The interviewer was a cold lady who does not have any social skills. She talked in a very strange way and did not give any useful feedback about the demo lesson.
I applied online. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at CTS Nichibei (Tokyo) in Jan 2019
Interview
CTS' interview was not terrible, but another example of how random and silly many English teaching interviews are. I matched their requirements exactly, and have several years of business English teaching experience in-house and as a part timer and freelancer. Yet I still did not get an offer after an experience that was somewhat uncomfortable and confusing.
The "interview" consisted of about 20 minutes of very basic questions that the interviewer ended up cutting short earlier than expected. I don't feel like she was very interested or engaged or really considered my background or qualifications. I didn't get any questions about my approach to teaching or how I would handle certain classroom situations. I feel like the interviewer made up her mind based on some random, subjective reason rather than actual giving any real thought to my candidacy. (I showed up professionally dressed and prepared, so I doubt that was the reason).
The demo lesson was conducted with the main interviewer and another employee who seemed to not want to be there.
I get that culture fit and feeling are parts of the process - and that I am not going to be a fit for every company - but the interviewer seemed to have made up her mind from the beginning and as I said, none of the interview questions really reflected any real thought in the process. This is unfortunately typical of many English teaching interviews in Japan.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Would you be interested in short term intensive courses as well as longer ones?
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at CTS Nichibei (Shimbashi) in Aug 2019
Interview
I sent a resume with a cover letter, and they contacted me the next day. It was Obon, so the interview was set for after the holiday. I was told that I would need to do a 10-minute demo lesson. When I asked to see the demo material so that I could prepare, they refused, saying that they only give candidates 10 minutes of preparation time.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
I was not asked any questions about my teaching philosophy or my teaching skills. The interviewer merely went over my resume and asked me a few questions about how long I had been in Japan, why I came, and how long I had worked at each of my past jobs. Then I was given a textbook, and the interviewer attempted to tell me how to use the textbook in the demo lesson. It seems she expected me to simply run through the text exercises. I then understood why they had not given me the material in advance - they were not expecting someone who would actually teach. They were expecting someone who did not know how to teach and would use the textbook as a crutch.