange) etc… I was ignorant because it was my first “adult job” interview and didn’t know if that was just what people asked in Japan. When I accepted the job they said “welcome to the family” and the company had some weird Christian values. Opened up our monthly meeting with prayers a few times. lol
They paid 200k a month, had “employee housing” which was the tiniest 1k you can get, in the inaka, for 6k a month. boss would yell at me for asking questions. I always struggled with depression but never enough to get on meds, but the power harassment I got from him took me to a psych and placed on leave where I was then accused of lying in my interview. Needless to say I extended my leave until the end of my contract and quit that job
There are lots of scams out there, but also lots of good companies. Just use your common sense. You can’t catch everything. Something could look good, but turn out bad, and something could look bad and turn out good. Unfortunately red flags tend to turn up AFTER starting a job, but:
Some red flags:
– Won’t sponsor your visa
– Ask you to lie to Immigration
– High turn-over (Check sites like Glassdoor for company reviews by past employees. Also check reviews on Google Maps – Can be surprisingly helpful.)
– Won’t hire you from within Japan. (They want someone naive about Japan that they can manipulate.)
– The company’s name starts with “Inter” and ends with “ac”. Or it starts with “Hear” and ends with “t”.
For after the interview :
Make sure of your type of contract. If you are on independant contract they can put lot of shitty stuff like making you pay for something, not paying you if no lesson even thought you are already on site, fine, … and your only way to resove it is court, the labor office can not help.
Be aware of companies which will try to stop you from reading contract, like talking to you when you are reading.
Be wary of lack of clarity, they are hiring you they should know exactly what they want, what can be accomodated, … : work time, dress code, type of lessons, material, what if there is a typhon, what if you are ill, what if there is a problem with the train, what if a student act improperly, …
They hire you after a 10 minute interview. They’re very desperate for a reason and it’s not always a good reason
well if its just part-time.. it`s not such a big deal….i`ve taken probably 30 or 40 part-time jobs in the past and they were mostly ok…..(one bad experience) ,,,,,
I look at working time and salary…I would say all the interviewers were nice….
Back when I taught English, there was an inverse relationship between the number of times professionalism was mentioned and the actual professionalism of the place.
Just don’t work for any company besides ECC or a company that is currently employing someone you trust.
Job listings that don’t list the salary upfront. If they don’t list it they’re probably trying to hide how shit it is. If they list it upfront then at least you can decide if it’s worth your time.
Was recently annoyed because I went back and forth on a short term private lesson thing a friend introduced to me only to discover the pay was 1000 yen/hour. What a waste of time.
For solo-teaching jobs in private junior and senior high schools through dispatch companies: You’re only paid per lesson, but your per-lesson pay also supposedly covers the time outside of the lesson for planning, prep, marking, etc. However, even though you’re apparently being paid for it, the company refuses to recognize this time as part of your official work hours in order to avoid enrolling you in shakai hoken.
Ask them to show you an example of training they provide or tell you about their training. If they have none , thats bad. If they have a bad one thats somewhat normal.
The advertised salary. Eg. you may see an advertised salary of ¥250,000+ but it fact, the real salary is around ¥135,000. It is propped up by certain allowances and bonuses. One such allowance may be for travel. Now, while travel allowance is reimbursed, it is done so in a “staggered” manner – meaning you will not get it back at the end of the particular work month in which you payed for travel. For example, you might have payed ¥15,000 for travel for the month of July. However, at the end of the month you won’t get that 15,000 back. You will instead get it back at the end of August. Why does all this matter? Well it affects your monthly budget if you work for a company that sends you to different locations. It affects your spending power. You might have spent ¥5,000 on travel for the month of June but spent ¥15,000 for the month of July. At the end of July, you are getting back that ¥5,000 you spent in June. But you are now out ¥10,000. Also there are other factors that can affect your allowances and bonuses. Hence the advertised salary and what you actually get can be very different.
This was more than 15 years ago, but my favorite clause in the contract that they offered me went something like “Do you swear to praise the lord Jesus and live in accordance with his principles forever?”
In training if they make you install a company chat app on your phone, they will expect you to answer company messages during off time. Run for the hills.
You’re going to find something seedy/shady with anything English “teaching” related in Japan suffice some PhD positions at universities.
I guess a more so red flag would be the 300 question personality tests.