掲示板 Forums - Anyone have experience/info on these ESL Companies?

Unfortunately I haven't heard of either 'Border Link' or 'The ECC Group,' but I can see if I can find anyone who has if you like!
As a JET participant though, I'll say if you want to apply for JET it is by far and away the best program to work for as an ALT in terms of pay/benefits/etc. Most of the non-JET ALTs I know are jealous of us! That being said there are a few downsides to JET: number one being the application process (which takes the better part of a year - the application is usually due the end of November/beginning of December and they absolutely will not accept an application even a day late!), and the selectivity of the program. The other problem (well, I feel it a problem now!) is the time limit. The JET Programme has a limit of 3 years, which can be extended for "exceptional JETs" to 5 years. I'm in my 5th year now and trying to make myself accept the fact that I have to leave here in August. But if you're applying, best of luck and let me know if there's anything with which I can help!

I've been with Interac for the 4 years since I've been in Japan. 2.5 was in the countryside in Ibaraki and the last 1.5 years have been in Tokyo. As someone who has moved up in ranks and now works in the office quite a bit and has seen the inside of the company I can say there are a lot of good things going on. The pay is not great -you will probably never get up to the JET salary- but you also get more time off and more freedom. If you are trying to go straight to a big city it may be difficult as Tokyo at least almost never hires from abroad, but there are tons of positions available around the country and they are only increasing every contract season. As a ALT company, I'd say it's easily the best from all the stories I've heard from other people, including people who had have experiences in other places and then moved to Interac. It's at least worth checking out. The office staff is good and really actually do care about their teachers in the company. Many will go way out of their way to help those that put in the effort at work. If I didn't think so, I would have left ages ago.

I don't have any direct experience with teaching ESL but a friend of a friend said that ECC is a good place to work.

[quote author=Satchmobgw link=topic=1416.msg8744#msg8744 date=1326852735]
A few friends of mine have worked for ECC and haven't had anything bad to say. As far as my knowledge is concerned, I've been with Interac for 3 years now and haven't had a problem with them.
[/quote]

Where are you located with Interac?

I was on JET for three years. My particular BoE kicked people out after two, but I got a special exception because they didn't inform me about the two-year deal. No idea how people like Mystic get five. :p As for Interac, glad to hear a couple of you have good experiences. I was soured a bit from my "experience" with them. As JET was coming to a close, I had my hopes up about replacing the high school ALT in my town, as he was leaving that summer. I applied for Interac, thought I did everything right, but was outright rejected. No feedback, no reason as to why, and I was left kind of wondering what sort of company doesn't even respond to emails requesting at least some sort of feedback to help you realise where you went wrong with the application process. So no, Interac in my mind is not a nice company at all; but as I said, it's good that people have had positive experiences with them, as they are a big company with a lot of ALTs working for them. I guess the one thing I learned from the experience was that you should never assume that just because you had a job doing something you are not guaranteed to get a similar job, even with a decent skillset. As for JET being competitive, that's news to me. Maybe in America it is hard to get accepted, but I found the application process to be very easy, painless, and rewarding. It didn't appear to me as if too many people were interested; and in fact, they told us that each year, fewer and fewer applicants were even applying, making positions really quite easy to secure. There are a lot of small companies out there. Never come across any advertisements from Altia Central, but then, there are probably a lot who don't advertise greatly, or even along main channels. You just have to have a backbone of steel when heading to a foreign country in the hopes that the company you are working for won't prove to be your ruin. Not to scare lamerobot44, but it's best to be extremely cautious, and always be prepared for the unexpected! The best advice I can give is to be both flexible and enthusiastic, no matter how you feel at any given time. :) Edit: I had to point this out, also. "my wife and I's intention" should read "my wife's and my intention" or "our intention". You cannot make the first person subject possessive with an apostrophe and no form change. You'll blow up the English language. :p