The GEOS Interview

[spanky]

I know somebody out there in cyberspace has been through it. I'm considering GEOS as my first gig, but a three day long interview???

Would anyone care to share their GEOS interview experience?

[silverfall]

Three day interview? Damn! I work for another of the large chains and my interview was only five minutes plus an orientation. My training was three days. The fact that I'm here on a spouse visa and already had housing probably helped a bit.

[maraboutslim]

I know my Fed-gaijin street cred will suffer for admiting this but...a GEOS gig was how I got to Japan. The interview process involves a normal interview, some sort of English test, and then you sit through some "training" and then you have to teach a "sample lesson" to one of the Japanese chicks in the office (I'm assuming you are still in the states or canada - i went through the seattle office). I remember these events being spread out over a few different days but you weren't in there all day or anything. It seemed to be that as long as you didn't screw up royally, you were in.

The company will set you up with an apartment, for which you pay, out of your decent salary (my rent was 60,000 until i switched to a place in tokyo which was 85,000 but put me closer to nightlife). I don't know what salary is now but in the early 1992 it was 250,000yen a month which is basically the minimum they can legally pay you and get you the type of work visa they get you on. The work experience itself was not all that great: lots of emphasis on retaining students which basically means trying to get more money out of them rather than get them to the level where they don't need to come to GEOS anymore. But you couldn't do that if you tried anyway because you'll have way too many lessons and not enough time to prepare anything really effective unless you want to spend all your free time thinking about teaching and hey, you don't want to do that: you want to go enjoy japan, right? But from what I hear, it is no worse than any of the other large English schools in Japan. And at my location I had some really hot ANA stewardesses...

I quit after 10 months. Many students went with me and were happy to be paying half per hour of what they were before and I was happy to be making twice per hour. The only snag is that you then have to find your own apartment and this is not an easy thing for a gaijin. You also have to get on the every 3month schedule of flights out and back to get another 90 day tourist visa. It's fun to do that for a while and you can check out Korea and Hong Kong and whatever and flights are really cheap. When you get tired of that travel/uncertainty but really want to stay in Japan and continue to slack through life surfing and playing in bands and working all sorts of jobs for dough, you can just marry a local and get your visa that way. Worked for me.

Overall, though the work experience at GEOS isn't all that great and I only lasted 10 months with them, it's a pretty easy way to get to Japan and get set up, meet some people, and if you can't take it anymore, it'll be easy to move on to something different. And that "something different" must have worked for me because I ended up staying over 6 years.

[Watcher]

The big 4 schools are all the same and pretty much stink in every way... some a little more than others. Basically, they all pay you the same amount... Aeon, I believe, subsidizes your apartment while Nova will rip you off on those rental fees (3 people provide about 180,000Yen per month for a 3LDK in Nara - my experience) but allow you the most freedom in your lesson (for a factory eikaiwa). ECC will have you travelling between schools and large class sizes with stiff lesson plans (friend's experience... they wouldn't hire me since I don't babysit 5 year olds). GEOS thinks they're the shizznit but I haven't heard too many good things about them, nor have I met any teachers from there... I have met a lot of ex-students who quit them to go to Berlitz. I worked for both Nova (2 years at a good, small, countryside school with excellent, non-lethal staff and only a few freaky students who had lost their medication... and some wonderful students whom I stay in touch with) and Berlitz which had the best pay and stability balanced out by the worst scheduling. My point? It doesn't matter who you go with 'cuz as soon as you're here you should start 1) looking for your own apartment, and 2) looking for a better paying job. Those with the fondest memories of Japan did that.

[samuraiwig]

I don't know what salary is now but in the early 1992 it was 250,000yen a month which is basically the minimum they can legally pay you and get you the type of work visa they get you on.

This salary/visa rule doesn't apply any more. Advertised salaries have been dropping for the last 2-3 years and many full-time teaching jobs are down around 200-230,000 per month with lots more being offered on a part-time/hourly pay basis.

I don't know for sure, but big eikaiwa is probably still paying about 250,000 as they like to hire fresh blood from overseas and that's about the minimum that will attract newcomers. Eikaiwa is the first step into Japan for the vast majority of FG, so it's worth making the effort to get here with GEOS and then find yourself something more interesting/better paid once you've figured out how things work.

Good luck.

[spanky]

For the record, GEOS is offering 250 000 per month which they say includes a 30 000 housing subsidy. The housing they're offering, they say, is no more than 50 000 per month.

[chidsta]

[canman]

I worked for Geos for 7.5 years. I know it sounds crazy, but I was the only foreign teacher in my school for a long time, and I came before all the craziness started, (like Nova). So my salary was up to 400 000 a month, no kidding, I still have all the blue pay slips to prove it. At first it was ok. But when Nova moved in things got pretty bad. At the end, I was just putting in time until I could build my own place and steal as many students as possible. Which I did three years ago. That being said, I have no real hate for Geos, but I'm sure the company has changed a lot since I was there.