INTERAC - Application process and interview

This post is designed to give you an insight into the application and interview process involved with Interac. If you are unfamiliar with Interac, they are a dispatch company who recruit English teachers from all over the world to teach in Japan.

The first step in applying to Interac is to go onto their website www.interacnetwork.com and click the APPLY NOW button. You then create a login profile which you use to login each time you want to update the application or add a document.

The online application involves the following main components;

- General information about yourself age, dob etc

- A 2500 Personal statement 

- Education history

- Work history

- Reference contact details

- Heath information

I spent a few days going through everything on the application to make sure it was all correct and i didn't have any spelling mistakes. I also spent a lot of time writing the personal statement, as this is a big chance to sell yourself and tell Interac about yourself.

A few days after i submitted the online application i received an email inviting me to have a phone interview, it was scheduled for three weeks time. I prepared for the phone interview by researching facts about Japan and going through my personal statement. The interview went well, it consisted of the recruiter giving me some basic information about teaching in Japan and what's expected from an ALT. She also asked me questions about why i wanted to teach and why i had an interest in Japan, it lasted about 20 minutes.

The day after i had the phone interview i was informed i passed this stage and i was invited to a seminar/interview, i was glad to see there was one in my city (York) so i didn't have to travel down to London. The interview was scheduled for two and a half weeks later. I was given information about what the seminar/interview involved so i could prepare beforehand.

There would be an information session from the recruiter to give us information about living and working in Japan, a one-to-one interview and we would have to give a demo lesson, this would consist of an introduction - pretending we had arrived in Japan and were meeting the teachers for the first time, we would have to read from a script, give a primary school walm up and a quick demo lesson on directions for a middle school class. 

The day of the interview came and i dressed up in my best suit and got to the interview location about 20 minutes before we were due to start. I found two other interviewees waiting in the reception area so i had a chat with them until the recruiter arrived. As there was only five of us (including the recruiter) we had the info session on some sofas in one of the lounges. We had a chat for a while, explained why we wanted to go to Japan and answered a few questions. We then had a grammar test, which covered a few grammatical structures, differentiating between the passive and active voice and correcting some spelling errors.
We then went up individually to a hotel room with the recruiter so we could do out recorded intro and demo lesson. As i'd practiced mine about 20 times i remembered it all and didn't mess any of it up. We were then give two sheets of A4 with some interview questions to answer for the recruiter to have a read through and we finished with a one to one interview for each of us.

Exactly a month after the interview i received an email from INTERAC offering me a position to start in August ! It would normally have been faster but i had a delay from one of my references.