In the last week I have interviewed at a total of 3 different places. As noted in my last post, PKC and Heart English school were 2 of them. I did fail to mention that previous to my first post I had also interviewed with Matty's English School, but upon recieving a copy of their contract later that night...very scary stuff...they quickly got eliminated from my list of choices.
Since my previous post I was actually given the formal job offers I had said were not yet confirmed. Heart school sent me their contract in the mail sometime Yesterday, and I read through it. I can't detect many changes since I worked with them last time. Though it seems more confusing and they are having you pay more. Also, something I found extremely strange was if they placed you in Tokyo, Chiba or Yokohama they wouldn't be able to supply you with an apartment....AND they would not act as a gauranteer for you, meaning that if you had no contacts in Japan of your own already, getting housing would be pretty near impossible, as Japan requires all foreigners to have a Japanese native co-sign a lease. That doesn't seem fair....they place you in the big city and then, what, expect you to live in a cardboard box in the streets? Aside from this little notation I didn't see anything wrong with the contract as I would most likely never be placed there, but was still unsure about working with them again.
Today, however, I drove down from Petoskey to Toronto to have my interview for PKC. I was thinking this was going to be a formal interview to decide if they really did want me as a teacher, apparently it was more of a orientation and information seminar. If we liked everything we saw and heard they had us sign our contracts right there. Which I did, Donna was even more awesome and helpful in person than she had been on the phone. And I was already very impressed with how prompt and helpful her responses to my questions and concerns were. So along with today's other interviewies I officially cast my chips in the PKC basket this morning.
I am suprised they still wanted me. I mean I know I was a strong candidate, but due to traffic, getting lost, and crazy issues, I ended up being about a half hour late to the meeting for a Job interview to work in Japan...a country that sees being tardy as one of the worst things someone can do no less. Though to be honest she kind of figured I would be a little late. I was, as I mentioned DRIVING from Petoskey to Toronto, which on a good day takes a little over 8 hours. I had only managed to get 3 hours of sleep the night before since I needed to be up and out the door at 2AM. About 6 hours into my journey I started falling asleep at the wheel, not good! I looked at the clock and estimated I would be arriving at about 9:45, which was not bad. I had already stopped for gas once, and missed a few turns due to crazy traffic and road construction. I figured, plenty of time, I can take a quick nap and still have time to print out my documents, get my passport photos done and change for the interview. How wrong I was.
After a 20 minute nap, I started driving again, much refreshed, and all was going smoothy until I actually got into Toronto..and needed gas again. Which got me lost, wasting precious time that I needed to get to the interview with everything I needed. I didn't end up getting to the passport photo place till 10:40..cutting it pretty close..but the interview location was only 5 miles away so I figured I should still be able to make it if I could get them printed quickly. The man working apparently decided the package he was tapping shut needed an ENTIRE roll of packing tape and would just not quit messing with the stupid thing....I could practically hear the clock ticking around me! FINALLY, he put the box down and took my picture. While I was waiting for them to print, I conviced him to make the copy of my passport I needed, but didn't have the guts to ask for him to also print out my resume. So by now it was 10:55...obviously I was going to be late...my car was parked about 5 blocks away and I was still in jeans.
Paying for everything I shoved the passport copy and pictures in my purse and sprinted back to my car...I must have looked like a lunatic, but hey I did NOT want to be any later than I was already going to be. I got back to my car at exactly 11:00 and hopped in and started driving to the interview location....all the while pulling my business suit to the front from the back seat. Everytime I hit a read light I would take off/put on a different part of my suit. I'm sure the people in the cars next to me got an interesting show while waiting for traffic. I did manage to get dressed....even with a bit of make-up before getting to where I needed to be. But of course I didn't see the building number and COMPLETELY passed it....on a one way road no less. This meant I would have to find other roads and do a super long circle back. By then of course it was 11:20...ok not good, but at least I had finally made it right?
NOPE, Donna told me suite ### but failed to mention WHICH suite ###. There were 4 of them. I kept staring at the board hoping the answer to where I was supposed to be going would magically appear. Randomly picking one I went up...by now its 11:30, so I had wasted another 10 minutes downstairs walking in circles. Luckily my wild guess proved to be correct and I went in. The people inside welcomed me and quickly filled me in on what I had missed and then continued on with the presentation.....phew. I feel like I've shaved a couple of years from my life. Everything went smoothly and I signed up for what looks to be a fun year working with PKC.
Sorry Heart School, their teaching video and promise of all the help I could ever want during my year of work completely drew me away from my loyalty of working with you again. Nothing personal!
I'm still not sure when I will be going...February or April, I'll have to hold my breath and hope all my paperwork gets in fast enough to process for the February training session. Oh, and I made friends with one of my fellow signers today. After the meeting we hung out for a few hours and I helped fill him in with a few things he may run across while in Japan.
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